beijing changxindian bunker water tower becomes a hidden danger for residents
2024-09-25
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original title: a water tower in fengtai has been out of service for many years. the cement wall has fallen off and no one has maintained it. the ownership unit is still unclear. it may be historical evidence of japan's invasion of china.
the bunker water tower in changxindian has become a hidden danger for residents
after the cement fell off, the steel bars at the bottom of the water tank were exposed
the words "showa 13" on the cast iron pipe
changxindian water tower is adjacent to residential buildings
as urban water supply facilities continue to improve, water towers scattered throughout beijing's urban and rural areas have gradually faded out of people's lives, becoming a common but easily overlooked industrial relic. a beijing youth daily reporter recently visited and found that an old water tower located to the west of changxindian railway station in fengtai district, beijing, has been out of use for many years. due to unclear ownership and lack of maintenance, its heavy and hard cement walls have fallen down from time to time, becoming a safety hazard hanging over the heads of nearby residents. in response, staff of the community where the water tower is located said that they would report the relevant issues to higher authorities.
during the visit, the beijing youth daily reporter also found that the cast iron pipes inside the water tower had the words "showa 13", indicating that it was probably built during the anti-japanese war. in this regard, cultural relics experts said that the fourth national cultural relics survey is currently underway. if the changxindian water tower meets the requirements, it can be identified as a cultural relic and protected, which will help eliminate safety hazards in the building and enrich the cultural relics in beijing.
discover
the old water tower, which has been in disrepair for a long time, poses a serious safety hazard.
courtyard no. 61, huayuan south, is located in chenzhuang community, changxindian street, fengtai district. unlike other bungalow courtyards nearby, this courtyard has a cylindrical water tower. although it has been out of use for many years, it is still one of the landmark buildings in changxindian. xie zhenkui, who lives in courtyard no. 61, huayuan south, said that since five years ago, whenever there is strong wind, cement on the outside of the water tank on the top of the tower is prone to fall off, and large and small cement blocks fall directly into the courtyard, but fortunately no one has been injured. in order to solve the hidden danger hanging overhead, xie zhenkui contacted the street, community and other units, but in the end he could not find the property owner of the water tower, and no one came to repair it.
the beijing youth daily reporter saw at the scene that the water tower consists of three parts from top to bottom: the water tank, the support and the foundation. it looks like a big flashlight. the water tank is more than 10 meters above the ground. the cement shedding points are mainly concentrated at the north lower edge of the water tank, exposing the steel bars inside the building. "north winds often blow in winter, so the cement shedding is concentrated on the north side of the water tank." xie zhenkui said as he picked up a palm-sized cement block and pointed to a broken tile on the ground, saying, "this is what it hit." the beijing youth daily reporter found that this cement lump was quite heavy and had sharp edges. if it hit someone, the consequences would be disastrous.
to which unit does the water tower belong? local residents and relevant departments have not been able to give a unified answer. some say it belongs to the beijing power supply section of china railway beijing bureau group co., ltd., while others say it belongs to the changxindian branch of beijing water group. beijing youth daily reporters called these two units one after another, and both said that there was no water tower on the west side of changxindian railway station in their respective equipment records.
afterwards, the beijing youth daily reporter called the chenzhuang community where the changxindian water tower is located. a male staff member said that the bungalow area where the changxindian water tower is located is mostly staff dormitories of railway units. "i once heard from local elders that this water tower was built by the japanese. later, changxindian introduced municipal tap water and the water tower was decommissioned." the staff member said that they could not determine the ownership unit of the water tower, but would report the safety hazards to the street office.
it is both a water tower and a bunker. "showa 13" is cast on the iron pipe.
a reporter from beijing youth daily noticed that the old water tower built on the west side of changxindian railway station is different from common water towers. it looks like a water tower from a distance, but looks like a bunker from a close distance. there are five observation holes distributed horizontally around the gate on the water tower support. the outside is square and gradually narrows inward. the inside is equipped with push-type iron windows and wooden window sills, which have strong defense functions. wang wei, a railway culture scholar and member of the beijing cultural relics protection association, judged that the observation hole is similar to the shooting hole on the bunker, and the internal window sill may be a gun platform. when it is necessary to observe the surrounding situation, the iron window can be opened and a machine gun can be set up.
the beijing youth daily reporter followed wang wei on a field survey and found that the entrance and exit of the water tower were equipped with two double doors. the outer door was welded from steel plates and angle irons and looked very solid. the inner door was a wooden door. after entering the water tower, the light became dim. the debris piled at the bottom of the support was full of dust. there was also a cast iron boiler and four straight steel pipes leading directly to the water tank at the top of the tower. climbing up the cage ladder, you can reach a platform built of steel frames and wooden boards under the water tank. there is a vertical channel in the center of the water tank. continue climbing along the cage ladder to reach the gatehouse at the top of the tower. there is a water tank cover in the house. opening the iron cover, you can see that the inside of the water tank is dry, proving that the water tower has indeed been decommissioned.
after repeated explorations on the inner wall and pipe fittings of the water tower, wang wei found a row of characters "showa 13" cast with the pipe fittings on a cast iron pipe fitting, with a "circular mark", the number "150" and an "*" mark above the characters. wang wei explained that "showa" was the reign title used by the 124th emperor hirohito of japan, and "showa 13" was 1938. "all signs indicate that this water tower was probably built during the anti-japanese war to supply water to the changxindian railway station and surrounding areas," said wang wei.
beijing youth daily reporter noticed that there is an alley named "tap water" on the west side of the water tower. according to the "beijing fengtai district place names", this alley was the first to use tap water in 1937, so it was named tap water alley in commemoration. however, whether the naming of this alley is related to the water tower remains to be further verified.
the water tower has been out of use for many years. during the anti-japanese war, a water source was built around it.
when was the changxindian water tower decommissioned? according to resident xie zhenkui's recollection, the water tower already existed when he moved to the current address in 1964. at that time, every winter, workers would enter the tower to burn the boiler to prevent the water tower pipes from freezing, but as the water tower was decommissioned, no one maintained it anymore, and the water tower gradually became a "playground" for nearby children, with children often climbing and playing in it. "this water tower has been out of use for more than 50 years, and facilities such as lightning rods have also been damaged." xie zhenkui told the beijing youth daily reporter that a film and television crew came here to shoot this year, "and workers climbed to the top of the water tower to set up the lights."
beijing youth daily reporter checked the data and found that in order to ensure the normal use of the water tower in cold seasons, a stove heating solution was used in the 1950s, but due to high operating costs, it has been gradually eliminated since the 1960s. xie zhenkui is not clear about the specific reason for the closure of the water tower, and beijing youth daily reporter has not found an exact record. however, according to the analysis of many local residents, this may be related to the closure of the self-supplied well and the construction of a water plant in changxindian.
regarding the water plant mentioned by local residents, the beijing youth daily reporter found through data that from 1937 to 1948, changxindian was the seat of the wanping county government. during the anti-japanese war, the japanese took over the changxindian railway station and the surrounding erqi factory and other units, and developed water sources around changxindian. according to the book "history of beijing tap water development", in the early 1950s, in order to solve the centralized water supply in the changxindian area, the beijing municipal people's government decided in january 1953 and january 1954 respectively: the dujiakan water source under the jurisdiction of the armored forces command of the chinese people's liberation army and the donghe water source under the jurisdiction of the beijing railway bureau were assigned to the management of the beijing water company (now beijing water group co., ltd.). both water sources were built during the anti-japanese war. after the beijing water company took over the two water supply facilities, it established the changxindian water plant in 1954.
follow-up
there are five water towers of the same type in beijing.
the changxindian water tower is not a "single copy" in terms of shape. there are many water towers of this shape in northeast china and north china. according to wang wei, he has found more than 20 water towers of the same shape near railway stations in beijing, baoding, langfang, cangzhou, tangshan, zaozhuang, jiaozhou, xinxiang, zhuozishan, tangshancheng, hohhot, etc. most of them have been discontinued, and some have been demolished later. "the shapes of these water towers are very similar, and there are shooting holes around the supports. it is very likely that they came from the same design drawing." wang wei analyzed.
it is worth mentioning that some water towers of the same shape as the changxindian water tower have been announced as immovable cultural relics. wang wei introduced that the water tower of the south station of jining railway station in ulanqab city, inner mongolia autonomous region, was built by japanese invaders in 1940 and was not demolished after it was decommissioned. in august 2015, the people's government of jining district announced it as an immovable cultural relic protection unit of inner mongolia autonomous region. "there are five known existing water towers of this type in beijing. in addition to changxindian, there are water towers of the same shape near fengtai railway station, liulihe railway station, nankou railway station, and shunyi railway station." wang wei said.
according to the clues provided by wang wei, the beijing youth daily reporter visited fengtai, fangshan, changping and shunyi districts and found four other water towers, which were basically the same in appearance as the changxindian water tower, but the heights of the water towers were different due to the different geographical environments. except for the water tower near shunyi railway station, which was surrounded by residential houses and could not be approached, the beijing youth daily reporter found the same entrances and shooting holes on the supports of the other water towers.
a reporter from the beijing youth daily found that among the five water towers of the same type in beijing, the water tower near liulihe railway station is still in use, supplying water to residents of nearby railway dormitories. the liulihe water supply station where the water tower is located also has pump rooms, disinfection rooms, material warehouses and other buildings. the water tower is clean and tidy inside and out, and has complete facilities such as lightning rods. on the cast iron pipes inside the water tower, the beijing youth daily reporter found the words "showa 8" (i.e. 1933), which is 5 years earlier than the year information on the castings of the changxindian water tower.
there are four main situations of decommissioned water towers
after the south-to-north water diversion project was launched, beijing gradually stopped extracting water from underground water after 2008. beijingers gradually said goodbye to their own wells and drank water from the municipal pipe network. many water towers were also gradually decommissioned. a beijing youth daily reporter found that there are four main current situations of decommissioned water towers in beijing and surrounding areas: idle, demolished, protected and reused.
among these water towers, it is common for the changxindian water tower to be idle - it stands there quietly, with few people paying attention to it, becoming a common yet easily overlooked building.
in addition, some water towers have completely disappeared from the public's view. on august 4 this year, an inverted cone-shaped water tower built in 1997 was demolished at beijing finance and trade vocational college after completing its historical mission. in the beiji family compound in tongzhou district, there was also a 53-year-old water tower. in the 1970s, it mainly supplied water to residents. with the improvement of water supply facilities, the water tower was decommissioned in 2010. due to lack of maintenance over the years, the wall peeled off from time to time. in order to ensure the safety of people's travel, it was demolished in july 2023.
a few water towers have changed their uses after being decommissioned. a beijing youth daily reporter visited and found that there was an abandoned water tower in yanqing district. the relevant units repainted and decorated it in 2019, turning it into an outdoor advertisement for the expo. in the zhongtu cultural and creative park in tongzhou district, there was also an abandoned water tower that was converted into a cafe in 2023.
some other water towers have been preserved because of their cultural value. for example, the "tongxian power plant water tower", as a representative object of early industrial buildings in beijing, was announced as a cultural relic protection unit in tongzhou district in 2001. in the early days of the beijing-zhangjiakou railway, a total of 11 steam locomotive water towers were built along the line. however, as diesel locomotives replaced steam locomotives, the water towers were gradually abandoned or even demolished. only two survived, located at xiahuayuan station and kangzhuang station respectively. these two water towers were officially recognized as immovable cultural relics in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
dialogue
eliminate safety hazards of old water towers through cultural relic identification
interviewer
liu weidong, member of beijing cultural relics appraisal committee
beijing youth daily: the changxindian water tower is related to residents’ safety and has certain historical value. how should it be handled?
liu weidong: the ownership and management of a landmark building like the changxindian water tower should not be a mess. the stability of the water tower structure is related to the safety of people's lives. the local government should ask relevant appraisal institutions to detect whether there are safety hazards in the water tower structure. if problems are found, they should be dealt with in a timely manner. after eliminating the safety hazards of the water tower, relevant historical investigations can be carried out.
beijing youth daily: is it possible to date the changxindian water tower based on the existing information?
liu weidong: we must thank railway culture scholar wang wei for his new discovery. in the absence of written records, the text "showa 13" he found inside the water tower became an important basis for proving the identity of the water tower, indicating that the construction and use of the water tower were closely related to the japanese, and 1938 coincided with the time period when the japanese army occupied changxindian. considering that the water tower should have been built first and then the pipelines were laid, it is possible that its construction time was even earlier than 1938.
beijing youth daily: is it possible to conduct a cultural relic identification survey on the changxindian water tower?
liu weidong: since 1949, my country has carried out three national cultural relics surveys and is currently conducting the fourth national cultural relics survey. it is recommended that relevant departments take advantage of the "fourth survey" to fill in the gaps and include new discoveries such as the changxindian water tower in the scope of the survey.
changxindian is not only an ancient town in the southwest of beijing, but also has a profound industrial cultural heritage. as a relic of an industrial building, the water tower has been out of use for many years, but it provides first-hand physical evidence for studying urban and rural water supply during the anti-japanese war and the strategic significance of the changxindian area. it has certain historical and research value. however, the property rights of the changxindian water tower are still unclear. it requires the joint participation of multiple departments such as railways, water affairs, cultural relics, and local governments to collect valuable historical information, so as to provide a reference for experts to identify cultural relics. considering that there are also remains of this type of water tower in changping, shunyi, and fangshan, the cultural relics department can also conduct a joint investigation on it.
beijing youth daily: the water tower may have been built by the japanese. what do you think of such relics?
liu weidong: based on the existing information, the changxindian water tower was probably built during the anti-japanese war, and it is more likely that it was built by the japanese. after the japanese army occupied beijing in 1937, they built military facilities such as bunkers and aircraft bunkers, which were distributed in many districts of beijing. many of the ones that have survived to this day have been officially recognized as immovable cultural relics, becoming historical evidence of unique value. if the changxindian water tower can be officially recognized as a cultural relic, it will help the maintenance of the building, thereby solving the urgent problems of the people, and enriching the diversity of cultural relics in beijing.
