Thursday, April 21, fine

After a long journey of more than 40 days, we finally arrived safely in Wushi, in the desolate desert, there is no difference between people in fame and fortune, high and low, and everyone gets along with each other as equals, full of warmth and care. All the distance must be measured by the feet, no matter what lies ahead, if you decide to go on the road, you will stick to it to the end. A happy traveler will take the hiking process as enjoyment, because every time he is far away, he is also a closer, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, close to the quiet nature. Step by step into the depths of nature, in the mountains, beside the streams, by the bonfire, pillow sleeping bag, in the harmony between man and nature, enjoy the real life, experience the true meaning of life.

That day, Jiayuguan said goodbye to Yang Mingjie and joined the hiking team. The team consisted of two squads, which had been walking for a month and a half since they set off from Xi'an. A week later, separated in Guazhou, a team of 15 people went to Dunhuang, through Qinghai into the county seat of Nagqu, and finally to Lhasa, the whole journey was about 3,000 kilometers, took three months, and the number of people who could insist on reaching is unknown.

Our team went to Xinjiang, from Xi'an to Jiayuguan has withdrawn some people, when I joined, there were still thirteen people left, and when I arrived in Wushi, there were only seven people left, after all, the hike was too hard, and the people who could persevere were almost like madmen, sorry, I quoted the captain Wang Leile. Wang Leile is a real hiking enthusiast, a native of Guilin, Guangxi, with footprints all over China, and will spend half a year on the road every year, and opened a company called Eleventh Road Outdoor in Shenzhen, this time he personally led the team.

Wang Leile told us that the eleventh road is the meaning of feet, and I also understand the original intention of their company, which is very vivid! The company usually sells some outdoor products, organizes some people to hike or drive, and charges a certain fee.

Yang Mingjie once participated in the hike from Beijing to Shenzhen led by Wang Leile, and it is said that he walked for more than two months and became friends. Wang Leile often updates Weibo, Yang Mingjie recommended me to participate after learning the news, many things happened without having time to think, in fact, I didn't feel any meaning at first, and then I thought about it and participated in it without anything......

Before leaving, under the guidance of Wang Leile, I bought some equipment, an eighty-liter backpack with a waterproof cover, two pairs of hiking shoes, and later learned that it was also waterproof, if I bought it myself, I would definitely not have the practicality of the family, sun hat, T-shirt, quick-drying shirt, thin jacket, quick-drying pants, jacket, jacket, gloves, scarf, fleece hat, tent, sleeping bag, non-slip mat, moisture-proof mat, military shovel, military kettle, thermos cup, etc., I have regretted participating when I was on my back, it is really not light.

After walking southwest for about an hour, our two teams arrived at the first pass in the world. From the outside, at first glance, Jiayuguan is just an ordinary gate. When he entered the city, he found that there was a heaven outside the sky. In fact, there are three castles in the city, multiple lines of defense, there are castles inside the city, and there are moats outside the city, forming a heavy city and defending the situation. It is composed of the inner city, the urn city, the Luo city, the moat and three three-storey three-eaves hilltop type high platform pavilion buildings and the moat, the Great Wall peak fire platform, etc., the eaves are to the sky, and every brick and tile all tell the loneliness and majesty outside the plug. The reputation of the world's first Xiongguan is by no means in vain, although I have seen the urn city at the south gate of Xi'an, I still can't help but praise the city in Jiayuguan, there is no cave.

Guancheng is close to the mountains and rivers, guarding the canyon area that is about ten kilometers wide from north to south, and the valley of the Lai River in the south of the canyon constitutes a natural barrier for the defense of the pass. Jiayuguan near the beacon tower, pier platform criss-crossed, Guancheng east, west, south, north, northeast each road has dozens of piers, the number is amazing. If you look closely at the surrounding walls, they are not high, they are all made of mud, and they are completely an earthen city! The rough part is the ruins of the Ming Dynasty, and the smooth part is added during the modern restoration, and with the surrounding Gobi, it looks so simple and desolate. Jiayuguan seems to separate two worlds, the eastern end is densely populated, and the western end is less than a hundred miles uninhabited.

I like Jiayuguan, because it is very majestic and spectacular, and it is the first Xiongguan in the world. What's more, many costume movies have been filmed there. In the past, when watching movies, the characters always liked to say "out of the customs" very mysteriously and very lamely, so when I was a child, I felt that "Guan" was a very mysterious place, and it seemed that as soon as I left there, I could get rid of all the grievances and grievances of the rivers and lakes, the entanglement of officialdom and the hustle and bustle of the world, and at the same time I felt the blue sea and blue sky or the endless desert, and even the air was fresh and free. Jiayuguan is a place that allows people to get rid of the world, standing on the high city wall, you can overlook the continuous Qilian Mountains and the boundless Gobi Desert, and the lone eagle hovers between the heaven and the earth, so that the viewer can experience the border customs of "the wind blows the grass and sees the cattle and sheep" and "the spring breeze does not pass the Yumen Pass".

Because of the newcomer like me, the captain deliberately slowed down a little, walked a total of thirty kilometers, and camped in the expected place, remembering the place called Yumen East Town, why do you remember it so clearly, just because it was the first day, I felt that my physical strength was a little unable to keep up, so I casually set up a tent on the side of the road. Four supply vehicles prepared some food for us, I asked the captain why he didn't stay in a hotel or something, the captain told me that it was too boring, and there was no hotel all the way, first adapt to it, and then I learned that I didn't live in a hotel all the way, haha!

On the third day, he arrived at Yumen and set up a tent in a neighboring area, which Wang Leile said was the birthplace of China's first oil well, which is the hometown of the iron man Wang Jinxi. I always thought that Wang Jinxi was from Daqing, and many people in the team knew the same as me and gained knowledge. The oil field was located in a city, and China's first oil base rose from the ground, with a population of more than 100,000 at its peak. More than half a century has passed, the oil resources have been exhausted, the city government and the oilfield base have moved away one after another, the residents have abandoned the city and moved out, the city has abandoned buildings everywhere, the facilities are aging, and the city has become almost empty. Yumen has been included in the list of resource-exhausted cities in the country, and the pain of Yumen's abandoned city reflects the fate of many resource-based cities in China.

The two teams in Guazhou are separated, and I and the members of the team are also familiar with each other, and there is a girl in the team named Zhang Ning, a native of Jiangxi, 26 years old. Along the way, she told me about her experience of trekking the whole journey of 318, starting from Shanghai through Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, and ending at the Friendship Bridge in Zhangmu Town, Tibet, with a total length of more than 5,400 kilometers, which is the longest national highway in China. Zhang Ningren looks very soft, and I have only discovered that she has a heart like a stone under her weak appearance, and she has never fallen behind or complained about it, but has been cheering us up, and she is ashamed of herself.

But what's interesting is that she also likes Korean stars, likes to watch Korean dramas, and if she has something to do, she came out with a word of Smecta, and then I gave her a nickname called Smecta, and the whole team forgot her name, so she was called Smecta.

There is also a couple with him, the man is called Miao Xing, fifty-two years old, from Xianning, his wife is called Feng Yan, also almost fifty years old, it is said that he also walked through the 318 line, and the farthest one from Wuhan to Quanzhou, and then along the east to the north and finally to Qinhuangdao in the Bohai Bay, I can't help but feel numb, think about it and be afraid, Miao Xing and his family have hiked tens of thousands of kilometers of hiking experience, after many years and then recall, still fresh in memory.

Miao Xing said that the most difficult time for them was to walk 30 or 40 kilometers through the primeval forest, and only by following the creek could they find people's footprints under the big trees that could not see the sky. At Tiger's Mouth, it was a cliff, and the five or six meters long section of the road was only half a foot wide, with uneven potholes. The couple recalled that walking in the mouth of the tiger was like walking on a knife edge, facing the mountains, with cliffs behind them and the turbulent Brahmaputra River below.

Feng Yan said that she likes challenges, but challenges are not the same as taking risks, and adventures are unprepared or unprepared, and every trip she makes is carefully planned.

As an aside, Miao Xing and Feng Yan met on the hike, and later gave birth to a daughter, and now they are both in their second year of high school.

All the way is next door, Hami that section of the road every day people exit, a total of nine people left, I think of the days of the exercise in the northwest countless times, since then I have formed an indissoluble bond with the Gobi, I think that the last time I went to the next door has been nearly thirteen years, life seems to have a relationship with the next door, Smecta said that I must have been born next door in the last life, that kind of statement makes me feel novel.

The Gobi Desert also has its own strengths, that is, the silence, sometimes not a single person can be seen for a whole day, not even a bird. If the weather is neither hot nor cold, I often lie on the yellow sand and reverie. In silence, I thought about the past years, people and events, and in the silence I guessed the origin of the broken pottery shards. Maybe we are walking far from the city, or maybe there is no city at all, and there are only a few scattered villages along the way, low, all of which should be covered with a thick layer of dust, which looks like it is made of mud and seems to blend in with the surroundings.

Apricot blossoms bloom earlier than pear blossoms and peach blossoms, and the willow wind blows coldly, apricot blossoms are undoubtedly the messengers who convey spring to us at the earliest, and everything begins to grow, in Turpan in early April, the air in the fields and the roadside exudes a little sweet taste. There are strings of copper coin-like leaves on the tree, and the southerners naturally don't know what tree is, Wang Leile said that it is an elm tree, also called elm money, you can eat it, you can make elm money, you can put an appropriate amount of elm money when cooking porridge, of course, you can eat it raw, you can also make dumplings, buns and the like, and general vegetables are no different.

Two SUVs provide us with water and all kinds of food all the way, sometimes cakes, sometimes fried noodles, dumplings or something, and the most rare thing is that sometimes mutton is also provided, an interesting thing, the supply vehicles will prepare hot water in each station, in a warm bottle, of course, it is also very expensive, in that environment

Hot water is not easy, so they are very cherished, in addition to leaving some for drinking, you can also take a hot bath, compared with those who drink mountain springs for a few days without bathing, it is really much more comfortable, or to paraphrase a sentence - the guarantee is strong!

Turpan withdrew from the two of them again, and went to Wushi by car, and when we arrived today, we heard that the captain had returned.

There are seven people left in the team, one is Song Tong, the other is Lin Youliang, the two boys are very strong, colleagues and friends, working in Xi'an. Seven people will repair in Wushi for a few days, Wang Leile may have a new arrangement, it seems that he heard him say that he wants to find a few people in Wushi to carpool together to save costs! Song Tong and Lin Youliang will also return to Xi'an soon, and Miao Xing and his wife will also return to Hubei, as for Smecta, there is no itinerary for the time being, but I know that we will be separated again soon.