Westward Journey·01 Let’s go! westbound quartet

It is said that climbing to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the dream of people all over the world

If you don’t want to, you are not a people

At least, you Abnormal

——※※※※※※——

I had never thought of going to Tibet before. Isn’t it just a country of Tubo (Chinese), Tubot (Turkic), Tibet (English)? What's so great about being in the middle of nowhere? What Shangri-La would I believe? I have lived in Jiangxi for more than 40 years and I don’t understand the local dialect very well. I don’t know how many prefecture-level cities there are in this province. Why go all the way to Tibet?

Later I found out that it was no longer possible. People around me either left or vowed to go. If we don't go, we will be expelled from the people's ranks, and we will look too uneducated. It is impossible to be a teacher without education.

I was traveling in Xinjiang the year before and chatted with the driver of a chartered car on the road. He told me that because of those things, tourism in Xinjiang could no longer develop. Chartering buses to Tibet has become more popular in recent years. He himself is about to move to Tibet with his mistress.

Why has Tibet tourism been so popular in recent years? I don't understand. Since I'm too lazy to think about it, I might as well go take a look.

I started to propose it last year, and many people around me responded. By the end of June this year, I found that everyone was very busy, and those who were yelling before were silent now. Apparently plans can't keep up with changes.

With my kind of temperament that means what I promise, a trip to Tibet is a must. If I can’t find any acquaintances, I can go with strangers.

So I thought of finding an introducer. I have a classmate with whom I have a very good relationship. Others call him Mr. Lu, but I call him a "savage". The savage is a pure donkey. Before others knew what tourism was, he had already traveled all over China. He traveled all over Tibet many years ago. In my opinion, while others go out for fun, he seeks abuse. He often ignores his own business and goes hiking alone in the wilderness carrying dozens of kilograms of luggage. He is well-known in local tourism circles. Anyway, I don’t know anything about that circle. He said that if you are famous, you should be big.

So he invited the savages to eat. No matter what kind of dilapidated restaurant he is, he will rush to it as soon as he hears that there is alcohol available. The feelings of old classmates are sincere.

Seeing that the food and wine were served, he nodded with satisfaction, immediately took out the 50-yuan Nokia mobile phone, and roared with the voice of a brick foreman for a quarter of an hour, causing the guests next to him to rush in early Pay the bill. Savage is a manufacturer of decorative materials and has close ties with the construction industry.

After hanging up the phone, he told me: "There is a team with a Honda CRV and three people. It will leave in a few days. Do you want to go?"

The old classmate is very cheerful in doing things. , even more refreshing after taking two sips of wine.

"How many women are there? Are there any young and beautiful ones?" I asked cautiously.

"Three big men, they are all several years older than you." The savage replied.

"How about... let's see if there are any other teams?" I hesitated.

After repeated inquiries, Savage still strongly recommended this team to me. He believed that it had many advantages: first, his contact person was very reliable, and the team he formed was trustworthy. Second, the team has plenty of time and can adjust the itinerary as needed. Third, the three of them are all old travel enthusiasts and very experienced. One of them has been to Tibet. All three of them are older than me, so someone like me who has no experience in donkey walking will not have a hard time following them. Fourth, the three of them are all photography enthusiasts, so it is very suitable to be with a fake photography professional like me. Fifth, if four people form a team, the cost of self-driving is the lowest.

Savage also wanted to add. Seeing that he had used up five fingers on one hand, I immediately stopped him because I knew enough about his counting ability: "Okay, as long as my wife agrees, I will go."

Obviously, my family has I am quite satisfied with the gender and age structure of this team. So, the next day I called the savage: "Go!"

Two days later, the four people met. The three of them were all acquaintances with each other. They looked at me carefully for a while and then nodded. Deciding to leave in a week is called just leaving. Traveling is actually very simple. I will never look for those unreliable guys who scream long in advance.

In China, "four" is a very auspicious number, such as Sixi Meatballs, Four Heavenly Kings, Four People from the West, Gang of Four, Eliminating the Four Evils and Maintaining Hygiene, etc. Therefore, traveling with four people will definitely bring good luck.

After getting to know them, I learned that the friends were afraid of getting pregnant and being asked for child support, so they all called each other by their online names, never showed their real names, and they all pretended to be young when reporting their age. Therefore, after the first meeting, all the three people told me were weird and fancy online names. For example, my classmate Yeren, whose online name is "Shahu Molang", is this because of his lack of water?

The following is a brief introduction to the members of Westbound. According to the safety guidelines of travel friends, try not to show your true face, that is, you don’t know who it is if you do bad things.

The second surname is Xiang, who is fifty-four years old. Everyone calls him Xianggong.

My husband is the owner of this CRV and a senior travel enthusiast. My husband is a professional driver with superb driving skills. You can think that his driving experience is older than his age. He is particularly good at rock climbing in the wild and has great endurance. Although he is not young, his movements are very agile. He is skinny and short. It is not wrong to say that he looks like a monkey.

The third person’s surname is Cheng. He is fifty-seven years old and is the oldest in the team. I call him Brother Hua. He is a member of the Blue Sky Rescue Team and has participated in the Ya'an earthquake rescue work. Brother Hua is too enthusiastic about public welfare. If there is no disaster for a period of time, he will get anxious and ask everywhere why there are no earthquakes and floods. Brother Hua is of medium height, has the largest waistline, and can eat and sleep. What do you think he looks like?

Fourth place: I am nearly fifty years old (as of 2014). Since I have not developed a good habit of cheating girls online, and I have never been among friends, I do not have a famous online name. They had no choice but to call me by my professional title, sometimes shortened to "grant", which was obviously a sign of respect for knowledge. I was just following along and had no experience in traveling in the wild. I only did some bookkeeping and note-taking work, which was much easier than Monk Sha.

This series is called "A Journey to the West", which is the title of the book written by Edgar Snow after his visit to Yan'an more than 80 years ago. It's a bad name. I couldn't think of a suitable title at the time, so it couldn't be called "Journey to the West".

The planned itinerary this time is all in the west. If you ask me where exactly should I go? I really don’t know. The commander-in-chief, Brother Li, described the itinerary plan to me before departure, but I didn’t understand it either. Except for Lhasa and Chengdu, other place names are too unfamiliar. The name "Ramble" is also because the itinerary is not completely determined, and it is even more unclear when we will come back. After Brother Li pointed on the map for a long time, I felt: "This is a perverted tourist route. I have never heard of such a thing."

The road to the west is long, let's go.

June 26 is the first day of the westward journey, departing from Jiujiang at 7 am. A group of people came to say goodbye. One was driving a BMW and the other was driving a Cherokee. They hugged, kissed and took photos together, looking like the wind was blowing and the water was cold. But I didn't recognize anyone, so I could only stand aside in a daze.

Chengdu is the first stop on the westbound journey, which requires crossing Hubei and passing through Chongqing. Opposite Jiujiang is Hubei. After crossing the Yangtze River Bridge in ten minutes, the long journey has officially begun.

My husband is the first driver, I am second, Brother Hua is third, and Brother Li who is the master obviously does not need to know how to drive, just give verbal instructions.

Caught in heavy rain while crossing the river. Afterwards, we circled around Wuhan, passed through Jingzhou, and passed through Yichang. When we arrived in Enshi, we came out of the rainy area and saw the clouds and mist among the mountains. Shi'en is a place with beautiful scenery and barren land.

The original plan was to rest in the suburbs of Chongqing and enter Sichuan the next day. However, my husband was obviously in a hurry and refused to stop or change hands. But I saw his eyes glowing like blazing golden eyes, stepping on somersault clouds, holding the golden cudgel. Wrong, he was stepping on the accelerator, holding the steering wheel, and charging all the way. At 2:30 in the morning, after running more than 1,400 kilometers, we arrived within the second ring road of Chengdu.

It seems that this long journey to the west is not slow at all.

Supplement to the revised version