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Hanoi – Lang Son railway route costs blood, labor

Hanoi – Lang Son railway route costs blood, labor

Tuesday, June 26, 2012, 05:41 GMT+7

“We ran across many decapitated heads hung on trees and many corpses of workers who died of malaria and exhaustion. The bodies were scattered along the railways route under construction from Hanoi to Lang Son.”

Part 1: The first railway route in Vietnam Part 2: Hanoi – Lang Son railway route costs blood, laborPart 3: Bright outlook conceived with trans-Vietnam routePart 4: Villages desolated for forced railway laborPart 5: Unforgettable trainsPart 6: A mournful dealPart 7: War-torn railways after liberation day  

This was part of the report of a French engineer working for the Fives - Lille Company, which was in charge of building the route, and was quoted in a document written by French researcher Frederic Hulot.

The description reveals the cruelty workers had to suffer from hard labor and war, as well as bandits from neighboring China. Stories showed that the French expeditionary troops and Vietnamese porters were subject to heavy damage during construction of the railway in the north, the second route after the first one Saigon – My Tho in the south.

The French colonial administration in northern Vietnam was determined to construct the 167km long Hanoi – Nam Quan route for the transport of both military and civil goods, aiming at a vision to control the southeastern region of China.

Bloodshed

Over a century has elapsed since the railway route was built, yet memories of witnesses and their descendants have yet to fade because of the cruel living conditions the workers had to endure.

Tran Minh Trong, 87, from Dong Dang Town of the northern province of Lang Son, recalled stories his father had told him: “My grandfather and relatives and thousands of other workers were admitted into the force to build the Hanoi – Nam Quan route. They were relocated from Hai Phong and Hai Duong to the construction sites.

“Those poor people were lured by the higher wages the French administration paid to workers. But their living conditions were very harsh and hazardous due to diseases in the jungle, aggressive animals, and bandits from China.

“Workers had to set up huts for shelter along the tracks. Many died of diseases and were buried in the forests, as no one could be spared to take the corpses home.”

The French colonial authorities then eventually admitted to the harsh conditions local workers endured. So, after the construction was finished in 1908, the colonial authorities honored descendants of the dead workers as staff of the railway company.

This was seen as a kind of repayment for the blood their ancestors spent while building the distant railway route.

In 1896, when fighting along the border eased, the railway route was modified to transform it from 600mm wide track to a 1,000mm track, and construction lasted until 1921.

After the work was finished, the Hanoi – Nam Quan (Lang Son) route had 34 stations, said Trong.

“Even in the early 1940s, many areas were so deserted that passengers on trains could see tigers and panthers approaching the track to hunt prey. The bodies of Chinese bandits shot dead lay along the route,” Trong recalled.

ky 3 - anh 7

The passenger wagon of a train running on the Phu Lang Thuong - Lang Son in 1894 (Archived photo)

Determination

The first inspiration for the railway came in 1885, when French troops stationed at the Lang Son bastion had to temporarily withdraw after a couple of raids by Co Den (Black Flag) troops – groups of bandits from China. Though the fort was later retaken, the attack was an alert to French colonists that the isolated fort, which had no transport link with the low land, needed to be protected with fortified transport link.

Without the route, French forces were subject to heavy losses at the hands of Chinese bandits. Thus, in the first days of settling in the northern region in the 1880s, the French governor general of northern Vietnam, Paul Bert, decided to build it, though he predicted that it would be a costly challenge of human life and financial resources.

He later admitted that, “all of the taxes, worth 40 million franc, paid by people in southern Vietnam in the four years from 1888 – 1891 were all spent on military activities in the region.”

So the French government approved a decision to permit the French expeditionary force to receive a 60-year loan of 80 million franc to build infrastructure in the region, including the railway route.

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