红色背篓：清空六十年前的“购物车”
红色背篓：清空六十年前的“购物车”
Home delivery service 60 years ago: How a travelling basket fulfills shopping dreams deep in the mountains
六十多年前，当时的北京市房山县黄山店公社地处群峰环抱的山沟里，全公社2800多口人分散居住在山沟山腰的50多个村中，这些村远离分销店，有的远达十几公里，交通很不方便。
More than 60 years ago, Huangshandian Commune in suburban Beijing’s Fangshan County was located in a valley surrounded by mountains. More than 2,800 people in the whole commune, a collective production cooperative system in the past, lived scattered in over 50 villages on the hillsides. These villages were far away from distribution shops, some as far as more than 10 kilometers, and the traffic was very inconvenient.
“背篓商店”是黄山店公社范围唯一的一家分销店，这个山乡小店当时有男女职工6名。1958年后，分销店职工在负责人、共产党员王砚香的带动下，坚持经常身背装满三四十公斤货物的篓子攀山越岭，送货上山，使许多农民能够在自家门口买到日用品，而且又收购又卖货，群众亲切地叫它“背篓商店”。
“Basket Shop” is the only distribution store in the mountainous commune. At that time, there were 6 male and female employees in this remote small shop. Starting from 1958, the store staff, led by Wang Yanxiang, the person in charge and a member of the Communist Party of China(CPC), oftencarried baskets filled with 30 to 40 kilograms of goods on their back to deliver goods up the mountains, enabling many farmers to buy daily necessities at their doorsteps. Besides, local people can trade staff with the traveling store. Thus the store was called “Basket Shop”.
一口水缸
A water tank
1961年春，住在山上的社员许士海给生产队看管羊群，想买一口水缸。“背篓商店”知道了，主动派两名职工轮流把一口近50公斤重的水缸背上山去。看到社员要走几十里地去焊补铁桶，他们就组织职工学习焊桶技术，上门为社员焊补水桶、铁壶。
Xu Shihai was a commune member living on the mountain and he was responsible for taking care of the sheep of one production team, formerly the basic farming unit in the commune system of China. In the spring of 1961, he wanted to buy a water tank for daily life and work. Knowing this, the “Basket Shop” sent two employees to take turns to carry a water tank weighing nearly 50 kg for delivery up the mountain. Seeing that commune members had to walk dozens of miles to weld and mend iron buckets, they organized employees to learn bucket welding technology and came to weld and mend water buckets and iron pots for local commune members.
一包韭菜籽
A packet of leek seeds
1963年，涞沥水村解决了饮水下山问题，社员们希望能吃上自己种的韭菜。“背篓商店”的职工闻讯即动，骑车跑了二十多个生产队，终于找来了一包韭菜籽。他们说：吃上春韭菜是山区人民多年的愿望，过去没有条件不能种，现在有条件了，咱不能让他们失望。
In 1963, people in Lailishui Village no longer had to go down the mountains to find drinking water, and they had another dream: eating leeks grown by themselves. The staff of the “Basket Shop” again served as the Santa Clause by riding around more than 20 production teams to find a pack of leek seeds. “Eating spring leeks has been the wish of mountain people for many years. It was impossible in the past, but now as other conditions are in place, we shall not let them down,” the “Basket Shop” members were quoted as saying.
一根铅笔
A pencil
有一次王砚香在送货时听到一个八九岁的小男孩向奶奶要钱买铅笔，奶奶没有钱，他便问家里有什么废品可以卖，老奶奶在院子里找到几根羊骨头卖给了王砚香，换回了一支铅笔和一块橡皮，孩子高兴得欢蹦乱跳。
Once when Wang Yanxiang was delivering goods, he heard a little boy of eight or nine years old asking his grandmother for money to buy pencils. But his grandmother had no money. Wang proposed to exchange the pencil with anything that the family could sell. The old woman found several sheep bones in the yard. Wang Yanxiang took them and gave the boy a pencil and an eraser in return, which made him jump with joy.
贵在经常、贵在坚持。职工们说：“艰苦的路我们不走群众就得走，我们一个人走一趟，就省得群众人人都走一趟。”
There were many similar stories as the “Basket Shop” had kept up the Santa Clause tradition. They believed that their hard work would help save trouble and time for the locals.
“红色背篓”里装的货物有大有小、有轻有重，但每一件都饱含着中国共产党全心全意为人民服务的初心。时至今日，电商购物和快递物流蓬勃发展，让消费者足不出户就能收到商品。但你可又曾想到，六十年前的大山里，有这么一支队伍，让老百姓如愿清空了“购物车”，还享受“包邮”服务呢！这个五星好评，您点不点？
The goods in the traveling basket were of different sizes and weights, but each one carried the same initial intention of theCPC to serve the people wholeheartedly. Today, e-commerce and delivery services are booming, allowing consumers to receive goods at doorsteps. The “Basket Shop” was a then pioneering counterpart about six decades ago, which fulfilled the shopping dreams of local people with free delivery. What a remarkable service!
