General Jonathan Wainwright, the highest-ranking American captured in the Second World War, was held from December 1944 at a secret camp in a Manchurian coal town, and weighed under 45 kilograms at 1.88 metres when freed.
乔纳森·温莱特将军是二战期间被俘的美军最高级别将领;一九四四年十二月起,他被关押在东北一座煤城的秘密战俘营里,获救时身高一米八八,体重却不到四十五公斤。
The camp opened on 1 December 1944 inside the Japanese army’s North Barracks at what was then Xi’an County, now Liaoyuan, and held 16 senior Allied officials and their attendants, 34 people in all, among them the British general Arthur Percival and the governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young. A six-man American team freed them on 19 August 1945, 267 days after they arrived, and Wainwright and Percival later stood behind General MacArthur at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.
战俘营设于一九四四年十二月一日,位于日军北大营内,当时这里是西安县,即今天的辽源;营内关押着十六名盟军高级军政要员及其随从,共三十四人,其中有英国将军阿瑟·珀西瓦尔和时任香港总督杨慕琦。一九四五年八月十九日,一支六人的美军小组将他们救出,此时距他们抵达已过去二百六十七天;温莱特和珀西瓦尔后来站在麦克阿瑟将军身后,见证了日本在东京湾的投降。
According to People’s Daily, it is the only camp for senior Allied prisoners that survives in China. It was largely forgotten for six decades because the Japanese destroyed records before surrendering, according to Xinhua, until American and Taiwanese researchers came looking for it in the early 2000s, and it was named a national patriotic education demonstration base in 2017, according to The Paper.
据《人民日报》报道,这是我国现存唯一一所盟军高级战俘营遗址。据新华社报道,由于日军投降前销毁了大量史料,这处旧址被基本尘封了六十多年,直到本世纪初美国和台湾的研究者前来寻访才重新浮出水面;据澎湃新闻报道,二零一七年它被命名为全国爱国主义教育示范基地。
From a Farmer’s Well to a Coal Town
从一口农家水井到一座煤城
Coal was found in 1911, when a farmer named Chen Decai dug a well for drinking water and hit black stones. Japanese capital moved in from 1917, and the Meiji Xi’an coal mine controlled most of the field by 1919, according to the Liaoyuan Miners’ Tombs Exhibition Hall. After 1949 the Xi’an vertical shaft was one of the 156 key projects, and Liaoyuan at one point supplied nearly 3.5 percent of China’s coal, according to Xinhua.
一九一一年,农民陈得财为解决饮水问题在院里打井,挖出了黑色石块,煤就此被发现。据辽源矿工墓陈列馆介绍,日本资本自一九一七年起渗入,到一九一九年,明治西安煤矿已控制了大部分矿区。据新华社报道,新中国成立后,西安竖井成为一百五十六项重点工程之一,辽源的煤炭产量一度占全国的近百分之三点五。
The city was called Xi’an, meaning western peace, from 1902, and was renamed Liaoyuan on 3 April 1952 because Shaanxi already had a Xi’an; the new name means source of the Liao, after the East Liao River that rises here. Coal once made up about 80 percent of its economy and less than 2 percent by 2015, according to Sina, and the city was named a resource-exhausted transition pilot in 2005 and 2008.
这座城市自一九〇二年起名为西安,取”西方安宁”之意;一九五二年四月三日,因与陕西西安同名而改称辽源,新名字取自在此发源的东辽河。据新浪报道,煤炭一度占全市经济总量的百分之八十,到二零一五年已不足百分之二;辽源于二零零五年和二零零八年先后被列为资源枯竭型城市经济转型试点。
What replaced it is socks. Liaoyuan made its first pair in 1936 and now produces about 3.5 billion pairs a year in a park of 1,210 firms and 41,000 machines, according to the Jilin Daily, a trade that the saying “Zhuji in the south, Liaoyuan in the north” ranks alongside China’s other great sock town.
接替煤炭的是袜子。辽源一九三六年生产出第一双袜子;据《吉林日报》报道,如今辽源袜业园聚集了一千二百一十户企业、四点一万台设备,年产袜品约三十五亿双,业内有”南有诸暨,北有辽源”之说。
A River’s Source with Little Water
一条河的源头,水却不多
Liaoyuan’s official land-use plan describes its water resources as extremely scarce, while central Jilin has only 19 percent of the national average per head, according to The Paper. The city named for the source of the Liao is therefore supplied through a diversion project from the Songhua River’s Fengman Reservoir, with a 109.8-kilometre trunk line that splits at Fengjialing into branches for Changchun, Siping and Liaoyuan; its first phase passed acceptance in December 2021.
辽源市土地利用总体规划称境内水资源极度匮乏;据澎湃新闻报道,吉林中部地区人均水资源量仅为全国平均水平的百分之十九。因此,这座以辽河之源命名的城市,要靠引松供水工程从松花江丰满水库调水:一条长一百零九点八公里的总干线在冯家岭分水,分别通往长春、四平和辽源,一期工程于二零二一年十二月通过通水验收。
According to Liaoyuan’s 2025 statistical communiqué, GDP reached ¥54.709 billion, up 5.7 percent, with per capita output of ¥60,619. The permanent population was 888,500, with 2,300 births against 9,300 deaths.
据辽源市二零二五年统计公报显示,全年GDP达五百四十七点零九亿元,同比增长百分之五点七,人均产值六万零六百一十九元;年末常住人口八十八点八五万人,全年出生二千三百人,死亡九千三百人。
Getting to Liaoyuan is harder than it should be: it is the only prefecture-level city in Jilin without high-speed rail, and the one direct train from Changchun takes about 2 hours 40 minutes. The mayor said in 2026 that the 81.6-kilometre Liaoyuan section of a Changchun–Siping–Liaoyuan–Tonghua high-speed line has its route and station site fixed, with the city aiming for it to open by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
前往辽源并不方便:它是吉林省唯一不通高铁的地级市,从长春出发的唯一直达列车约需两小时四十分钟。市长在二零二六年表示,长春经四平、辽源至通化高铁的辽源段全长八十一点六公里,线路走向和站址已经确定,力争在”十五五”末期通车。
Of the 20-odd rooms where Wainwright, Percival and the other prisoners were held, only five survive, restored to show how they lived, according to China News.
据中国新闻网报道,当年关押温莱特、珀西瓦尔等人的那排平房原有二十多间,如今只剩五间,内部已复原当年战俘被关押的情景。
