Previous life: A light industrial town rising from the farmland. This life: An old factory, a village in the city, Nirvana Financial City. Driving from west to east along Huangpu Avenue into Yuan Village, people often have the illusion of time travel: Huacheng Square at the west end, with buildings with a strong sense of modernity

There are many high-rise buildings here, and it has already entered the 21st century; all the way east, passing the racecourse and the top of Yuancun Mountain, the buildings outside the car window make people feel like they have returned to the 1980s and 1990s; and turning into Yuancun San

, Siheng Road, mixed with gray concrete dormitories, Soviet-style buildings with red walls and yellow tiles, and towering chimneys that have long been extinguished, making the time quietly freeze in the 1950s and 1960s.

This illusion is particularly obvious for Huang Guowei, who is 77 years old this year.

As one of the first batch of workers in the Guangdong Cannery Factory, he moved into the compound at No. 5 Siheng Road, Yuancun in 1958. He witnessed the rapid rise of Yuancun from farmland in the eastern suburbs to a light industrial town in the 1950s; he witnessed

After the 1990s, it was transformed from a suburb into a residential center; in the new century, he witnessed several gorgeous upgrades in the planning of Yuan Village: from a residential center to a CBD extension area, then to a cultural and creative industrial park, and an international financial city.

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With the acceleration of the construction of the International Financial City, the hot land of Yuancun is about to turn a new page in history. Please join our reporter on a time travel journey to explore the past and present of Yuancun.

When Yuancun was built, the No. 5 compound of Asia's largest cannery factory was the dormitory for old employees of Guangdong Cannery and Glass Factory. Many old Yuancun residents lived here, witnessing the historical changes of Yuancun.

The reporter and his party happened to meet Li Yaohua when they were looking for compound No. 5 on Siheng Road in Yuancun. The 67-year-old Li Yaohua was holding a guitar and preparing to tune it.

"Looking for Compound No. 5? Who are you looking for?" Li Yaohua is a retired worker of the cannery. After learning the reporter's intention, he cheerfully said that he had a best candidate to introduce to the reporter, "Huang Guowei is the No. 1 worker of the cannery."

A group of workers came to Yuancun to build a cannery in 1956 and have lived there until now."

He is so tired at work that he can even fall asleep in the toilet. The 77-year-old Huang Guowei is full of energy, and he still seems to be vividly recalling the past half a century ago.

He was recruited into the cannery as an apprentice from Taishan in 1956. "At that time, Guangzhou was selected by the Central Ministry of Light Industry to build Asia's largest cannery here in Yuancun."

The reason why I chose Yuancun was because of its geographical location. It was not far from the central city at that time and had convenient transportation. It was close to Huangpu Port and there was a railway (later a dedicated line was built). At the same time, it was also on the Pearl River, so it was very convenient.

Delivering raw materials to fruit farmers in the Pearl River Delta.

"Guangzhou City Chronicle·Industrial Chronicle" also has detailed records of canneries: In view of the need for canned fruits and vegetables in tropical and subtropical areas in the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist camp countries, Guangdong Province is rich in fruit resources and has a certain foundation for the canned industry, the Ministry of Light Industry decided to expand canned food in Shantou and Haikou

factory, and at the same time, a Guangdong canning factory was built in the newly opened Chengjie Dongcun Industrial Zone (later called Yuancun Industrial Zone) in the eastern suburbs of Guangzhou City.

The project is a key construction project in China's first five-year plan and is listed as one of the 165 key projects for Soviet-China economic cooperation.

On June 10, 1958, the Guangdong Cannery Factory was completed and put into operation. It was the largest cannery factory in Asia at that time.

Huang Guowei recalled that at that time, the factory was in 24-hour production, and normally had to work more than ten hours a day. Due to the seasonal nature of canned fruit production, when a large number of fruits were put on the market in summer and autumn, there were even people who worked for three consecutive days.

Record, "I can even fall asleep while going to the toilet."

However, in that era of material scarcity, the advantages of the cannery soon became apparent during the three-year period of natural disasters.

Huang Guowei said that in 1960, edema due to lack of nutrition was common across the country, but the vast majority of the thousands of employees in canneries did not appear. The reason was that "first come first served basis" and "raw materials such as fruits, vegetables, poultry, pork and beef"

When stored in the warehouse, there are always some scraps that cannot be used. The cannery built a large kitchen by itself, and the oil and water are relatively better."

The heyday of housewives and students coming to support the canneries came in the 1970s.

Huang Guowei said that during busy times, small boats delivering fruit from various parts of the Pearl River Delta would line up to unload at the factory dock. "These fruit boats line up in the middle of the Pearl River. We have a record of producing 100 tons of tomatoes in a day."

In the 1970s, fruit harvests were very good in many years. Coupled with the strong seasonality, "the three thousand employees of the cannery were not enough even if they worked overtime continuously." Therefore, Guangzhou mobilized urban housewives and students to provide support.

"Nearly 80% of college and high school students in Guangzhou at that time had come to the cannery to learn how to work. At its peak, more than 10,000 people went to work every day. When it was time to get off work, the entire Dongshan District transportation brigade was dispatched to direct the factory buses."

Huang Guowei still remembers that in the 1960s, housewives and students supported by student workers were paid 8 cents a day, so they were nicknamed the "Eighth Route Army" by the workers.

When I entered the factory for the first time, I felt like I was being sold a piglet. Later, my life was not as good as in the city center. In 1954, the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee put forward the slogan of "building Guangzhou into a socialist industrial production city" and mobilized the whole city to quickly change the face of Guangzhou's industrial backwardness.