"Welcome passengers to take passenger train 7558 from Hotan Station to Urumqi Station..." In early summer, a train slowly left Hotan Station, with lively music and thoughtful conductor's radio playing in the carriage. The scenery outside the window is constantly changing in cities, villages, deserts and gobi, which outlines the new look of southern Xinjiang.
1960 km, 32 hours and 49 minutes, the lowest fare is 4 yuan.
On the railway line between Urumqi and Hotan, trains 7556/7557 and 7558/7555 running opposite each other shuttle between the two cities every day. This green train, which has the longest running time and the lowest ticket price in Xinjiang, is called "public welfare slow train" by the people along the line.
Slow is its speed; Warm is its temperature.
The slow train arrived at Hotan
"This train only costs 4 yuan from Hotan Station to Moyu Station, and stops at 23 stations in the whole journey. People of all ethnic groups can sell their agricultural and sideline products on the train." The 7558 train Changpo Latihan introduced.
The train started in June 2012, and the running range was from Kashi Station to Urumqi Station. On October 1, 2016, the departure station of train 7556/7557 extended from Kashi Station to Hotan Station, and Polatikhan became the conductor of this train.
It takes 3 minutes to stop at Moyu Station, 4 minutes to stop at Kunyu Station, 8 minutes to stop at Pishan Station, and 16 minutes to stop at Yecheng Station... After more than 7 years of service on this train, I am familiar with the arrival time and stop time of each station.
Hairinisa Ablaiti, who lives in Segezikule Village, Segezikule Township, Hotan County, is a frequent passenger of this train. Every year in this season, she will take apricots just picked from trees to the train for sale.
It is a different experience to take a slow train, enjoy the scenery outside the window, and stroll around the train Bazaar. Zhang Kezhong, a 65 year old passenger from Fuyuan City, Heilongjiang Province, took the 7556 train from Urumqi to Hotan on May 25. He specially chose this train to travel in Xinjiang: "I have been in Xinjiang for more than three months, and I heard that there is a slow train, which makes a special trip to experience the unique customs."
The 32 hour 49 minute trip did not disappoint him. Along the way, the passengers on the seats beside him kept changing, including Uygur, Hui and Kirgiz; Students, old people, and businessmen who go out to do business. Zhang Kezhong talked with the passengers next to him and learned a lot about Xinjiang's customs and great changes in recent years. "This slow train not only reduced travel costs for the people along the way, but also let tourists like me see the simplicity and enthusiasm of Xinjiang people," said Zhang Kezhong.
Bazaar is on the train
"The idea of setting up a train bazaar originated from a villager." Speaking of the train bazaar, Porathihan fell into memory.
One day in early 2020, Polatikhan, who was on duty on the train, met an old man with several woven bags.
"Why did you bring so many things?" asked Porathihan.
"My family has a good harvest of walnuts, but not many businessmen come to the village to collect walnuts. I heard that there are many bazaars in the counties and cities near Kashgar, and I plan to take these walnuts to bazaars to sell." The old man replied.
When the train reached Kashi Station, the old man got off, but his words were lingering in the mind of Porathihan. "Since some villagers are taking the train to catch Bazaar, why can't we set a Bazaar on the train?" Porathihan looked at the passengers from all over the country in the train and came up with such an idea.
Polatikhan told this idea to several attendants on the same train, which was unanimously approved by everyone. Because during their duty, they met many villagers who drove to Bazaar like this old man. "People think that it is very meaningful to help them sell agricultural and sideline products on the train," said Ma Chen Saimaiti, the steward of train 7558.
At that time, it was a decisive year for poverty alleviation, and the goal of the whole society was to let the poor families out of poverty on schedule. Soon, Polatikhan reported his ideas to the leaders of Korla Passenger Transport Section of China Railway Urumqi Bureau Group Co., Ltd., and planned to set up bazaar trains on trains 7556/7557 and 7558/7555, so that villagers could sell products on the trains and broaden their income channels. His idea was strongly supported by the unit. In July 2020, the train bazaar opened.
The running train in Bazaar was very deserted. There were only two or three villagers quietly selling agricultural and sideline products in the 16 carriages of the train. When they saw the conductor or the police, they quickly put the products away.
Knowing that they were not used to this kind of sales method, Polatikhan used the conductor's radio to publicize the train bazaar and actively helped the villagers sell agricultural and sideline products.
In order to allow more villagers to catch the train in Bazaar, Porathihan and Ma still took the time off to visit along the way, from Shache to Zepu, from Yecheng to Cele, as long as they heard of local agricultural and sideline products, they would come to the door and invite them.
Gradually, there are more and more villagers in the train bazaar, and the commodities are more and more abundant, from the original "old three kinds" of walnuts, red dates and almonds to the handicrafts of Hotan, the red dates of black jade, the clothes of Pishan, the cherries of Shache, the fig jam of Atushi... This slow train stops all the way, More and more agricultural and sideline products and handicrafts along the way were taken by villagers to their cars and replaced with the balance in their WeChat payment and cash in their wallets.
According to statistics, since the train bazaar was opened in 2020, it has sold more than 1.8 million yuan of various agricultural and sideline products online and offline.
"There are many guests on the train, so things are easy to sell, and there is no stall fee. This slow train is an express train that helps us increase our income," said Matthiason Azer, a villager in Akha New Village, Bostan Township, Cele County.
Bazaar service is upgraded again
At 13:03 on May 26, train 7558 left Yecheng Station. Cheerful folk music sounded in carriage 12, and stewards and passengers in national costumes danced in the carriage. The carriage was also elaborately arranged. The window was pasted with the words "Train Bazaar Village Revitalization", and the words "Luck" were printed on the window. Villagers in Bazaar took their own products and sold them to the passengers.
"There are snow chrysanthemums in Keriyang Township, Pishan County, fig jam in Atushi City, cherries in Shache County in Bazaar today, and you can leave a message if you need..." On May 27, Ma still started a short video live broadcast on the train. In the live broadcast room, netizens all over the country left messages to buy their favorite agricultural and sideline products and praise the train Bazaar.
Since the opening of Bazaar, various services have been upgraded: WeChat official account, short video live broadcast, etc
The police of Korla Public Security Department of Urumqi Railway Public Security Bureau also joined the train in Bazaar. As a post-90s student, passenger policeman Diliar Pearton has worked on train 7558 for the fifth year this year, witnessing the growth of Bazaar.
"Now every time there is a train in Bazaar, when I maintain the order of the train, I will also keep some change with me to facilitate villagers who do not use mobile payment to exchange change when shopping," said Diriar.
"In the future, we will recommend more high-quality agricultural products from southern Xinjiang to passengers from all over the world through Bazaar," said Liu Zhanhong, secretary of the Party branch of Hetian Second Brigade of Korla Passenger Transport Section of China Railway Urumqi Bureau Group Co., Ltd.
"The operation of public service slow trains not only meets the diversified needs of passengers, but also adds fun to the journey. At the moment when passenger trains are generally speeding up, the railway department can insist on running public service slow trains in a low fare, low speed, multi station way, and open the train Bazaar, which not only conveys a temperature, but also is a deep concern for people's livelihood." Asyam Xiao Kaiti, head of urban rail transit electromechanical technology at Xinjiang Communications Vocational and Technical College, said.
