In the autumn of 1932, on a quiet street in front of Taonan Railway Station, a shop put up a sign reading "Harbin Five-Day Pictorial Distribution Office." The nineteen-year-old "Mr. Li" stacked a pile of pictorials on the counter, with photographs of Harbin's scenery tucked beneath the glass. No one knew that inside the collar of this young man, who spoke with an Acheng accent, was a small scrap of paper marked with railway schedules and troop positions that only he could decipher. Taonan sat at the junction of the Sitao and Taosuo railways. Japanese trains ran west from there toward Suolun, and northeast toward Ang'angxi and Qiqihar. The pictorial distribution office just happened to stand within sight of the station's clock tower.
Theme: The history of Taonan during the years of Japanese aggression
