China Youth Daily | Before and After the Disappearance of a Rural Pontoon Bridge

Thirteen red iron boats were scattered on the banks of the Tao’er River. These were the remains of Huang Deyi’s self-built pontoon bridge.

On the banks of the Tao’er River is Zhenlin Village, Wafang Town, Taonan City, Jilin Province. For the villagers of Zhenlin Village, this pontoon bridge was the closest bridge to them on the nearby river.

On July 10, a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Online saw at the scene that because it was the rainy season, the Tao’er River was rushing, and after the pontoon bridge was dismantled, the villagers had to detour to the opposite bank of the river, dozens of kilometers away, to farm or handle affairs.

In 2014, Huang Deyi organized relatives and friends to build this pontoon bridge on the Tao’er River. During the four years, villagers paid fees more or less when crossing the river. In 2018, the local water conservancy bureau imposed administrative penalties on Huang Deyi for illegal bridge construction and forced him to dismantle the pontoon bridge. In 2019, Huang Deyi was sentenced to two years in prison with a two-year probation by the Taonan City Court for the crime of provoking trouble, and the other 17 relatives and friends who participated in the bridge construction were also sentenced separately. Huang Deyi was not satisfied and filed an appeal.

In the first half of this year, Huang Deyi’s appeal was rejected by the Taonan City Court. On June 29, 2023, the Intermediate People’s Court of Baicheng City, Jilin Province, registered and filed the case in accordance with legal procedures, and it is currently under review.

Recently, the case of Huang Deyi being sentenced for building a bridge privately has attracted widespread attention. Many people support Huang Deyi, believing that “it is reasonable for individuals to build bridges and charge tolls.” Some people also questioned him for “illegally building bridges and charging fees, which is a village bully behavior.”

**Building a Bridge**

Taonan City is located in the west of Jilin Province, with 16 rivers and 26 lakes and ponds. There are currently 104 road bridges. The Taonan City to Wafang Town section of the Tao’er River Basin is 70 kilometers long, with three bridges from south to north: Bridge No. 1, Manzhudai Bridge, and Zhenxi Bridge. The distances between the three bridges are 27 kilometers and 43 kilometers respectively. Zhenlin Village is located on the banks of the Tao’er River, between the Manzhudai Bridge and the Zhenxi Bridge, with a straight-line distance of 27 kilometers from the Manzhudai Bridge and 16 kilometers from the Zhenxi Bridge.

The pontoon bridge built by Huang Deyi is located on the east side of the Second Society of Zhenlin Village, Wafang Town, between the Manzhudai Bridge and the Zhenxi Bridge. Many villagers of Zhenlin Village farm on the opposite bank of the Tao’er River. Before the pontoon bridge was built, villagers often took ferries to cross the river. Now, villagers can only detour to cross the river.

On July 7, Liu Hongbo, director of the Taonan City Water Conservancy Bureau, said in an interview that according to Article 38 of the “Water Law of the People’s Republic of China”: constructing bridges, docks, and other buildings and structures that block or cross rivers, and laying pipelines and cables across rivers within the management scope of river channels, should comply with the national flood control standards and other relevant technical requirements, and the engineering construction plan should be reviewed and approved by the relevant water administrative department in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Flood Control Law.

“Huang Deyi’s construction of the pontoon bridge did not go through the review and approval of the water administrative department. We cannot guarantee the safety of the bridge, so we imposed penalties on him in accordance with the law and asked him to dismantle it himself,” said Liu Hongbo.

But in Huang Deyi’s view, “Mountains have their own paths, and water has its own boats. When you encounter mountains, you open roads, and when you encounter water, you build bridges. This is a matter of course.” This is what he has been trying to argue for many years.

After the pontoon bridge was dismantled, Huang Deyi began to try to “find a place to reason” on short video websites from 2022, and controversies followed.

Some people questioned that Huang Deyi used ropes or iron chains to block the bridgehead, which was a forced charge. Some people also said that after building the bridge, he used a bulldozer to dig out pits in the section of the river where cars could pass directly, forcing everyone to walk on the bridge. Others believe that the banks of the river are all farmland, and there are no roads. This kind of road section does not necessarily need to build a bridge, and it should be detoured.

Because of the pontoon bridge incident, a villager named Li reported Huang Deyi to the relevant departments. In his opinion, Huang Deyi’s family was illegally building bridges and charging fees. Li’s wife questioned, “A family of more than a dozen people built a bridge and charged fees. Without some connections, can they do it?”

Huang Deyi does not agree with these doubts. He responded that someone must be in charge of the bridgehead, and pulling ropes or iron chains is a management requirement. Private cars can only go one way on the pontoon bridge to avoid collisions between two vehicles traveling in opposite directions.

During a visit to Zhenlin Village by reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Online, many villagers said that Huang Deyi’s pontoon bridge brought convenience and benefits to everyone, and it was not unreasonable to charge a few yuan for the bridge toll. Many villagers of Zhenlin Village also told reporters that they had not paid any fees when walking or driving vehicles across the bridge.

“Familiarity is a treasure,” said Yue Guoyou, the owner of the supermarket in the Second Society of Zhenlin Village. Everyone is from the same village, and the Huang family doesn’t ask us for money, and we are used to not giving it.

When there was a pontoon bridge, Yue Guoyou went to Baicheng to buy goods three to five times a week, a one-way trip of 40 kilometers. After there was no pontoon bridge, his one-way trip to Baicheng increased by about 35 kilometers. Although the purchase price in Taonan City is higher than that in Baicheng, in order to save time and fuel costs, Yue Guoyou can only choose to go to Taonan City, which is 50 kilometers away from him, to buy goods.

According to the first-instance judgment, the villager Li Moumou was the one who was charged the most, totaling 20,000 yuan. Li Moumou is a purchasing driver for a commercial supermarket in Wafang Town. When there was a pontoon bridge, he had to drive across the bridge to Baicheng to purchase goods every day.

Li Jizhong, the boss of the supermarket where Li Moumou works, said that the pontoon bridge did bring convenience to everyone. Compared with the fuel consumption and time cost of detours, it was acceptable to pay 5 yuan each time to cross the bridge. After all, it costs money to build a bridge personally.

As for how the 20,000 yuan bridge toll was calculated in the judgment, Li Moumou once responded that “he didn’t know either. The police station asked me how many times I had crossed the bridge over the years, from which year I started crossing, and until when it ended.”    

Another villager in Zhenlin Village told reporters that her maiden home was on the other side of the river. When there was a pontoon bridge, she would ride her bicycle to the other side of the river to visit her relatives every now and then. Now, because the road is far and it is inconvenient to take a car, she only goes to the other side of the river during the New Year and festivals.

Regarding Huang Deyi’s character, some villagers interviewed by reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Online said, “He has a good reputation in the village.” Huang Deyi’s third sister-in-law, Wu Fengqing, was previously sentenced for the crime of provoking trouble for charging tolls for building a bridge, and was detained for three months with a three-month probation. Wu Fengqing told reporters that she and her husband had never forcibly charged tolls at the bridgehead. Regarding the cause and effect, she did not want to say too much, “The matter has already happened, what’s the use of mentioning it again?”

**Sentencing**

The Tao’er River is the mother river of the people of Taonan. Before the pontoon bridge was built, everyone often took ferries to cross the river. Huang Deyi said that his ancestors were ferrymen on the Tao’er River.

In the 1970s, Huang Deyi’s father built a wooden boat and ferried people on the Tao’er River for free. In the late 1990s, Huang Deyi and his brother also built three iron boats and connected them together for ferrying, and there was no unified standard for charging fees.

In the past, villagers drove oxcarts or horse-drawn carts to farm, and when the water of the Tao’er River was not deep, they would wade across the river. Later, the flow of the Tao’er River increased, and the villagers wanted to drive to the other side of the river to farm, but they could not cross the river.

Huang Deyi was originally a teacher at Wafang Town Central Primary School. Many years ago, Huang Deyi’s son ran a family farm and planted 90 acres of rice on the other side of the river. Huang Deyi said, “To make it convenient for myself and others to cross the river,” so he came up with the idea of building a pontoon bridge.

In 2014, Huang Deyi and his relatives and friends welded 13 iron boats together. Each hull was 8 meters or 7.5 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. Huang Deyi said that it cost about 10,000 yuan to weld these hulls, a total of 130,000 yuan. Most of this money was paid by Huang Deyi. Huang Deyi also persuaded relatives to invest and build the bridge with him, but the relatives did not agree. Several relatives had lent Huang Deyi 10,000 yuan each, and they also helped with the bridge construction.

Because he did not pay his relatives for the labor of building the bridge, Huang Deyi arranged for everyone to take turns charging tolls on the bridge, ranging from 2 yuan to 5 yuan. The bridge toll collected belonged to the relatives on duty. There were no rigid regulations for the charging standards, and most villagers who walked across the bridge did not pay.

Huang Deyi introduced that the pontoon bridge began to be used in early April every year and lasted until after the autumn harvest. If it was the flood season or freezing in winter, the pontoon bridge would be removed from the water, and the length of the pontoon bridge would be adjusted at any time according to the width of the water surface. Later, many villagers also walked across the pontoon bridge to visit relatives on the other side of the river or drive to Baicheng.

Huang Deyi’s ups and downs in life occurred four years after the pontoon bridge was built.

In October 2018, the Taonan City Water Conservancy Bureau punished and forced Huang Deyi to dismantle the pontoon bridge for illegal bridge construction. After Huang Deyi dismantled the bridge himself, in February 2019, he was criminally detained by the Taonan City Public Security Bureau on suspicion of the crime of provoking trouble. After that, many of Huang Deyi’s family members and relatives were also subjected to criminal compulsory measures.

As early as April 2016, the local water conservancy department received a telephone report from the public, saying that Huang Deyi had illegally built a bridge. Dong Jun, the person in charge of the Water Conservancy Supervision Brigade of the Taonan City Water Conservancy Bureau, said in an interview with reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Online that they had issued rectification notices to Huang Deyi for illegal bridge construction four times, requiring him to dismantle the illegal pontoon bridge within seven days. For the first three times, the Huang family did not immediately rectify, and the water conservancy department issued them an administrative penalty notice, and fined them 10,000 yuan on the basis of requiring them to dismantle it.

“But after paying the fine, the Huang family still did not dismantle the pontoon bridge in time, and we issued a penalty decision,” said Dong Jun. They rushed to the scene and supervised the Huang family to dismantle it themselves. Only the fourth time, that is, in December 2018, the water conservancy department received a report again. After the fourth rectification notice was issued, the Huang family cooperated and dismantled it within seven days.

Dong Jun participated in the four on-site inspections. In December 2018, it was the dry season of the Tao’er River. Dong Jun saw that the pontoon bridge was still on the river, and vehicles and people were passing through. He also saw a color steel room next to the pontoon bridge, “which is their toll management station.” Dong Jun explained that two piles next to the color steel room were connected with iron chains, which were used to control the passage of vehicles. He saw someone charging tolls at the bridgehead, but he couldn’t see the amount of the toll. He also told reporters that he saw a weighbridge near the bridgehead. He believed that this was set up to weigh the weight of motor vehicles.

Huang Deyi denied this statement. He said that the color steel room was used to store his own agricultural machinery, and the weighbridge was used to weigh grain.

On December 31, 2019, the Taonan City Court made a first-instance judgment. The court determined that Huang Deyi and other personnel had built a pontoon bridge with boat bodies and collected bridge tolls from 2005 to 2014; they built a fixed pontoon bridge from 2014 to 2018. Huang Deyi organized shifts and formulated charging standards, 5 yuan for cars and 10 yuan for large vehicles, intercepted passing vehicles to collect bridge tolls and road tolls, totaling 52,950 yuan. His behavior constituted the crime of provoking trouble, and he was sentenced to two years in prison with a two-year probation. The other 17 people were also sentenced separately.

Huang Deyi was not satisfied with the sentence. He believed that he did not disrupt social public order, and he did not recognize the total bridge toll of 52,950 yuan shown in the judgment. He said, “The judgment shows that Hu Moumou gave 400 yuan. He is the village secretary of our village. The local people don’t need to pay to cross the river. Can the secretary ask for money to cross the river? (The judgment shows that) Sun Moumou gave 300 yuan. He not only doesn’t pay to cross the river, but their relatives never need to pay to cross the river either.”

**Convenient Bridge**

Recently, Liu Yang, the deputy mayor of Taonan City, said in an interview that since the “13th Five-Year Plan”, Taonan City has fully considered the people’s livelihood demands and actual needs, and has invested 217 million yuan to build 31 bridges, with a total length of 2.9 kilometers. This year, there are two bridges under construction. “But our work must have a sequence. For villages like Zhenlin Village, (building a bridge) is only for the convenience of going to Baicheng, and the demand for farming is not strong, and the permanent population in recent years is not very large, so we put it at the back,” said Liu Yang.

Liu Yang introduced that Taonan City has planned a road bridge located between the Manzhudai Bridge and the Zhenxi Bridge, and it has been included in the “14th Five-Year Plan”. After this bridge is built, it will be more than 20 kilometers away from Zhenlin Village.

Liu Hongbo said, “We asked him to dismantle the illegal buildings himself within the prescribed period. Each time they did not dismantle them within the time limit we prescribed, so we imposed penalties on them in accordance with the law, and each time we asked him to dismantle them. There was no situation where the bridge was not dismantled after the administrative law enforcement was completed.”

Liu Hongbo explained, “But after a period of time, he built the bridge again in the original location, and we found it during our patrol or received reports from the public, so we continued to impose administrative penalties on him.”

Regarding the issue of being sentenced for the crime of provoking trouble for the bridge toll of 52,950 yuan, how the amount was determined, and why Huang Deyi’s first appeal was rejected, the relevant personnel of the Taonan City government said that it was not convenient to explain too much during the trial of the case.

Recently, Jilin Province has entered the rainy season, and the Tao’er River is rushing. On July 10, the reporter saw two construction vehicles in the rain near the site where the pontoon bridge was built, leveling the road surface. The staff of the local transportation department told reporters that they would build a convenient bridge near the original pontoon bridge. Currently, they are preparing to level the land and connect water and electricity. The design plan for the convenient bridge is in progress, and it is expected to be completed before the autumn harvest this year.

The villagers of Zhenlin Village saw the excavators on the riverbank, and they spread the word that a bridge would be built on the Tao’er River again. The villagers said, “With a bridge, it will be so convenient!”