Hebi, Henan, known as Chaoge in ancient times, is located in the northern part of Henan Province, in the transition zone from the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains to the North China Plain. Hebi has a long history and splendid culture. It is the place where the story of Fengshenbang took place. The Shang Dynasty Capital Chaoge, Zhou Dynasty The largest vassal state Weiguo Capital Chaoge, Warring States Seven Heroes of Zhao Guo capital Zhongmu are all located in Hebi. Hebi has numerous celebrities, including the educator, Gongsun Yan, and strategist Gui Guzi and Wang Chan during the Warring States Period. Celebrities such as Zhang Yi, Gongsun Yan, Han Xin, Sun Bin, Pang Juan, and Mao Sui were cultivated here. After several changes, Hebi has now become a cultural city with distinctive characteristics and charm.
Below, the editor shares with you a set of old photos of Hebi taken in the 1960s. Let us follow the photos into Hebi in the past and see what Hebi looked like in the past.
You can’t imagine that this is the eastern section of Hongqi Street in Hebi in the 1960s. At that time, the streets were still dirt roads. Whenever it was cloudy and rainy, the roads would become muddy. A man was driving a donkey passing by on the street. The donkey was carrying some goods. At that time, there were no cars, bicycles and other means of transportation, so donkeys became the main force of transportation for farmers. If a family had a donkey, it would be very convenient to drive or ride it whether going to the market or visiting relatives and friends. During the off-farm season, you can also drive a donkey to help others carry passengers and goods to earn some tips to supplement your family income. In the distance is the newly built Hebi No. 6 Mine, and the scaffolding has not yet been dismantled.
The older generation of Hebi people should be familiar with this place. This photo was taken on Hongqi Street in Hebi in the 1960s. At that time, there were low houses on both sides of the street, and the only tall building was the Leap Tower. "One street, one watchtower, one policeman watching both ends" is also a true portrayal of the streets in the old city of Hebi at that time. It can be seen how small the city of Hebi was at that time. The Yuejin Tower at that time was regarded as a landmark building in the early days of Hebi City. Later, the Yuejin Tower was demolished in the 1970s, and the location of the tower was transformed into a fountain. If you are born in the 1960s or 1970s, when you walk through this place, will you think of the Leap Forward Tower?
This is the former site of the No. 1 Department Store in Xinhua Street, Hebi in the 1960s. Does anyone remember it? Everyone born in the 1960s knows that department stores at that time were operated differently from shopping malls and supermarkets today. Products were placed on glass counters. If customers liked a certain product, they could ask the salesperson to take it out and look at it. I remember that the cashier's payment method was also different at that time. There was a two-meter-high iron wire between the counter and the cashier. When the customer selected an item, the salesperson only needed to clip the issued invoice and the customer's money to the ticket holder , hang it on the wire above his head and push it to the cashier. Then, the cashier clamped the issued invoice and the change, hung it on the wire and pushed it back to the customer. If you have been to this store, you must be deeply impressed.
This photo was taken in the Xinhua Old Street in Hebi in the 1960s. The two-story building on the left side of the photo is the People's Bank of Hebi. At that time, most of the people who went to the bank to make deposits were government department staff. There were not many ordinary people depositing money. People came to deposit occasionally, and deposited up to thirty or twenty yuan. At that time, a deposit of 50 yuan was considered a large deposit. Next door to the bank is the Xinhua Street Health Center, which is the predecessor of Hebi People's Hospital. This is a place where people don’t want to come, but have to come when they are sick. I remember that the nurse in the hospital was beautiful and spoke very well. Now it has been demolished and high-rise buildings have been built on the original site. The old shadows of the past remain in the memories of the generation born in the 1960s.
This photo is very familiar to those born in the 1960s. This is the steelmaking plant on Hongqi Street in Hebi in the 1960s. The photo was taken in 1963. Since there was no steelmaking technology at that time, steelmaking began to be made using "local methods". The older generation of Hebi people relied on their own hands, not afraid of hardship and fatigue, and used primitive methods to make steel on a large scale. They made arduous efforts and contributed Hebi's strength to accelerating the pace of the construction of New China.Hebi is at the forefront of the country's large-scale steel smelting to support national defense construction. Nowadays, these old-fashioned equipment have been dismantled, and the steelmaking plant of that year has entered the memory of the older generation.
