Porters see a steep drop on Taishan Mountain
Numbers have dwindled since the 1990s, and a new aerial cargo ropeway has cut prices. and report from Tai’an, Shandong.
Timportant role in the mountain’s development,” said Chen, who worked as a porter in the 1970s and ’80s. “What we’ve done over the years has made visiting the mountain so much easier for tourists.”
Chen helped carry materials to build a passenger ropeway on the mountain, the first of its kind in China, in 1982. Some of the wheels for the mechanism were 2.8 meters in diameter and weighed more than 4 metric tons.
As the wind was too strong for helicopters to transport them, the wheels were carried by porters using a purposebuilt frame, he said, adding, “It took more than 30 men to transport each one, and the largest wheel took us four days.”
Few people in Dajinkou still work as porters, and those who do mainly carry their own products, such as bean curd, to stores catering to tourists and residents living on the mountain.
High spirits
Former porters say the experience of that life, the constant hardships and the test of stamina, has helped them in new jobs on the mountain.
Chen Guangli, 61, lived in a nearby village and earned a living carrying cargo as a young man. In 1998, he and his wife moved on to the mountain after he was hired by the management committee as a forest ranger.
Every day, he walks about 10 km to patrol his section of the woodland, and he said he keeps his windows open at all times — even in winter when temperatures can hit -20 C at night — to ensure he is alerted to any problem or hazard. It is a work ethic learned from his days as a porter, he said.
Zhao agreed, and as their numbers continue to fall, he is considering making an application to have porters recognized as national intangible cultural heritage to promote their tireless spirit.
“We’ve made a great contribution to Taishan Mountain,” he said. “At 18 Bends, when an exhausted tourist stops to watch a porter climbing those steps slowly but steadily, they may well understand the spirit of persistence.”