【When Spring Festival travel is in progress】
Guangming Daily reporter Zhang Shiying Guangming Daily correspondent Zhang Long Hu Feng
At 6 o'clock in the morning on February 11, although it was past the beginning of spring, the temperature in Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province was still approaching minus 20 degrees Celsius. It's not yet dawn, but there is already traffic flowing through the 119KM railway crossing on the Binbei Line. Crossing officer Wu Chunyan had just taken over the shift, and clear instructions came from the walkie-talkie in her hand: "Down, a train is coming!" "121KM crossing passenger train forecast!" She immediately replied with a steady voice, then pressed the control button, and the guardrail slowly closed – this was the 18th train passing this crossing that day.
As the "throat" connecting Suihua City and surrounding towns, this crossing crosses the Suijia Line, Binbei Line and China-Europe Express Outbound Line, with an average of more than 120 trains per day. During the Spring Festival travel period, surrounding people, traffic flow to visit relatives, and passenger and freight trains intersect here, and the locals vividly call it "Tiger's Mouth".
"We are most afraid of pedestrians and vehicles crossing the line." Gao Dan, the crossing guard, said while rubbing his hands that were red from the cold. She and Wu Chunyan partnered up to come out before the train passed, diverting traffic and closing railings in the cold wind, sometimes for several hours at a time. Gao Dan said frankly: "The timing of closing the railings is very important – there will be traffic jams if it is too early, and it will be dangerous if it is too late." The two worked out a "2-minute bar closing rule": predict the arrival time of the train 2 minutes in advance and close the railings accurately to avoid the backlog of vehicles and ensure safety.
At 11 a.m., the intersection entered busy hours. Within 10 minutes, three trains roared past, the railings opened and closed repeatedly, and there was a long queue of vehicles. "Can you hurry up? How long have you been waiting?" a driver rolled down his window and shouted. Gao Dan stepped forward quickly and explained with a sigh of relief: "Master, look, this bus just passed by, safety first."
With the advancement of the "15th Five-Year Plan", the capacity expansion and reconstruction project of the Harbin-Suiyuan-Beilong Railway has been put on the agenda. By then, this century-old railway crossing will be replaced by a highway-span railway overpass.
"When the traffic flow becomes smoother, we can also 'upgrade' our positions!" In the cold wind, the figures of the two crossing guards were intertwined with the steel torrent of the train.
"Guangming Daily" (Page 02, February 17, 2026)
