In 1998, most Chinese had never seen mobile phones or computers and they took only old and slow green trains for long journeys. Now in 2018, even primary school kids and retired elders  know how to use mobiles and surf the Internet. Most Chinese travel by  world's first-class high-speed rail, which is very common in China.

However, maybe it's just that things are changing too fast at the moment. The Internet, the high-speed rails and airplanes have replaced the romance in my childhood, the "homesickness" and the purest emotion in the souls of men.

To look for the “homesickness”, the romance and the purest emotion 20 years ago, I decided to go south to Hangzhou. I came to the end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal - the bank of Gongchen Bridge.

Why here? For Gongchen Bridge witnessed the pledge of "waiting for the one in a lifetime" in those years, when there were no mobiles, computers, airplanes, high-speed rails but only carriages, letters and steamers.

Overlooking Gongchen Bridge

"Gongchen" in "Gongchen Bridge" means "welcome the emperor". The ancient emperors of the Qing Dynasty cruised along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and it was from Gongchen Bridge that they entered Hangzhou. The prosperity of Gongchen Bridge was recorded by Li Wei, the official at the time: many merchants ran their business around Gongchen Bridge, which was really flourishing.

From the beginning of Qing Dynasty to the end of twentieth Century, Gongchen Bridge had been the core symbol for the waterway in Hangzhou to connect to North China, and it was more of a bond connecting the east and west sides of the Hangzhou section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It was because of this geographical position richly endowed by nature that Japanese imperialism also chose the east bank of Gongchen Bridge as the Japanese concession by means of the treaty ports established in Hangzhou according to the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

Li Hung-Chang signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki

And the limitless homesickness and pure love behind Gongchen Bridge also became prominent during the Japanese invasion of China. At the time, Gongchen Bridge was the point of departure for people in Hangzhou and even Zhejiang to go northward to Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing, and also the destination for them to go back home.

Lu Xun, the founder of Chinese modern literature, went northward by water from Gongchen Bridge to Nanjing and Shanghai, to seek knowledge and save the nation; Feng Zikai, the pioneer of Chinese modern comics, bade farewell to his homeland in Gongchen Bridge, escaping from the invasion of Japanese imperialism with his whole family; Yu Boping, one of the pioneers in the creation of free verses in vernacular Chinese, gave up the comfortable waterways of Gongchen Bridge and squeezed into a crowded train in order to meet his wife sooner.

Put aside their great achievements, Lu Xun, Feng Zikai and Yu Boping are only ordinary people among thousands of people in Hangzhou. Their experience of separation, oath and gathering besides Gongchen Bridge was also experienced by countless people in Hangzhou and Zhejiang.

Gongchen Bridge shipping

I stood on the bridge, imagining the construction of Gongchen Bridge in 1631 to the wide application of smart phones in 2007; Gongchen Bridge bonded the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal firmly to the land. Besides the river, there were home and love; upon the river, there were adrift and lonely journeys. The people on both sides of the bridge have experienced long parting, missing and gathering, which are long enough for them to only love one city and wait for one person in a lifetime.

After hundreds of years, Gongchen Bridge still stands above the Grand Canal, witnessing the vicissitudes of history and the prosperity of the world regardless of the changes; Gongchen Bridge connects both sides of the canal and also history, present and future.

Look from the bridge to the two banks of the river and you can find that everything can be concluded in a word of "fast" in terms of the east side of Gongchen Bridge: the government of Gongshu District, Museum of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, canal culture square, grand canal hotel, the second Hospital of Hangzhou, Gongchen Bridge bus terminal...People come and leave, in hustle and bustle.

East side of Gongchen Bridge

The west side of Gongchen Bridge can be concluded with a word "slow", which dates back to the changes hundreds of years ago: Old Happiness Tea House, Morning Breeze Book Store, Shuyu Cafe, Gongchen College in the straight road at the west side of the bridge, white walls and black tiles of Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China; the folk customs and shipping relics are all in a panoramic view.

West side of Gongchen Bridge

It's a total of 98 meters from the east of Gongchen Bridge to the west. The 98 meters are the distance between the modern and the ancient, the fast and the slow, and the concentration of thousands years of culture of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Therefore, the west street area of Gongchen Bridge and the bridge itself have become sites of claim point of world cultural heritage, and there is no ground for blame.

Look, the bustling east side of Gongchen Bridge and the elegant west side, aren’t they just like the two sides of human nature – extroversion and introversion? Actually, there is no absolute introversion or extroversion, for one who has been outgoing for a long time would desire peace and solitude; and one who has been introverted would definitely want busy streets and crowds of people. This is the besieged city of human nature.  

This is the answer offered by Gongchen Bridge, by the people and things on both sides (east and west) of Gongchen Bridge, and by the water of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal that has been flowing for a thousand year under Gongchen Bridge.

The pictures from this article are retrieved from the internet.

Chinese：

大家好~我从小就生活在中国的江苏省。从1998年到2018年，整整二十年，我感受到中国大地的变化。

98年的中国，绝大部分中国人没见过手机电脑、出远门只有绿皮火车。18年的今天，读小学的孩子、退休老人都会用手机上网。大部分中国人出门乘坐世界一流的高铁，是件再平常不过的事情。

然而，也许只是因为当下的一切太快了。移动互联网、高铁飞机让我年少时的“情书”消失、让“乡愁”消失、让人灵魂深处最质朴的情感消失。

为了寻找20年前的乡愁、寻找情书、寻找那份质朴的情感，我决定南下杭州，来到京杭大运河的终点——拱宸桥边。

为什么来到拱宸桥呢？因为在拱宸桥兴盛的年代里，没有手机、没有电脑、没有飞机、没有高铁，有的只是马车、书信、轮船。拱宸桥见证了那个年代“用一生，等一人。”的誓约。

拱宸桥的“拱宸”是“迎接皇帝”的意思。古代清朝皇帝沿京杭运河巡游，就是从拱宸桥进入杭州的。当时的官员李卫记录了拱宸桥的繁荣盛况：无数商人在拱宸桥交易往来，十分繁荣。

拱宸桥从清朝开始到20世纪末，一直都是杭州水路，走向中国北方的核心标志，更是连接京杭大运河杭州段东西两岸的纽带。正是因为这种得天独厚的地理位置，当年日本帝国主义凭着《马关条约》在杭州建立通商口岸，也选择了拱宸桥东岸作为日本租界。

而拱宸桥承载的无限乡愁、朴素爱情也是在日本侵华这段时期尤为凸显。当时拱宸桥是杭州人乃至浙江人，向北去上海、天津、北京的起点，也是回归故乡的终点。

中国现代文学的奠基人鲁迅，从拱宸桥坐船北上，去南京、上海求学救国；中国现代漫画的开拓者丰子恺，在拱宸桥泪别故土，携全家老小，逃离日本帝国主义的侵袭；中国白话诗创作的先驱者之一俞伯平，为了更快地见到妻子，放弃了舒适的拱宸桥水路，挤上了拥挤的火车厢。

鲁迅、丰子恺、俞伯平，抛开他们的伟大成就来看，他们也只是普通人，只是万千杭州人中的几个。他们在拱宸桥边经历的分离、约定、相聚是无数杭州人、浙江人共同经历的。

而我站在桥上，想象着从1631年，拱宸桥创建；到2007年，智能手机广泛使用的前夜，拱宸桥将京杭大运河牢牢地系在这片土地。河岸两侧是家、是爱；河上则是一片漂泊、孤独前行。这大桥两侧的人们经历漫长的别离、漫长的相思、漫长的相聚，漫长到一生只恋一座城、一世只等一个人。

历经几百年的拱宸桥依然横卧屹立在大运河之上，见证了历史的沧桑，也见证了世间的繁华，不管世事如何变迁，拱宸桥连接着运河两岸，也连接着历史、现在和将来。 

从桥上往两岸望去，拱宸桥东，一个“快”字讲述一切：拱墅区政府、京杭大运河博物馆、运河文化广场、大运河酒店、杭州二院、拱宸桥公交码头...人来人往，熙熙攘攘。

拱宸桥西，一个“慢”字，追忆百年沧桑：老开心茶馆，晓风书屋，舒羽咖啡馆，桥西直街的拱宸书院，清朝、民国时期的白墙黑瓦，民风民俗、航运遗物，尽在眼底。

从拱宸桥东到桥西，共计98米。这98米，是现代与古代的距离、是快与慢的距离、是千年京杭运河文化的浓缩。所以，拱宸桥西街区、拱宸桥成为京杭大运河申遗点，是多么得理所当然、无可厚非。

你看，拱宸桥东的热闹繁华、拱宸桥西的古朴素雅，不就人性的两个特征——内向与外向吗？没有绝对的内向与外向，一个人外向久了，自然会渴望安宁、独处。一个人内向久了，也肯定希望热闹的街道，拥挤的人群。这是人性的围城。

这是拱宸桥给我的答案，是拱宸桥东西两侧的人和物给我的答案，是拱宸桥下奔流千年的京杭运河水给我的答案。