In Leshan City, Pienwa County, There Is a Fossil of the Industrial Revolution - Jiayang Short Train Worth a Visit
In spring, the animals hibernating woke up, the trees also sprouted new leaves, and the flowers eagerly bathed in the sunshine, the earth's creatures were all reviving, everything was full of vitality. Throughout the ages, there have been many words and sentences praising spring. Spring is truly a beautiful season. Since it's a beautiful season, people naturally have a good mood, and in such a beautiful season, people also like to do many things, such as going out to get close to nature, or finding a place with interest to relax.
Since we've talked about getting close to nature and leisure places, today I'd like to recommend a place of interest to you. Located in a small valley about 20 kilometers west of the city of Lechang, in the Pienwa County of Leshan City, Sichuan Province, there is a narrow-gauge railway about 20 kilometers long. This railway is a product of the industrial era left behind. Before the era of high-speed railways, besides the cities in Leshan that passed through the Chengdu-Ya'an highway, other places were not connected by railway. When I first heard about Leshan County having a narrow-gauge railway, I thought it was very amazing.
Later, I learned that this narrow-gauge railway not only had its glorious moments in the long river of history, but also continues to operate today, and the steam locomotive that still operates is the old one. So, this narrow-gauge railway is also known as 'an industrial revolution living fossil'.
The railway was started in 1958, and its purpose was to transport coal from the valley to the outside. The Jiayang Coal Mine was opened in 1938, so in the twenty years before the railway was born, the difficulty of transporting coal was imaginable. However, with the passage of time, in order to facilitate the transportation of coal, the coal company continued to build and renovate the railway while digging coal, expanding the track gauge from the original 600mm to 762mm, and later, to facilitate the travel of workers and local villagers, the coal company separated the freight and passenger transport, so Jiayang Coal Mine gave birth to a narrow-gauge short-distance railway with passenger services.
In the early 2000s, the coal company decided to dismantle this railway that witnessed history in order to reduce losses. However, when the news was announced, it attracted widespread attention. Under the strong call of the public, the Leshan Municipal Government also introduced relevant measures to protect this 'industrial revolution living fossil'. Later, the Jiayang short-distance train became a key cultural relic protection unit in Leshan City and Sichuan Province, and the whole country.
If you want to go here to play, it's very convenient. If you set off from Chengdu, you can take the Chengdu-Ya'an highway to Leshan, and then transfer to the Leshan-Yi Highway at the Pienwa exit, and then go to the Gaogou Town to reach Jiayang short-distance train. However, due to the fact that the road becomes narrower after arriving at Gaogou Town and traffic jams often occur when there are many people, it is recommended that friends who plan to visit avoid holidays and weekends to avoid congestion.
The Jiayang short-distance train has a station called Juejin Station, which is the starting station of the short-distance train and the headquarters of the Jiayang Coal Mine. Workers' residential areas are also located here. So this is the most bustling place along the entire railway. When you're tired from playing, there are tea and restaurants available to choose from, and there are also many delicious Leshan snacks.
As the short-distance train started, I'd like to introduce you to several characteristic places along the way. When the railway was built, it was discovered that at the Honeycomb Rock, due to the terrain, the tracks couldn't continue forward, and if you want to reach the mine mouth, the train has to stop and turn around to go to the mine mouth. So the designer adopted James Tong's human-shaped turning head method. When the train arrives at Honeycomb Rock Station, the front of the train is separated from the carriage, and the front of the train will open through the adjacent tracks to the other end of the carriage, and the carriage will be attached after the carriage is connected, and the train will continue in the opposite direction, thus solving the terrain problem easily.
Continuing forward, there is a particularly beautiful landscape that makes the Jiayang short-distance train look very distinctive - that's rapeseed field. The rapeseed field is named because there are many rapeseed flowers here. Every spring, there are rapeseed flowers blooming all over the place, telling people that the earth is beginning to recover. The yellow rapeseed flowers also add a lot of color to the earth. In addition, this section of the track is the most curved section of the entire line, and when the train reaches this point, it looks like a big beetle moving through the rapeseed field. If you encounter a sunny day, you can still see a rainbow through the car window as the steam collides with the sunlight.
The train arrives at the final station, which is also the mine mouth. If you are interested, you can go down to the mine to experience the life of coal miners. The mine is about 50 meters deep, so if you have a fear of being closed in, you should be cautious.
