Architectural features of Guangzhou Station

Guangzhou Station was the largest railway passenger transport hub in South China at that time, with a total station area of ??120,000 square meters, a waiting room area of ??8,504 square meters, a ticket office area of ??1,108 square meters, and a luggage warehouse area of ??3,823 square meters. , equipped with 6 platforms and 3 tunnels. The trains in the station adopt a mixed layout of through-type and end-type. The station is designed to carry 30,000 passengers per day.

When it was first built, the three characters "Guangzhou Station" were in simplified Chinese. In the early days of reform and opening up, the train station thought the traditional Chinese character "Guang" was more beautiful, so they changed it to traditional Chinese. Unexpectedly, the State Language Commission later pointed out that it should immediately switch to simplified Chinese characters. After receiving the document, the railway station felt very embarrassed. Because the site name has already been listed, it is very difficult to change it immediately. Finally, the staff remembered that there was another three-character "Guangzhou Station" written by Guo Moruo on the side door, which was in simplified Chinese, so they immediately changed these three characters to the front of the building.

The most distinctive feature of Guangzhou Railway Station is the slogan "Unify the Motherland, Revitalize China" on both sides of the front of the station building. The station building that was just built in 1974 also has two longer slogans. The original slogan can be vaguely recognized in the photo: "Long live the invincible Mao Zedong Thought and long live the great Communist Party of China." After the reform and opening up, Guangzhou, as the forefront of reform and opening up, was the first city where compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and overseas Chinese entered the mainland of the motherland. Guangzhou Railway Station is also an important gateway to the south of the motherland. Therefore, in 1986, the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee requested that a new neon sign be built on the roof of the train station with the content of "Unify the Motherland and Revitalize China."