Ren Pingsheng dragged his heavy legs and struggled to climb to the top of the nearest sand dune, looking at the endless yellow sand in the distance, his face sad.

He began to wonder if he had made the mistake of this "Silk Road trip".

......

Starting from Chang'an, 10,000 kilometers to the west, passing through Qinchuan, Longxi, Western Regions and other provinces across the border, through Central Asia and to the European Mediterranean, and finally to Rome, this journey is called the Silk Road.

In its more than 2,000 years of history, the Silk Road has recorded the change of countless dynasties, the rise and fall of large and small countries, the blood and tears of thousands of Li people, the flow of silk and silver, the competition between famous horses and beauties, the anger of emperors, and the iron hooves of nomads.

This is a path of wealth, a path of faith, and a path of civilization.

In the past, there are no more emperors and generals on this road, and there are no more rogues and bandits, and the unified power has turned the starting point of this Silk Road into a rich and peaceful frontier, only the long yellow sand and dense poplar forests are still silently narrating the legends of the past.

Today, this Silk Road once again welcomes a new group of explorers, who are the students of the 9th EMBA President Class of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, who are about to participate in the "Silk Road Journey EMBA Gobi Challenge" jointly organized by Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and China Television.

"Silk Road Journey EMBA Gobi Challenge" originated in 2006, when "mountaineering", "adventure" these fashion buzzwords are rarely mentioned, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business with its keen vision aimed at this route, and cooperated with the "Dialogue" column group of China Television Financial Channel to open up the "Silk Road Journey" outdoor hiking extreme sports, specially for the elite of the business, academic and journalistic circles who participate in the EMBA course, to provide a journey to challenge history, challenge nature and challenge their own limits.

The success of the first "Silk Road Tour" has received a good response from entrepreneurs and the media circles. Since then, this competition has also become a regular program of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business's EMBA program, and has become one of the brand courses of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

At the beginning of the new year, the students of the 9th EMBA Executive Class arrived at the venue of the "Silk Road Journey" to start this thrilling and challenging journey.

The starting point of the "Silk Road Journey" is located in the Moheyan Mobi on the border between Longxi and the Western Regions, known as the "800 miles of quicksand", and the trek through the 120-kilometer desert Gobi in 7 days, which is the most difficult section of the Silk Road. On this route, you will pass by the Mogao Grottoes, which are national treasures and exquisite murals, and appreciate the reeds on the Great Wall built 2,000 years ago. There are no tour guides, no carriages and horses available, only outdoor instructors and historians to accompany you throughout the whole process, leading the way and taking classes at the same time.

For these entrepreneurs, who are busy in the steel jungle all day long, it is a rare life experience to be able to leave behind the entanglement of the red and earthly world, walk in the wreckage of history, and unfold the historical picture scroll that spans thousands of years, and through the Silk Road trekking adventure, you can not only experience the mystery of culture and civilization, but also challenge the limits of body and mind, and further consolidate the friendship and friendship between students, which is a rare experience course.

The "Silk Road Journey" is not only a short-term walking race, but also a life lesson for internal and external cultivation. For the trainees, the process of crossing the Gobi is to hone their bodies on the outside and reshape their minds on the inside. In a sense, the "Silk Road Journey" has actually become a metaphor for entrepreneurs' entrepreneurial journey.

Tenacious belief is a necessary spiritual quality for entrepreneurs, and without superhuman belief, it is difficult to achieve the success of an enterprise. The significance of this ascetic walk is to allow EMBA students to discover their potential, re-understand themselves and their abilities, and find the great energy that allows their lives to climb and rise in the depths of their hearts, so as to meet the higher challenges in life with more positive, healthier and more lasting motivation, so as to change their career and life.

It is better to read 10,000 books than to travel 10,000 miles.

In addition, he has always had a deep understanding and interest in history and civilization, so Ren Pingsheng did not miss this "Silk Road Journey", and after completing the financing work of Universal Games, he embarked on a journey to the Gobi with the students of the EMBA President Class.

......

Although the EMBA curriculum is not known for being heavy, and many times it will take care of the physical fitness of these entrepreneurs, after all, this "Silk Road Tour" is located in the desert Gobi, and the living conditions and supporting facilities are not so perfect.

For EMBA students who are accustomed to cars, airplanes and five-star hotels, the 7-day 120-kilometer trek to the Gobi and sleeping in the desert is an unprecedented challenge, and it is often at this time that people have the opportunity to discover another hidden potential.

No matter how well prepared you are before the competition, once you step into the vast Gobi, the actual difficulty on the field will be far more difficult than everyone imagined, and this kind of difficulty is not enough to resist by any training and preparation.

On the first day of the journey, Yu Min, who was weak in the cadet team, reached the limit and was taken away by the medical vehicle due to a recurrence of asthma, ending the journey early......

But no one chooses to give up, these social elites have strong willpower, and at this time they can only rely on willpower. And everyone has come out of the business sea fight, and no one wants to lose to their peers in any competition. Everyone believes that as long as there is the belief to persevere, there is no Gobi that cannot be escaped.

The journey went on in general, and when the calluses on the soles of the students' feet healed and scabbed, everyone adapted to the dry and cold air of the Gobi, and everyone's pace became vigorous.

During the hike, the team spirit of helping each other among the team members makes people feel that contemplation can be so simple and pure between people. Experiencing the openness and profundity between heaven and earth in the vast desert and experiencing the vastness of civilization in historical relics have further enhanced the vision and vision of all students. The "Silk Road Journey" acts as a catalyst for these social elites to experience the unity of body and mind and spiritual sublimation through outdoor hiking adventures.

All of us have gained shock, reflection, and friendship in this journey.

It's just that during the Gobi walk near the end of the journey, Ren Pingsheng and the army were separated.

......

The journey from Alkali Springs to Hecang City is a long 50-kilometer-long Gobi Desert, and in addition to the saline-alkali land and the Gobi, there are endless deserts, and even poplar forests are gone.

In the midst of this monotonous desert, you can occasionally see one or two rocky and concave terrains, some like city walls, some like mounds of earth, and some like sphinxes, standing in the desert and are very conspicuous. This is actually a kind of landform under the action of wind erosion, because of the abrasive effect of the desert Gobi under the wind erosion of strong winds all year round, it is called Yadan landform.

On this journey, the occasional Yadan landform in the sand dunes amazed all the students, and every time they saw a brand-new Yadan, some people stepped forward to take a group photo.

At the beginning, the itinerary was very smooth, the students had accumulated a lot of experience in the first few days of hiking, although they stepped on the soft sand under their feet, and the yellow sand dunes in front of them were all sand dunes, but everyone lined up in a long line in an orderly manner under the guidance of the coach, and talked and laughed with each other while walking.

The historian invited from the Dunhuang History Museum told the students that if they walked through this desert, the "Silk Road Journey" would be coming to an end, and the end of the race would be in front of them, the Yumen Pass.

Yumen Pass is the Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin dynasties (104 BC to 420 AD), the Central Plains Dynasty to the Western Regions of the last border defense line, is the Silk Road to the Western Regions of the North Pass, the ancient Western Regions of Hetian jade through this pass into the Central Plains, so called "Yumen Pass".

The historian with deep traces of wind and frost carved on his face pointed to the distance:

"Everyone should have heard the poem 'drunk lying on the battlefield Jun Mo Xiao, the ancient battle of a few people back', the scene written in the poem is in Yumen Pass, which was also one of the most fierce battles between the Han Dynasty and foreign enemies. ”

Big Brother Feng Yan raised his tanned face these days and said with a smile:

"I'm sorry, when I was studying, I only remembered the sentence 'Grape wine glow-in-the-dark cup, if you want to drink pipa immediately', now I just want to drink grape wine, I don't want to get drunk on the battlefield at all, it's too cold, I'll catch a cold." ”

Everyone was amused by Feng Yan's humor, the weather in the Gobi is characterized by a large temperature difference between day and night, with a maximum of about 22 °C during the day and a low of -6 °C at night. These days, when spending the night outdoors, everyone ties their tents tightly and sleeps in eiderdown sleeping bags, but there are still quite a few people who catch a cold.

Ren Pingsheng didn't smile, he looked at the endless yellow sand, but another poem came to mind in his mind.

"Why should Qiang Di complain about the willows, the spring breeze does not pass the jade gate. ”

In order to maintain the smooth flow of this Silk Road, for thousands of years, countless children of the Han family have contributed their youth and flesh here, they have not complained, nor regretted, silently guarding the borders of the motherland.

The only thing that can speak for them is the songs that have been passed down for thousands of years, and the famous words of the poets.

......

As the distance continues, the sand dunes in the distance become more numerous, and the dunes here are much higher than the previous ones, creating a large drop, and due to the action of the wind rolling over the desert, the dunes will move at a speed visible to the human eye, forming new sand dunes in front of them.

Before leaving, the trainees were trained in desert-related knowledge, and when they saw this scene, a thought came to their minds:

"It's a journey into a shifting sand dune. ”

Moving sand dunes are the most dangerous existence in the Gobi Desert. Due to the wind, these dunes are constantly moving and changing positions, which not only interferes with the trail of hikers, but also seriously affects people's judgment of direction and orientation, and it is very dangerous to traverse this desert, and the safe passage of such areas depends mainly on the texture of the sand and the relative wind direction of the dune slopes.

Try to avoid crossing shifting dune deserts unless you have to.

It's just that the students of the president class were not so lucky, and they happened to encounter this mobile sand dune on the last trip.

Not only that, because everyone soon found that the speed of the sand dunes was getting faster and faster, the sand and gravel visible to the naked eye were drifting with the wind, and the originally clear sky was gradually covered with a layer of gray and yellow shadows, and the haze on the face of the leading trekking instructor also increased, and he knew: the sandstorm was coming.

The team leaders began to direct the trainees to concentrate in formation, and used the satellite phones in their hands to contact the logistics support team, but I don't know if the signal of the satellite phone was interfered with because of the weather, and the hiking instructor never contacted the logistics support team.

The wind was getting stronger and stronger, everyone put on sunglasses, erected the collar of their coats, and wrapped their heads and necks with scarves to avoid the invasion of wind and sand, but they could still feel the sound of gravel hitting the frames and slapping the clothes on their bodies, and the visibility was getting lower and lower, and only the vague outlines of the people around them could be seen.

The students, who were still laughing loudly, all kept their mouths shut, on the one hand, to prevent the entrance of the wind and sand, and on the other hand, because the wind and sand were too loud, they could not hear each other's words clearly.

Several team leaders discussed loudly and agreed that the best way to deal with the current situation is to stay put, and then contact the logistics support team through various means to let them dispatch vehicles to rescue.

Before the trainees were ready to be stationed, a bigger storm had already hit them, the wind carried the yellow sand like a giant dragon and rolled quickly, rolling up more gravel everywhere it went, and the yellow sand that covered the sky blocked the light in the sky, and everyone present was powerless in the sandstorm, so they could only try to hold their heads, or the partners around them, to ensure that they were not swept away by the wind and sand.

The sandstorm lasted for ten minutes, but it seemed like five hours to everyone, and when the strength of the wind and sand gradually weakened, everyone could finally stand up, remove the gravel from their bodies, spit out the sand that flew into their noses, and talk and sigh to each other.

Before setting off, they certainly did not expect that they would encounter the legendary mobile sand dunes and sandstorms on their "Silk Road journey", and they were also glad that they had experienced the sandstorm unharmed, which drew a successful end to the experience of the Gobi Challenge.

Everyone was in the aftermath of the catastrophe, and they didn't notice that there was one less person on their team.

。 Sogou