Before I got married, I rushed back to my hometown to celebrate the Chinese New Year with my parents almost every year. The more than 1,000-kilometer Beijing-Shanghai line from Beijing to Jiangsu was as busy as it is today more than 30 years ago.
Today, if you want to go back to your hometown and buy a ticket now, you can buy a ticket for a few days before Chinese New Year's Eve, I mean you can buy it online at this moment. But it wasn't like that more than 30 years ago.
Since the winter vacation of students, train tickets on the Beijing-Shanghai line have been hard to find. At that time, there was no reservation, and it was impossible to buy it online. You have to go to the train station and queue up to buy a train ticket, and you have to queue the night before to get a train ticket. Wait all night in the cold wind, and from time to time there are ticket sellers shuttling in between.
Of course, if you know someone from the railway office, or someone at the ticket office at the station, it's different, and you feel like you're one of the lucky few. One year, the new leaders of the unit had a wide network and knew people from the railway department, so they proposed to solve the problem of difficulty in buying tickets for us young people. At that time, everyone was very grateful to Dade, and the leader himself felt that he had done a great deed.
On the day of departure, when you arrive at the station, you feel like you have joined the team of escapers. The waiting room, and the corridor outside the waiting room, were crowded with people. Some sat on the ground, some lay on their luggage, all with tired faces.
I finally squeezed into the train, and the seats and the aisles were crowded with people. The train clattered and stopped, stopping at almost every stop. From Beijing to Jiangsu, it takes one day and one night. Everyone is eating. There are those who eat fruits, and there are those who eat melon seeds, and the peels and shells of melon seeds are thrown all over the ground, and no one cares about them, and they can't take care of them.
One day and one night, you have to go to the toilet, and several times. It was a very difficult thing to do. Waiting a long time outside the toilet door. After finally entering, the stench was unbearable. Returning to his seat with difficulty, he silently made a wish in his heart. When will it be like the Japanese Shinkansen, whistling for a few hours to get home, and it is not so crowded.
Unexpectedly, time has passed to today, and the vision has really come true.