This stone tablet weighs 60.23 tons, is 37.94 meters high, 2.9 meters wide and 1 meter thick. This huge monument, in fact, originally weighed more than 300 tons, was taken from a huge mountain in Fushan, Qingdao. The quarrying plan alone took nearly half a year, so how did this boulder reach Tiananmen Square?
Qingdao quarry
More than 7000 people have invested in mining rough stones. In the fifties and sixties, there were not so many mechanical tools to help workers reduce their workload. Therefore, the best way to transport boulders is railway.
However, at that time, the maximum load of the railway flatbed used by Jinan Railway Bureau for pulling goods did not exceed 60 tons. Even in China at that time, there were no trains with a load exceeding100t. Faced with such a dilemma, people did not give up, but relied on wisdom to come up with a solution.
Stone tablet transportation report
The first step is to reduce the weight of the boulder. 300 tons is really an astronomical figure for railway transportation, so the weight of this boulder is reduced to 280 tons first, and then to 130 tons. The weight of the boulder was reduced by nearly 1/3 in the first two times, but according to the carrying capacity of the best train at that time, the maximum overload rate it could bear could only exceed 10%. So the boulder was thinned for the third time, and finally the weight of the boulder to be transported was 94 tons, which was 2/3 less than the original.
Old photos of stone tablet transportation
However, even with a weight of 94 tons, it is not a simple matter to transport this boulder to the railway flat car. This is a very huge and difficult challenge for the transportation workers of this boulder who did not have modern means of transportation at that time.
Although the factory was 0/5 km away from Qingdao Railway Station/KLOC-at that time, the only tool that could drag boulders was the tractor. According to the workers' memories at that time, there was a tractor in front of the factory, which the workers used. Scroll bar? Road, push it to the railway station step by step. Every step they took was extremely difficult, which took 34 days.
Today's Monument to Heroes
Finally, with the help of Qi Xin's Qi Xin, the boulder arrived at the railway station. At that time, the steam train from Qingdao to Beijing was running on the Ji Jiao Line. In order to ensure safety, the steam train had to slow down and move slowly. Workers recalled that the speed of the train was twice as slow as usual, and it would not run at night.
But when the train goes from Qingdao to Jinan and arrives at Jinan Station, there is a narrow throat overpass, where the train pulling the boulder can't turn around. In order to solve the problem of turning, the railway staff repaired another railway in only one day. This railway goes directly to Beijing, without going through Jinan.
Monument to the People's Heroes
It finally took 17 days, and this huge stone officially arrived in Beijing on 1953, 10 and 13. Commander-in-Chief Zhu De greeted the boulder. After that, it finally stood in Tiananmen Square on 1958 Labor Day through the design of Liang Sicheng and his wife, and it will be engraved in the hearts of China people forever. Looking back on the hard times in the past, perhaps at the current speed of China, the transportation of this boulder can be completed in just one day.
However, this does not mean that our ancestors are not as good as us, just like eating steamed stuffed buns, just after the founding of New China. When the seventh steamed bread is full, it is by no means that the first six steamed buns are useless. Today's China speed is also due to the selfless dedication of our predecessors, which has led to today's miracle.