CHENGDU－Layi Aga, 76, broke into a smile as she recalled the first time she saw a train pull into a railway station.
The year was 1970. Accompanied by her husband, Layi had trekked more than 7 kilometers along winding mountain roads in Southwest China's Sichuan province, with their one-year-old son cradled in her arms, hoping for her first-ever rendezvous with a train.
"There were small red flags fluttering on the train. We waved at the people aboard, and they waved back at us," says Layi, an ethnic Yi resident from Mianshan township in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture.
At that time, the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, a major railroad trunk line linking Sichuan and neighboring Yunnan province, was completed and put into operation.
The 5633/5634 slow trains traversing the Daliang Mountains heralded better opportunities, such as employment, healthcare and education, for residents of the faraway region.
Train stations were built in remote mountain villages and townships, and Mianshan was one of the stops.
'Mobile bazaar'
Opened to the public in 1970, the trains travel between Puxiong township and the city of Panzhihua, covering 376 km in 11 hours at a speed of less than 40 km per hour, with 26 stops along the way. The fares range from 25.5 yuan ($3.8) to 2 yuan.
In the past, the couple eked out a meager income by toiling countless hours in the fields. In 1985, her husband died of a pulmonary disease, leaving Layi and their three sons to fend for themselves.
Following her husband's death, Layi set up a modest grocery store to sell daily necessities and shuttles between their farmland and the store to sustain herself.
On weekdays, she takes the 5633 train from Mianshan to Xichang city to replenish stock at a wholesale market. And on weekends, she takes the 5634 train in the opposite direction to run a stall at a fair in Nibo township.
Layi, a regular commuter, lauds the railway service for its cost-effectiveness.
She says that the road from Mianshan to Xichang stretches about 72 km and making a round trip by bus is quicker, but it would cost 80 yuan. Though the round-trip journey by slow train takes about three hours, it only costs 10 yuan. The 70 yuan saved on the fares is the same amount as her store's net profit for a day.
The train is not just a mode of transportation for local residents, but also a "mobile bazaar".
Locals are encouraged to bring their farm products on board and trade the goods while commuting. To facilitate their journey, two rows of seats at both ends of each carriage have been removed, so that they can pile up their baggage and place their livestock and poultry.
For Yihuo A'niu, a ninth grader, the train is like her school bus.
Every Friday afternoon, she boards the homebound train, together with her 700 or so schoolmates. The 140-km journey takes about four hours, but she can always find a way to break up the monotony by reading books, doing her homework and chatting with friends.
Yihuo was scheduled to take this year's senior high school entrance exams beginning on June 13.
"I want to be admitted into the best senior high school in Liangshan, and become a good teacher or a brave police officer in the future," she says, adding that she aspires to explore the vast world beyond the mountains.
Same yet different
Liu Wei, who has been working on the trains for 29 years, felt that living along the railway was a lonely experience when he was a kid. "Only the sound of train whistles could cut through loneliness," says the 47-year-old lead attendant of his childhood memories.
Liu went to school daily by train. There, he would watch the villagers bargain and sell their wares and observe how the train attendants worked.
"As a child, I was fascinated by the attendants' uniform," he says, adding that this fascination impelled him to become a railway worker after growing up. He started working on the train at the age of 18 after graduating from senior high school.
Over the years, he has developed a rapport with the train commuters. He often urges the students to do their homework and mediates disputes, and helps villagers find proper markets for their agricultural produce.
Over the years, Liu has witnessed the changes on and outside the trains.
Areas along the railway are no longer isolated. They are today filled with newly constructed modern buildings. The goods that people carry with them have become more diversified, from primarily potatoes and apples to walnut, olive and building materials, among others.
In January this year, a Fuxing Electric Multiple Unit left Liangshan for Yunnan's capital Kunming, marking the departure of the first Fuxing bullet train from the prefecture.
Despite such transformations, some things have stayed constant. The fares have remained unchanged for more than 30 years and the trains continue to operate at their initial speed.
Though famed for having the longest high-speed railway network in the world, China still operates some 81 slow train services. They cover 21 provincial-level regions, transporting some 12 million people annually for an average fare of no more than 0.06 yuan per km.
China aims to extend its total length of operational high-speed railways to around 50,000 km by 2025. Meanwhile, the national railway operator has pledged to improve services and infrastructure of slow trains and related stations to ensure safe and comfortable journeys.
"No matter how much the world changes and how fast the high-speed trains become, the slow trains are still 'lifelines' for locals. I'm willing to do my job as long as I can, and see more children leave the mountains for better lives," Liu says.
