Following trailblazer's path

From busy to quiet

In Yang's memories, his father was always busy at work. At its peak, the line was the most important rail corridor from Beijing to Northwest China, and the station handled 64 trains a day.

In the 1990s, international trains between Beijing, Ulaanbaatar and Moscow would stop at the station.

As new lines were built, trains diminished and so did the station.

In 2008, it stopped passenger services, and some of the trains from Beijing to Zhangjiakou and elsewhere also began to pass through without stopping.

In 2018, long-distance trains also stopped passing through the station. Since then, it has only handled one of Beijing's suburban train services, the S2 route, which mainly takes tourists to the Badaling section of the Great Wall, and commuters between downtown Beijing and suburban Yanqing.

In the spring, the suburban train passes through mountains and along the Great Wall as blossoms line the old route. When it stops at Qinglongqiao, the driver gets down from the cabin, walks to the other end and continues, just like his peers did 113 years ago.

These days, the station handles four to eight trains a day during off-peak times.

"Although the station is quieter now, it is still a living museum," Yang said.

Carrying on history

Sept 15 was Yang's last day as station head. He bought a bouquet to lay on Zhan's tomb as tribute and then climbed a hill to a rugged section of the Great Wall to take a last look at the station.

"I won't be back here often," he said, taking photos of a train entering and leaving the station.

"When one of the trains blew its whistle, I knew it was time to go home when I was a boy," he said.

He now plans to tell the story of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway and of Qinglongqiao and said that although China is now known for the rapid development of its railways, people should not forget where it all began.

"It all started with Zhan Gong," he said.