Retracing the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway | History, Wilderness, Darkness

Retracing the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway | History, Wilderness, Darkness Last month, I traveled from Kunming to Hekou and then to Hanoi, descending from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to the Red River Delta Plain. Watching the train pass from the bright red earth to the tropical river valley filled with banana trees, I returned to Kunming along the same route and decided to spend a day hiking a section of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. The Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, also known as the "China-Vietnam Railway," is an international railway between Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, and Haiphong, Vietnam. It was jointly built by China and France, starting in 1904 and completed in 1910. In 1885, France signed the Sino-French Treaty with the Qing government through the Sino-French War, obtaining the right to build railways in southwestern China. The technical design and material supply of the railway were mainly handled by France, with key components such as steel rails almost entirely imported from France, while the basic construction and laying were entirely carried out by Vietnamese and Chinese laborers. Today, taking the high-speed train from Honghe Prefecture to Hekou, the train passes through numerous tunnels, with almost no outside scenery visible. After getting off at Hekou, I kept thinking about how difficult it must have been to build a railway from the plateau to the plain a hundred years ago, and how massive the project was. Looking from the southwest to the east, the vast Chinese territory stimulated the ambitions of colonial rulers. To advance the colonial process more quickly, French rulers recruited a large number of laborers to participate in railway construction through coercion and inducement. Due to harsh working and living conditions, epidemics, the torment of overseers, and frequent engineering accidents, many laborers perished during the railway construction. After the railway was completed, its fate was not smooth. During World War II, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway became an important transportation line for Chinese war materials, with a large amount of international aid transported by sea to Kunming and the interior. As a result, it was frequently bombed and damaged by the Japanese army, constantly in a state of destruction and repair. Setting foot on this legendary railway evokes complex emotions. The turmoil and tension of a hundred years ago have been smoothed over by the tranquil villages along the way and the incomplete sleepers on the tracks. Looking at the straight tracks extending into the depths of the fields, I marvel at humanity's incredible fervor and obsession with order, using the will of steel to conquer nature. I have observed nature and traced the long river of history countless times, knowing that humanity is very fragile and small in the face of nature. But standing on the tracks on the cliff, gazing at the wilderness, it seems that human will has regained some ground. Entering the first tunnel, I faced complete darkness. Previously, when taking a train through a tunnel, the outside scenery would go dark, and the lights would flash, making me think, "I passed through the tunnel." It wasn't until I walked through the darkness step by step that I realized: it was the train that passed through the tunnel for me. Halfway through the hike, I encountered three elderly men. One of them saw me from afar, smiled at me, and as we passed each other, he gave me a thumbs-up, using the local dialect to remind me that there were a few more tunnels ahead. I don't know why he smiled or gave me a thumbs-up. Perhaps he was glad that someone still remembers this railway.