Mengzi Bisezhai Station: A French-style station

After parking at the parking lot of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Historical and Cultural Park, we took a shuttle bus to the main part of the cultural park: Bisezhai Railway Station. The shuttle bus winds along the mountain road, and it is amazing that this train station, which is over 100 years old, was not built on flat ground, but on a mountain. Bisezhai Station was built in 1909, the first year of the Xuantong period of the Qing Dynasty, and has a history of 115 years. At that time, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway was laid to this point, and a station was built, initially named Bishizhai Station. Later, because it was built on a mountain and faced the water, with beautiful scenery, it was renamed "Bisezhai," a name full of romance. When the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway was completed in 1910, Bisezhai Station became the core hub of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and one of the oldest train stations in China. In 1921, the Ge-Bi-Shi Railway, the first private railway in China and the first railway completely funded, built, and operated by Chinese people, was connected to Bisezhai, making it a very important railway hub in Yunnan, and it became prosperous for a time. Later, with the development of history, the old line of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway was gradually replaced by a faster new line, and Bisezhai Station gradually withdrew from the stage of operation history and became a historical background. In recent years, with the filming of the movie "Youth," Bisezhai Station has re-entered people's view. In addition, as people's understanding of history continues to deepen, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Historical and Cultural Park, with Bisezhai Station as the main body, began to be built. The current Bisezhai Station still retains the station building, tracks, barracks, company buildings, and even one of the earliest red clay tennis courts in China, all left by the French of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Company. Walking through it, it feels like walking into the early 20th century, or like walking to the south of France. This sense of time travel makes Bisezhai the latest check-in place in Yunnan.