However, after more than 160 years of retreat, when the forced opening of Yantai Port was quickly involved in the world trade trend, these seemingly primitive and simple water transport vehicles have actually supported half of the port loading and unloading for hundreds of years.

text | Song Shimin

Old photos In the small sampan on the seaside of Yantai

Nowadays, when it comes to sampans, most people will think of the scene of water rafting in tourist areas. It is difficult to associate this small wooden boat driven by an oar, a blade of oar or a bamboo pole with large-scale port loading and unloading operations. However, after more than 160 years of retreat, when the forced opening of Yantai Port was quickly involved in the world trade trend, these seemingly primitive and simple water transport vehicles have actually supported half of the port loading and unloading for hundreds of years.

An industrial army on Yantai Street

Yantai Port Before the opening of the port, it was just a natural harbor, and there was no decent artificial facilities in the port area. After the opening of the port in 1861, the number of foreign cargo ships entering and leaving the port and various domestic ships increased day by day. Due to the shallow sand and wide open and scattered beaches on the south bank of the port area, ships can only anchor in deep water areas far away from the shore, loading and unloading cargo and passengers from the boarding and down, all relying on a sampan to relay. Even after the customs terminal was completed in 1866, due to its small scale and shallow berth, the total length was only 257 meters, and it could only be berthed about 500 tons of ships, and a slightly larger ship was still beyond the reach of the shore, and loading and unloading operations still rely on a large number of sampans to pass through the barge. As a result, this huge sampan team that was born in time continued to flourish and became an industrial army on Yantai Street. According to records, by 1901, there were 1,700 sampans in the port area and 3,400 rowing workers, accounting for more than 7% of the city's employed population. This does not include about 5,000 dock workers who specialize in carrying, carrying and moving.

In the spring of 1901, Arthur Judson Brown, the pastor of the American Presbyterian , came to Yantai. In his later works, he left a section on the scene of Yantai Port District:

I spent two months in this great province (Shandong Province), and everything was so fascinating. I was impressed by the beautiful scenery on the shore when I approached Yantai on a steamship from North Korea. The water waves on the sea are uneven and shine brightly in the bright spring sunshine. The port is especially cute, the coastline is not regular, and on a tall headland in the middle are consulates of various countries. From the sea, there is a commercial area on the right, with docks and beautifully built commercial buildings. On the left is a wide high-quality beach, with foreign hotels and beautiful houses unique to mainland China on the curved shore. Outside the city, on the slope of a hill are the Presbyterian houses. This hill is a holy mountain in the local area. From the sea, Yantai is one of the most charming cities in China.

The port is crowded with ships called sampans. This kind of ship is wide, flexibly driven, and with energetic big Chinese standing on it. The boatman rowed the oar on the side, approached the ship, hooked the ship's side with a hook pole, jumped onto the deck of the big ship as alert as a monkey, and then started to make a deal. The noise of competing for soliciting guests is as noisy as the crowds traveling on horseback on Niagara...

From the pastor's account, we seem to have touched the hardships of the sampan workers. Although they are numerous and shoulder the heavy responsibility of port loading and unloading, their organizational structure is like loose sand. They are called "rocking sampans", and most of them are buying a sampan together and joining one of many gangs. Then, I tried my best to roam the big oars all year round, traveling between the shore, pier and anchorage ships. In order to support my family, I dare not slackew in the wind, frost, snow and rain. It was not until August 1926 that the west breakwater in the port area was repaired and completed, that this huge team of sampans could not help but emerge from its bitter glory and gradually declined. Many "rocking sampans" were forced to change their careers and join the ranks of dock porters...

Because of this, Yantai Port ended the original and complex loading and unloading process in the grief of a large number of "rocking sampans" unemployment. Although ship loading and unloading on the bare newly built wharf still relies on manpower to carry, lift, carry and pull, thanks to the reduction of processes, the loading and unloading efficiency has been improved to varying degrees, and has laid the foundation for the mechanization of loading and unloading in a few simple wharfs in the future.

Yantai Port Wharf is called a sampan

bid farewell to the heyday of its sampan, not completely disappeared. It is still very useful as a means of transportation between anchorages and docks and in offshore aquaculture.In the years when Yantai was named an important fishing base in the north, the name of "sampan" became even more resounding. At that time, most of the fishermen who were in Yantai's port were called sampans.

Due to the dense fishing boats, the berths on the pier are difficult to accommodate. fishing ships can only be moored one row after another a hundred meters away from the shore. The crew members get off the ground and return to the boat all rely on picking up and dropping off. It is easy to deal with when leaving the boat, so you can untie the cables and leave. It is not so convenient when boarding the boat. You can only stand on the shore of the pier and call across the sea.

Yantai Port Wharf is called a sampan, the sound sounds loud and distant, very distinctive: "Where is the sampan--oh!" There is always a treble sigh behind a long resonance. The crew comes from all directions, with natural tone, but the rhythm is similar. Especially at night, most of the working machinery in the port area have been stopped, and the sound of returning boaters shouting at the sampan seems particularly loud. The tail cavity behind the sampan can penetrate the quiet night sky and float away very far...

happens that the boat guard is asleep or has something to worry about, so the person who calls the sampan "sighs". At this time, there will be a different saying: call the ship number. There was no reaction again, so I had to wait patiently, sooner or later I would meet other crew members back. At this time, people gathered together and said, "One or Two!" Several loud voices burst out collectively, and their momentum suddenly increased. After a few sounds, they stopped abruptly, waiting for the good news.

Sure enough, in the dark fleet gap in the distance, the sound of the big oars and the boat gangs vaguely heard, followed by the creaking sound of rowing. In a blink of an eye, a small sampan would float out between the cracks of the boat. So, the rows of golden light beams that were originally reflected on the sea were instantly dispersed by the microwaves rippling from the small sampan, turning into a piece of gold foil jade beads, shaking brightly and scattered on the sea. The lights and shadows are broken in front of the bow, and are connected to form behind the stern, silently and repeatedly...

When the sampan is waiting for the dock to get on the dock, no matter which fishing boat it is, you can take it at will. When the sampan is full, the rower will try to push the sampan outside and hug the inside as much as possible, and the sway frequency will be accelerated, so the heavy-load sampan will swim steadily towards the fishing ship.

sampans finally became the back of the times

Unconsciously, there have been many years since we saw a sampan driven by human rowing. No one seemed to notice when they bid farewell to Yantai Port and where they went.

In the past 20 years after the founding of New China, the berths in the old port area have been increasing. Although cargo ships above 10,000 tons still have no deep-water docks, the ships that have passed through it in the deep-water area have long been no longer seen, and the large-tonnage tow barges have been replaced. As for passenger and freighters of three to five thousand tons, they can be directly docked at the dock for smooth operation.

Entered the 1970s. With the rapid development of my country's foreign trade, Yantai Port received the order to expand, and all the people were unable to overcome difficulties. At the end of 1974, the first 10,000-ton wharf in Yantai Port was built. Since then, the construction of deep-water berths and port supporting machinery and equipment has changed with each passing day, and the old port pool has long withdrawn from the backbone of both passenger and cargo. The coastline of Yantai Zhifu Bay is already densely packed with wharfs and loading and unloading machinery. Not only can passengers and cargoes be boarded and dropped off ships directly, but cars and trains are also free to travel. A huge port group that has long bid farewell to the era of sampans has stood at the forefront of reform, crossing the shallow beaches and the deep seas with a heroic attitude, achieving direct navigation with more than 150 ports in more than 70 countries and regions around the world.

The ancient sampan has completed its historical mission in Yantai Port and has quietly gone away because they know that they cannot bear the heavy responsibility of the development of the new era. Although they call on the long accent of the sampan, as a symbol of the era, travels through time and space, it lingers in their ears from time to time...