Five earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more struck the Xingtai region in just 21 days in March 1966, the first destructive quakes to hit a densely populated part of China since 1949, killing 8,064 people and injuring about 38,000.
一九六六年三月,短短二十一天之内,邢台地区接连发生五次六级以上地震,这是自一九四九年以来,中国人口稠密地区遭遇的第一次破坏性大地震,造成八千零六十四人死亡、约三万八千人受伤。
The first, of magnitude 6.8, struck at 5.29am on 8 March east of Longyao county; the strongest, of magnitude 7.2, followed on 22 March near Ningjin. About 5.08 million houses were damaged, 2.62 million of them severely or to the point of collapse, and in the worst-hit villages around Malan and Renzhuang in Longyao almost every house fell.
第一次地震震级为六点八级,于三月八日清晨五时二十九分发生在隆尧县东;最强的一次为七点二级,三月二十二日发生在宁晋县附近。地震共造成约五百零八万间房屋受损,其中二百六十二万余间严重破坏或倒塌,在受灾最重的隆尧县马兰、任村一带,房屋几乎全部倒塌。
A Well that Overflowed and a Premier who Wept
涌水的水井与落泪的总理
A retrospective in a Chinese seismology journal records reports that the water in a well at Malan village, 14.3 kilometres east of Longyao town, surged on 3 March; before the main shock it overflowed in a jet up to 4 metres high, and its water turned from bitter to sweet and smelled strongly of sulphur.
据一份刊载于中国地震学期刊的回顾文章记述,有报告称,距隆尧县城以东十四点三公里的马兰村有一口水井,三月三日井水暴涨;三月八日主震之前,井水外溢,水柱高达四米,水味由苦变甜,硫磺气味甚浓。
Premier Zhou Enlai travelled to the quake zone three times, wept at the suffering he saw and ordered that China must have its own earthquake-prediction system, according to the China Digital Science and Technology Museum. According to the China Earthquake Administration, more than 450 scientists from over 20 institutions joined a multidisciplinary campaign in the zone, and Jiemian News reports that construction of a national baseline seismic station at Hongshan, not far from Malan, began that April.
据中国数字科技馆介绍,周恩来总理三次赴震区,百姓的苦难令他落泪,他指示中国一定要有自己的地震预报系统。据中国地震局介绍,二十多个单位的四百五十多名科技工作者随即投入灾区的多学科联合考察;界面新闻报道,同年四月,国家级红山基准地震台开始在离重灾区马兰村不远处筹建。
Tang White Porcelain that Archaeologists Could Not Find
考古学者曾遍寻不得的唐代白瓷
Xingtai was known in the Tang dynasty as Xingzhou, and its kilns were the centre of Chinese white porcelain, paired with Yue ware in the saying “south green, north white”. According to the Palace Museum, Lu Yu’s Classic of Tea compared Xing ware to snow and silver, and another Tang writer, Li Zhao, noted that Neiqiu’s white porcelain bowls were used by everyone, high and low.
唐代的邢台称邢州,邢窑是中国白瓷的生产中心,与越窑青瓷并称”南青北白”。据故宫博物院介绍,陆羽在《茶经》中称邢瓷如雪似银,另一位唐代作者李肇则在《国史补》中写道,内丘白瓷瓯天下无论贵贱,人人通用。
Yet the kilns themselves went missing. From 1952 to 1972, scholars surveyed three counties and cities around Xingtai seven times without finding a single Tang kiln site; in 1980 a survey of neighbouring Lincheng county finally located a group of Tang kilns at the villages of Qicun, Gangtou and Xishuangjing. According to Visit Beijing, an expert panel led by Feng Xianming of the Palace Museum declared Neiqiu the home of Xing white porcelain in December 1985, and a 1988 excavation there found more than 200 translucent shards of Sui-dynasty white ware only 0.7 millimetres thick.
然而,这些窑址本身却一度下落不明。从一九五二年到一九七二年,学者们对邢台一带三个县市先后进行了七次考察,却始终没有找到一处唐代窑址;直到一九八零年,对邻近的临城县展开普查,才在祁村、岗头村与西双井村发现了唐代窑址群。据北京旅游网介绍,一九八五年十二月,以故宫博物院冯先铭为首的专家组认定内丘是邢白瓷的正宗产地;一九八八年在内丘的发掘中,又发现了二百多片隋代透影白瓷残片,胎厚仅零点七毫米。
Less Coal, More Power
煤炭减产,电力增长
Xingtai is often described as a resource base for north China, and Xingtai Mining Group, founded in 1973 as the Xingtai Mining Bureau, describes itself as once counted among the Four Little Dragons of China’s coal industry. According to the city’s 2024 statistical communiqué, raw coal output was 7,091,521 tonnes that year, down 5.5 percent, with value added in mining down 16.8 percent.
邢台常被称为华北地区的重要资源基地;邢台矿业集团前身为一九七三年成立的邢台矿务局,自称曾被誉为中国煤炭行业”四小龙”之一。据该市二零二四年统计公报显示,当年原煤产量为七百零九万一千五百二十一吨,同比下降百分之五点五,采矿业增加值下降百分之十六点八。
Total installed generating capacity passed 10 gigawatts and peak electricity load passed 6 gigawatts, according to the mayor’s January 2024 government work report. The 2024 communiqué recorded power generation of 19.6 billion kilowatt-hours, up 3.2 percent, including 1.37 billion from wind, up 14.5 percent, and 2.38 billion from solar, down 7.7 percent.
据市长二零二四年一月所作的政府工作报告,全市发电总装机容量突破一千万千瓦,电力负荷突破六百万千瓦。二零二四年统计公报显示,全年发电量一百九十五亿九千八百一十九万千瓦时,同比增长百分之三点二,其中风力发电量十三点七亿千瓦时,同比增长百分之十四点五,太阳能发电量二十三点八亿千瓦时,同比下降百分之七点七。
According to Xingtai’s 2024 statistical communiqué, GDP reached ¥276.59 billion that year, up 4.5 percent, with per capita output at ¥39,989; the permanent population stood at 6.8778 million, down from 7.1111 million at the 2020 census.
据邢台市二零二四年统计公报显示,当年GDP达二千七百六十五点九亿元,同比增长百分之四点五,人均产值三万九千九百八十九元;年末常住人口六百八十七点七八万人,低于二零二零年人口普查时的七百一十一万一千一百零六人。
Getting to Xingtai means a high-speed train from Beijing West to Xingtai East that takes as little as 1 hour 36 minutes. Xingtai’s airport, in Shahe city 15 kilometres from the urban area, opened to commercial flights on 18 July 2024, with Guangzhou as its first route.
前往邢台,可从北京西站乘坐高铁直达邢台东站,最快仅需一小时三十六分钟。位于沙河市、距邢台市区十五公里的邢台褡裢机场,于二零二四年七月十八日正式通航,首条航线飞往广州。
In Longyao county, the Xingtai Earthquake Memorial, completed in 1987, stands 19.66 metres tall for the year of the quakes, and, according to Xinhua’s Hebei channel, its front staircase of three steps and then eight stands for 8 March.
在隆尧县,一九八七年落成的邢台地震纪念碑高十九点六六米,以纪念地震发生的一九六六年;据新华网河北频道介绍,碑前台阶先三级、后八级,象征着三月八日。
