A few days ago, the National Development and Reform Commission has officially approved construction of Line 6, Line 7, Line 8, and Line S1 proposed in the “Phase III Construction Plan (2018-2023) for Suzhou Urban Rail Transit”. The starting point of Line S1 is joined with the terminal station (Yiting Road) of Suzhou Line 3, and the end point with the extension line (Huaqiao Station) of Shanghai Line 11. In other words, the rail transit between Suzhou and Shanghai reaches seamless connection.
From going shopping in Shanghai, the “Magic city”, to playing in Suzhou, the “Paradise”, you no longer have to drive or take high-speed trains, just taking a subway. The biggest beneficiary is the middle city, Kunshan, which can reach the east and the west within half an hour. In the past, visiting my aunt living in the neighboring town would cost us quite a long time; current convenience was out of my imagination then.
I remember that every time we went to my aunt’s home, my grandmother would carry me on her back. Wobbling back and forth, I would always fall asleep in the packbasket. When asking “Grandma, are we getting close?”, I was always replied “Almost, almost.” Yet when I woke up again, we were still on the road.
When I grew up to seven or eight years old, my grandmother failed to carry me on her back. My father thus set rules that I should walk by myself when going out with my grandmother no matter how tired I was. That winter, wearing the new shoes bought by my father, I again went to visit my aunt with my grandmother, and didn’t arrive until the dusk. When washing my feet at night, my grandmother found a big “blister” on my foot, thus she painfully said she would carry me on her back during return journey, to which I refused for fear of my father. Later, my uncle took a boat and sent us home.
The road was better as I grew up and learned to ride a bicycle. I would visit my aunt alone then if my grandmother had something to tell her, taking just half an hour. My uncle had a drink at our house during this year’s Spring Festival, and I was responsible for sending him back, spending just ten minutes.
For seeking higher education, I went to Shanghai in 1995. Although Shanghai was not far from Kunshan, I took about four hours to go to school from home. At that time, I had to take “Xumin Line” and get off at Jinjiang Park Station, then transfer to subway Line 1 to the train station, and then took the bus home. Now, the Jinjiang Park Station of subway Line 1 has been cancelled, and Line 1 has also been extended, with more transit stations. Now think about it, if I’m still studying in Shanghai, I only need to take Line 11 from Xujiahui to get home.
Changes in the 40 years have made people dazzled. From the muddy road to the gravel road where you can ride a bicycle; from the cement road that you can drive smoothly to the asphalt road; from the elevated highway to the high-speed train...roads between neighboring areas are connected, making transportation more convenient and the way home closer. This is the vivid epitome of the great achievements in China during the 40 years of reform and opening-up.
In the 1990s, when he stood on the Yangpu Bridge and looked out over the new Shanghai, which had been transformed amidst the surge of China’s reform and opening-up, Deng Xiaoping exclaimed: “A glimpse of today’s roads gives me more joy than reading books for a hundred years.” What excited him was not only the straight roads and high-rise buildings in Shanghai Pudong, but the roads and bridges built after the reform and opening-up. These roads and bridges connect paths towards thousands of families. Changes brought by the reform and opening-up are reflected on the way home.
