Pork Pawns
In this old photo of Central Street in Northeast Harbin in the 1980s, we can see a lot of pork piled on the unique square stone road of Central Street. The whole pigs were cut in half with a civilian saw and were frozen like stones in a large outdoor refrigerator in winter. For this kind of pork, we in Harbin have a unique name: pork zhezi. Friends from the south may not understand it, but folks from the northeast will definitely understand what it means.
Harbin’s beautiful winter scenery
The lively Beisan Market
First, explain what “戈子” is? In the Northeast, the chopped firewood burned for heating in winter is called zhezi. For example, making zhezi (comrades from the Northeast born in the 1960s and 1970s must be able to do it, right?) is to cut large pieces of firewood at home into small strips. This matter should be prepared in the last autumn, and the stove will be raised for easy use in winter. Otherwise, it would be too miserable to see the pizhuzi in the cold weather. In addition to scrap wood, if there are acquaintances in the woodware and furniture factories, Harbin's households can bring in scraps of wood from here. It's easy to boil and easy to burn. In some state-owned factories, zhezi are distributed to employees as welfare. Especially some arsenals. Even the tap water is hot water. How enviable it would be to be in a factory like this in the 1980s and 1990s!
Harbin Vehicle Factory old photos
Harbin Electric Machinery Factory
The two halves of pork are called pork choppers. One is a figurative way of saying that a chopstick is cut in half, and the pig is also cut in half. As the Chinese New Year approaches, in some state-owned factories in Harbin, families with a large population can be given three pork chops, which is one and a half pigs. Make some dumplings with scallops before the end of the year and eat them from Laba Festival until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. During the Chinese New Year, I played mahjong instead of cooking. I went to the warehouse and took out a pot of frozen glue. I would cook it and serve it in a short time. The fragrant and steaming dumplings from Northeast China were filled with stuffed dumplings. I also took out the good wine that I had not finished drinking in thirty nights. This is called "dumplings are like wine, and the more you drink, the more you get"!
Harbin Measuring Tools and Cutting Tools Factory
Follow the famous Meiquan and tell the old story of Harbin
