The Forest in Shijiazhuang City! | A Hidden Wonderland Within the Second Ring Road!

| A Hidden Wonderland Within the Second Ring Road! In 1997, our teacher excitedly announced in class that Shijiazhuang had decided to build an artificial river to end the history of having no river and water shortage in the city. The whole class cheered at the news, and everyone's eyes sparkled. To this end, every unit in the city, even elementary school students, donated at least one yuan each. This river, built with the efforts and expectations of the whole people, was named Minxin River. But after learning its route, we were a little disappointed, because the birth of this river meant that our "Little Woods" would no longer exist. I grew up on the west side of the Minxin River, which was once the place where the old Zhengtai Railway passed. After the Japanese army was defeated, they gathered at the old West Station to board the train and leave Shijiazhuang. Before the North Station opened to passenger traffic, trains from Shanxi passed through here all the way, diagonally across the city via Xinhua Road, Zhongshan Road, and Yuhua Road. The elders said that my father studied very hard when he was a child. Because there were many people in his family and it was noisy, he often went to the railway early in the morning to read. At that time, there was an old cemetery area next to the railway tracks, and even broken stone horses and sheep were lying in the wasteland... It was indeed quiet. I liked to listen to the strange and bizarre stories my father told about the railway, which were his golden childhood years. After the Shide and Shitai lines were opened, this line was gradually abandoned. In 1975, the old railway was demolished, and along with the railway, my father's life also lost his deceased grandfather... From then on, weeds grew everywhere, and a boy grew up overnight. When I went to school, this place was called Little Woods, a long and narrow wasteland that could reach the new Shitai Line. I climbed torch trees here, collected leaves to make leaf paintings, roasted locusts and sweet potatoes, and when I was ignorant, I drove birds away from bird catchers with sticky nets with my friends. One year, a few older children found a section of abandoned railway track while playing in the Little Woods. Everyone ran to see it, and I went too, wanting to see the bookish morning in the story. The Little Woods passed Heping Road to the north, and walls began to appear on the east side of the road. Inside the walls were the experimental fields of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Some places raised rabbits and poultry, and there was a large field of wheat near the railway in the deepest part. Who says children don't understand romance? When the wheat turned green and yellow, I made an appointment with a few good playmates to bring the snacks we had saved for a few days on the weekend: Bu Bu Xing, Jia Li Jia, Xiang Xiang Guo, Kang Kang Bing... Like Coco and the others in the movie "Picnic," we carefully climbed to the top of the wall, and went all the way along the wall to the edge of the wheat field for a "picnic." We sat on the ground and watched the Shitai Line train whistle to the platform. In 1999, the Minxin River was completed and opened to water. In 2005, the wheat field here became Shintai Park. Standing with my child on the earthen slope by the northern wall of the park, I can still see the green trains and freight trains going to the North Station, carrying time day after day, getting old and slow. I told To that this used to be a large experimental field, sometimes planted with cotton and sometimes with wheat. The Lotus Pond used to be the home of rabbits, and I secretly touched the little baby rabbits that had just grown hair. To was dubious, really? Where are the rabbits now? Those rabbits may be eating grass in a place called "Little Woods." Location: Shintai Park