I have an article "Night Flight", which is included in his "Cultural Journey".
Their night boats are all hand-cranked boats. I have seen the industrial and commercial development data of China, but I don't remember the specific time. It seems that around 1911, there were steamboats in China, and night ships began to modernize. Modern night boats have declined in the last twenty or thirty years, and gradually disappeared due to the increasingly developed automobile traffic.
I've been on that modern night boat.
That was after I went to the countryside. In order to save money in my empty pocket, I hitchhiked home from the countryside. If we can't catch up, we will rush to Huzhou to take a boat.
The ship bypasses the Huangpu River from the southwest bank of Taihu Lake, but it can't take the lake (state) sinking line on Taihu Lake. This is a busy route. After re-enrolling, I investigated this route. Although it carries mostly stones, yellow sand and other building materials, its transportation volume is close to the Yangtze River, which is called the Rhine River in the East. So I made a suggestion to get through the Taihu waterway.
The ship set off around 6: 00 p.m. and arrived at Shanghai Dada Wharf at 5: 00 a.m. the next morning after a night's driving. A pair of liner sets out, and the departure and arrival times are basically the same. This is a real night ship. Stop at Linghu and Nanxun in Zhejiang, Wang Ping and Zhenze in Jiangsu and Qingpu in Shanghai. For these stations, it's really a bit like "midnight flute to passenger ship".
It's usually noisy before and after boarding. Those who carry shoulders, help the elderly and take care of children are in a mess as soon as they get on the boat. After the ship started, the noise gradually died down, and the sound of the machine was filled with the dialogue between neighbors. Topics are varied, from rural trivial matters to state affairs, trolleybus style, and horses are wandering. In the middle of the night, the sound died down, leaving only the monotonous sound of the machine. And I often take one or two books to find a place near the light.
Going back and forth to the countryside several times, I am used to the smell of night boats.
But one of them left a deep impression on me, probably during the Spring Festival of 1972 and 1973. The sound on the night boat became louder and louder, but suddenly there was a loud thunder. Outside the hut came five or six big men, wearing armbands and holding precious books, shouting, get up, get up! Check, check! So on the night boat, the children shouted female voices and the old man coughed. Looking at a man with a slight frown, he asked the reason for the inspection, saying that the dissatisfaction of social members has increased recently. After an inspection, every midnight, the flute sounded, the people who arrived at the station disembarked, and the people who boarded the ship boarded. When the voices gradually died down, it was another inspection. The night boat is restless all night.
After this ride and several inspections, the night boat gave me a completely different breath. I gradually left the night boat and hitchhiked as much as possible.
Yu's Night Boat lists many night boats experienced by celebrities, and this is the night boat remembered by ordinary people in that era.
As a preface, Zhang Dai's Sailing at Night is for scholars to deal with shipmates and prepare questions and answers. After all, people in the Ming dynasty, although they opened more than 20 departments, lacked crucial departments to deal with searches.
Zhang Dai's "Night Sailing Boat" was read after the Cultural Revolution, and he also read "Fu Lun Shi" and so on.
I haven't taken a night flight for a long time, I'm afraid I won't. ...