The theme of conversation touched on Tibet, and Yin Fatang suddenly became emotional, "Did you know that at the beginning of the century, Dr. Sun Yatsen had not thought of an endpoint for the Qinghai-Tibet rail?"
"It goes without saying—Lhasa!" I said, being a smart aleck.
"Wrong!" Yin Fatang smiled, "heading south, from Lhasa it crosses the Yarlung Tsanpo River, through Lhokha, across Cona County, directly arriving at Tawang on the south slopes of the Himalayas, which was the village of the sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso. Heading north it crosses Mount Gangdise, being hidden for 10,000 miles in north Tibet, before arriving directly at the Sengge Tsanpo river in Ngari Prefecture.
"That magnificent!" I said, exclaiming with astonishment.
"Indeed!" Yin Fatang sighed with respect, "at the beginning of the century, Dr. Sun Yat-sen had two great dreams, one of which was to build the three gorges dam, the other of which was to build a railway into Tibet, although it was written in his nation-building plan, and he'd drawn a map, dreams are, in the end, dreams, and after one hundred years, only the Communist Party was able to accomplish it. The Three Gorges Dam project has already begun, and the high gorge now appears from the wonderful scenary of Pinghu, I dare to assert, that we don't have long to wait for the construction of the railway in Tibet, it's just a shame that Tawang is no longer in our grasp."
"What, is Tawang no longer ours! Isn't it the hometown of the sixth Dalai Lama, and it's marked clearly on our maps!" I got up in a single leap, and headed to the edge of a map of China, going to inspect Tawang, "It's in our territory, the Indian border is very far away!"
"It's already become Indian occupied territory!" Yin Fatang looked upward and sighed, "in 1962, in the Sino-Indian border war, where we struck back in self-defense, our 419 troops temporarily recovered Tawang. We were unstoppable. We pressed on to below Fute Mountain, only twelve kilometers away from the former Chinese territory boundary, but eventually we had to withdraw. I was in Tawang for over a month, in 1963 after New Year's Day I finally left, and, in the blink of an eye, thirty years had passed."
The atmosphere in the living room was suddenly solemn, and afterwards, it became serene. I began to listen to Yin Fatang talk about the beginning of the century, when Sun Yat-sen stood at the zero kilometer marker of the railway into Tibet and gazed into the distance, and about the 90,000 square kilometers of disputed territory.
The interview continued for a whole day. When it came time to part, I carried a large pile of Tibetan records and historical documents, the road was yellow with twilight, and, in the sky, the sun had dropped toward Yanling, the great blood-colored hands of heaven wished to grab that ball of fire and not let go, to roll it away, to smear it into a dark-red sky.
Mu Shengzhong Takes a Team to Investigate the Qinghai-Tibet Railway for the First Time
General Mu Shengzhong's GAZ Jeep suddenly stopped at the entrance to China Railway First Survey and Design Institute.
Even though it was already winter, the general's feelings hung like the shining red sun over the Gaolan Mountains. Army Day on August 1 had just passed, in 1955, when the Chinese army awarded ranks for the first time. Mu Shengzhong from the Red Army in Shanbei, through the political commissar of the independent attachment of the 18th army, and holding a position as head of the Chinese Communist Tibetan Working Committee, was awarded the rank of major-general. Compared to the eternal fellow-villagers who fell on the road to a new China, although he had twenty bullet wounds in his body, he considered himself fortunate.
The general's stature was imposing, his nature was outspoken and straight-forward, ad he had lost many of the habits of the ethnic minorities of Shanbei. In a single jump he cleared the jeep's door, and, looking up at the sky, the No. 1 Northwest Building of the Lanzhou branch of China Railway First Survey and Design Institute, imposing and majestic, he had a magnificent bearing. The general said, in the slang of Shanbei, "This building is worthy of being the No.1 Northwest building, it's like standing on the plateau of the Yellow Earth and singing Qinqiang opera."
The guard at the gate of the China Railway First Survey and Design Institute stood for a long time in front of the door, deeply moved, before promptly issuing greetings: "General, your name and official business?"
"Mu Shengzhong," The general laughed heartily, "and as for what business, young comrade, I've come to recruit the talented."
The door guard stated blankly, it was, in fact, General Mu Shengzhong, the father of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, who was famous in all of the Northwest China and Lanzhou, and he said, promptly, "General Mu, please wait a second, I'll go to inform the leaders of the institute who are coming to meet you."
"No mumbo-jumbo! I've come looking for people and I've come to visit your principal." Mu Shengzhong, with wind under his feet, began to walk down the corridor.
When he received the news that someone called Mu had arrived, the principal went out immediately, and said, surprised, "My oh my, General Mu, it's fortunate, very fortunate, which wind blew you here?"
"It was naturally the monsoon from the Qinghai-Tibet Plautea!" Mu Shengzhong replied humorously, "but I have ulterior motives, I'm looking for people."
"Looking for people!" the principal stared blankly.