Post-disaster Zhengzhou: When a City Suddenly Lost Internet

Du Qiang From Story hardcore

In Zhengzhou after the flood, a person with water, electricity and the Internet at the same time is extremely lucky.

Water outages are most widespread.In supermarkets, large bottles of drinking water have been snapped up, and the remaining small bottles have been carried away in bags.In the twenty-sevenSmall hotel near the tower, customers crowded around the front desk complaining, “It really stinks!” The boss pulled out the large plastic bucket from under his feet and pointed at the doorA deep pit of water, “Fill it up, punch it with that.”

The whole Zhengzhou City, a large area of power outages, old blocks because of aging electrical circuits can not be spared. A large number of shops along the street closed their doors, and fresh food businesses that did not close their doors sold fish and milk at a discount that could not be refrigerated. And dug out a long time did not use the spring scale, but the settlement link is often unable to complete - cash disappeared from life for too long, banks are still closed due to power outages, some even return to the original stage of "bartering."

In a fresh supermarket by the Qili River, the boss sat in front of the shop, A middle-aged man came out of a dark shop, carrying a bag of onions and small winter melon, weighing the total price of about 20 yuan.

“Cash only.”

"Can't use Alipay?" Asked the customer.

"Can you open Alipay?"

Middle-aged men don't have cash. After looking for a long time in the black leather bag, he could only hand the boss a pack of cigarettes - blue packaging, the market price of about 19 yuan. (This is reminiscent of the post-World War II economic collapse in Germany, where people used stored, easily divided cigarettes as "currency.")

Water and electricity outages exist in the memory of generations, but the sudden disruption of the Internet has turned Zhengzhou into an unprecedented testing ground. After the disaster in Zhengzhou, it is surprising that there are several meters of water in the tunnel of Longhai Road and cars floating in it. It is also in this city of 12,600,000 that the order given by Internet technology has failed, and the old order has failed.

After July 20, Zhengzhou seemed to go back to the year 2000 overnight. Where can we find an oasis of digital civilization in a city where there is no electricity or internet? Citizens are deeply disturbed by it.

Zhengzhou East Railway Station is near the water, electricity, network without the three areas. The gates at the exit gate of the high-speed railway were all malfunctioned. Passengers who needed to brush their ID cards or tickets to exit the station simply squeezed out of the gate which could not be rotated. And when they walk out of the station square, they will find that the city's main public transport, has become a bike sharing and fast dog taxi, goods Lala.

For security reasons, several major ride-hailing platforms have suspended business within Zhengzhou. Most bus lines also stop running. So you'll see passengers pulling suitcases rashly stop Shunfeng Express's van and ask the driver loudly, "do you want to pull people?" And the intersection to the southwest of the station has become a trading place. when a taxi comes empty, passengers will immediately gather around it. "you can pay as much as you say and don't turn on the meter."

But drivers don't care about the price. They always ask, “Do you have any cash? WeChat Alipay can't brush.”

The first three groups of people who came forward to inquire left disappointed. Occasionally, passengers questioned the driver's "fortune," The driver did not deliberately make a grievance expression, "I this is a new energy vehicle, this point of electricity is finished, do not know where to charge, electricity piles are waste." According to a data from Zhengzhou, more than 80% of the city's taxis have been replaced by new energy vehicles.

At noon on the 21st, hundreds of passengers stranded at the intersection in front of the station, in the crowd, bags and water between the shuttle of private cars, fast dog taxi and goods Lala occupy the absolute main force. No matter whether it is Wuling Hongguang or Jinbei, passengers do not dislike, even sitting on strangers' lap is quite tolerant.

After I decided to go to the first affiliated hospital of Zheng University, I stopped a truck with a fast dog. The driver was a middle-aged man of about 40 with a short crew cut, who looked well established. But when asked about the price of a one-way trip, he suddenly became shy. "How much did you say?" After some pushback, I realized that he was new to this sudden new business. He pulled out his phone. "I'll see how far it is on the Gaudet map." But a minute later, he said, "No net."

After the development of Internet technology, city dwellers have become accustomed to the order it shapes, it defines the flow of transactions, Even the sense of trust between people is also built on the mechanism of Internet products, you will not worry about Taobao shop owner wrong money, nor for Didi driver detour and anxiety, lost mobile phone seven or eight out of ten can be found back. But on July 21st in Zhengzhou, I tried cautiously with the fast dog driver, as if trying to recover a skill that had been unfamiliar for many years.

This unprecedented situation is a test for the citizens of Zhengzhou. It seemed to me that they behaved very civilly. Beneath the malfunctioning traffic lights, the drivers were politely courteous, you might even say with a touch of shyness in their smiles. When a taxi stopped at the East Railway Station Square, the passenger got off and found that he did not have the cash, he repeatedly apologized, the driver just waved his hand, hit the steering wheel and headed east.

There are angry and angry situations, of course, but they can be forgiven depending on the plot. In Dongzhan South Road, a guy with a camouflage backpack tried to scan a Meituan bicycle. After many attempts to no avail, he was sweating heavily. He held up his phone and twirled it around in vain, like the African immigrant in Horsey's Gold Award photography "The Signal." A few minutes later he threw two punches at the QR code of Meituan Bicycle.

After the floodThe Streets of Zhengzhou

There are nearly 100 shared bikes scattered around South Dongzhan Road, Meituan, Green Orange and Hello were divided into three groups. In half an hour, more than 30 people tried to scan the code, but only two of them caught the weak signal. A student like young man successfully scan the code, humming the Divine Comedy, "riding my beloved bicycle..." More people are left to look around for an Internet product more suited to the moment of failure - a shared bike with a broken lock.

In such extreme cases, newer may not necessarily mean better. Meituan Bicycle has launched a new generation of bicycles in Zhengzhou, giving up the traditional lock. The new lock probably applies the principle of electromagnetism. When returning the car, it still needs to scan the code and determine whether it is located in the designated parking space by the system. However, the extra network communication makes the people of Zhengzhou very annoyed at the moment.

On the other hand, some seemingly primitive technology may come in handy. An emergency guide circulated among media groups ahead of the flood suggested a technology that could send content directly to 1069009009 without a 4G signal for help on Weibo. The microblogging system has left a lifeline through the 2G network.

Just like Zhengzhou,The original city is not prepared for more than 500 millimeters of precipitation a day, Most Internet technology companies add more and more sophisticated designs to the foundation of network communications, but who knows what happens when that foundation is gone without one.

The passenger is inquiring about the taxi

The Internet is the new infrastructure, the hydroelectric coal of our age. There is nothing false about that. This is especially unlikely when you continue to walk west along South East Railway Station Street and see bewildered crowds holding mobile phones.

Shops along the route are mostly closed, especially large chains such as McDonald's, and small stores are still open.

"Hello, I booked on Ctrip." I said to the receptionist at a small hotel called Yi Lai.

"Ctrip?" She pointed to the computer in front of her. "I have no power now. Where can I see where you booked me?" Under her hand was a paper form, each room number drawn with thick lines. A steady stream of customers came in, many went to the front desk,Take a look.Eye yellow, green all kinds of shared charge treasure, and turned away.

3 km west, power restored after passing the Green Center. At a lamb soup restaurant, the boss told me that I can't order a takeaway now. “We didn't stop Meituan. We turned it off manually. It's just a list. 40 minutes without a rider, then the guest will return, the meal has already been done, we still have to bear the loss. Just turn it off.”

Without the Internet, life has to be readjusted everywhere. However, people who are not in it seem to have been unable to understand the feeling of not having a network.

On the evening of the 21st, Meituan sent a text message, “To ensure the convenience of public access in extreme weather, Meituan Bike will ride for free in Zhengzhou from 21st to 28th, the fee you paid has been refunded to the original account. Special reminder, before riding make sure the road and vision is good, standing water section, do not wade through water. Weather share, Zhengzhou refueling!”

After I received the message, I wanted to give my good friends a hug and thank them for their thoughtfulness, but also to whisper in his ear, stupid, the problem is not money at all.

In the evening, Zhengzhou began to rain heavily again. After 8: 30, wearing a raincoat, I rushed from the Provincial People's Hospital to my hotel near Zhengxing Street. The street lights and traffic lights along Renmin Road were all extinguished. The vision and road conditions were very bad. During the 40-minute walk, more than a dozen shared bikes were encountered along the way, but there was still no Internet, so we could not scan the code.

I turned on the lights on my phone and stared at a GoDaddy map downloaded offline as I walked. After the flood, Gold Online Storm Help function, in the emergency location, will show a red mark on the map. But if you are not in the oasis of the Internet, you have no idea to open it. Friends in Beijing can use it, but they don't need it.

According to the map information, I walked to the Erqi Tower nearby, after turning a fence, was stopped by a figure.

"Brother don't go, there is a big puddle in front, you can't pass." He looked older than me, but it was so dark then.

"Walk around that side, can pass, you watch the puddle, don't step on." He continued.

I thanked him and asked if he was a government worker.

“No. I live nearby and I knew there was a big pit. I thought no, I stood here for a while.” He saw the map in my phone. "Don't just look at that. It doesn't work now."

There is no doubt that until power and Internet are restored, the slow restoration of order in the city of Zhengzhou depends on ordinary people, the truckers, the street cleaners, The dedicated traffic police, as well as the hotel downstairs for passers-by to open a free Internet hotspot waitress, is the Internet technology developed before we have empathy, responsibility, and even for self-interest purposes. Not to be nostalgic or defensive about these "primitive" things, but to be honest, because of the advanced technology, the fine governance, sometimes I have almost forgotten them.

In the afternoon of the 21st, in a small square near Dongnan Road, I met Zhang, a resident nearby. He had not been out for two days and was sitting on the steps looking out. He told me about the difficulty of water and power outages nearby, talking about the floating cars in the culvert not far away, but finally concluded, "Henan people are afraid of what, disasters see much."

For two days, Big Brother Zhang did not dare to use his mobile phone, “There is only (percent) more electricity left. But it also saves electricity, no internet.”

"So what do you think about the news and the government circulars?" I asked.

“I was told by others (neighbors) that there was another flood discharge. We're all very close.”

Since the floods, most of the city government's information has been transmitted through the Internet. Television stations have also had related news, but it is the same old problem. There is no electricity and no Internet. It is probably impossible to estimate how many people are thus isolated from important information.

Now Zhang Eldest Brother is worried, worried about mobile phone battery can not contact home, intend to drive back, and worry about the road is not safe.

He was originally from Xuchang and worked hard in Zhengzhou for many years. The youngest daughter is now 3 and has only been back to her hometown twice. "I always want to go back, let the old see the children, my wife is afraid of going back to the trouble, always said WeChat video to see on the line, the same."

"How can that be the same?" "It's definitely different," he said.