Daocheng Aden Travel Notes 02: From Chengdu to Xinduqiao

Back at the hotel, there was a young man named Arjun in the room. Ajun is from Zhuhai, Maoming, Guangdong. Later I found out that he was as old as my daughter. Ajun is thin, quiet, and doesn't like to talk much. He has the typical characteristics of Cantonese people who don't like to cause trouble, are kind to others, and at the same time keep an appropriate distance from others.

To be honest, I have always been worried about meeting a talkative person who "sleeps" with me, or meeting someone who snores loudly in his sleep. It seems that I am lucky. Most of the time, Arjun lies in bed and puts on headphones to play mobile games, but I am a little embarrassed. One is because I smoke, even though I told Arjun first and asked for his opinion. Second, it is said that I also snore. After I am physically exhausted, my snoring is not quiet. But Arjun never said that, so I don’t know if I ever affected his sleep during the 8 days of “living together” with him. Along the way, Ajun and Sunflower, a young girl from Nanshan, Shenzhen, took turns lending me iPhone data cables to charge. My own cable broke on the first day in Chengdu.

The weather in Chengdu was good on the first day, but when we set off, it began to drizzle. According to the text message instructions sent to us by the club leader, the group members participating in the Daocheng Aden trip gathered in the hotel lobby at 7:30, waiting for the arrival of the vehicle. What was beyond expectation was that there were actually 34 people in this group! Including the tour leader, driver and a wife who seemed to be the driver, the number of people reached an astonishing 37! Of course, this was not only beyond my expectation, but also beyond the team leader’s expectation.

The team leader is called Xiao Zhangmei, a girl from Chengdu who speaks sharply, acts decisively, can talk and play, and seems to be a tomboy, but occasionally a madwoman.

Xiao Zhangmei described this trip as very difficult, especially the journey, food and accommodation, so that those who may think it is like a tourist or leisure vacation can have an idea. In sales techniques, this is called eliminating customer objections in advance. In other words, before you even raise your opinion, I will tell you the worst possible outcome. When the situation does arise, you will have nothing to say. In fact, this trick was very effective, and the real situation that emerged later was much better than the terrifying description of the little deer girl.

This one lying on the ground is the little deer girl. Can you tell what she looks like?

As we set off, it was misty outside the car window.

I know that Western Sichuan is beautiful at this moment, but the drizzle outside and the water vapor inside the window blur everything. Although I keep wiping the window glass, everything outside is still confused. Before coming here, I paid attention to the weather here every day. The ink marks showed that it was sunny and rainy, which made people confused. The rain at this time made me worried. If it keeps raining like this, when we reach Daocheng Aden, it will be a vast white world of ice and snow, and the most beautiful autumn colors in the world will be covered by ice and snow.

Our route to Cheng also changed due to the landslide of Erlang Mountain a few months ago. After the Chengya Expressway, we should have taken the 318 National Highway. Because the road to Erlang Mountain was impassable, we diverted to the Ya (An) West (Chang) Expressway to Shimian County, and then turned to the S211 Provincial Highway to Luding, making a V-shape.

A friend from my hometown in Xichang told me on WeChat that "it will be sunny for three days", which made me very depressed. When he learned that our car was on the way to Xichang, he told me that there would be a bright sun waiting for me. Sure enough, when we passed through a ten-kilometer-long tunnel, it seemed as if we had traveled to another world, and the sky suddenly became clear! This highway, which is said to be the most beautiful in China, finally shows its gorgeous appearance. As for the scenery outside the window, I have always been very greedy. Maybe it’s because I was born in a rural area. Seeing the countryside scenery always makes me relaxed and happy.

Lunch was at a small farmhouse next to Anshun. Anshun Field was the place where Shi Dakai, the wing king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was defeated and his entire army was annihilated. It was also the place where the Red Army forcibly crossed the Dadu River. Because Shi Dakai failed to deal with the relationship with the local indigenous people well, the chieftains united to clear the country, chased and intercepted him, and finally made the Taiping soldiers blood-stained the Dadu River. The souls of thousands of soldiers have been scattered in the mountains and fields since then, with nowhere to rest. The peasants also rebelled, but the Red Army successfully escaped during the great escape, and finally went all the way across the country to seize power. History is much better than novels.

After lunch, we headed north along the Dadu River. Due to the construction of a dam downstream, the Dadu River no longer has the rapids and noise, but lies quietly among the mountains.

Drive to Luding. There is a "visit here" place here, which is the Luding Iron Cable Bridge. Luding Bridge was built by Emperor Kangxi to strengthen economic and cultural exchanges between Han and Tibet, as evidenced by the imperial monument at the head of the bridge. This type of chain bridge can be seen everywhere in the Garze Tibetan area, but it is difficult to compare with it in scale.

Luding Bridge became famous not because of Kangxi, but because of the Red Army's "flying capture of Luding Bridge" in 1935. Although Mr. Xiaoping later said that the story contained some fictional elements, it did not affect the familiarity of all Chinese people who had read this story in textbooks since childhood. Since we are here for a trip, let’s take some photos:

We had already walked onto Route 318 before reaching Luding, and then continued along the Dadu River.

Atop the high mountains, autumn presents its unique colorful colors. I am unable to describe the beauty of the mountains and fields in autumn. Please allow me to quote my favorite passage from Mr. Lin Yutang:

"I like spring, but it is too immature; I like summer, but it is too arrogant. Therefore, I like autumn best, with its golden leaves, mellow style and colorful colors. It is sentimental and also carries a harbinger of death. . What the splendor of autumn shows is not the simplicity of spring, nor the power of summer, but the maturity and conscience of those who are close to their advanced years - the understanding that life is limited and therefore contented, and the profound and broad sense. Experience changes into a mixture of colors: green represents life and strength, orange represents the content of gold and jade, and purple represents surrender and death. When the moonlight spreads over it, a pensive and pale look emerges in autumn; when the sunset shines with brilliant afterglow. When you touch her face, she can still show a joyful smile. In early autumn, the cool breeze shakes the trembling leaves from the branches, and the leaves dance happily to the earth. You really don't know this kind of fallen leaves. The song is a song of joy or a song of farewell, because it is the song of the new autumn spirit: calm, wise and mature. This kind of song faces the sentimental scene with a smile and praises the excitement, sensitivity and calmness. "

Note: The mountains next to 318 in the dusk.

When night fell, we walked to Kangding. This is a place made famous by a love song: a slippery cloud shines on the mountain where horses are racing; a slippery cloud shines on the city of Kangding. On this night when traffic jammed in Kangding, I couldn't see the slippery mountains or the slippery clouds. I could only wait patiently for the vehicles to be released.

The night was as cold as water, and the driver was unwilling to open the door to let everyone out of the car to get some air. From a safety perspective, his approach is correct. From a customer experience perspective, it’s so hot and stuffy in the car that we want to break the window and jump out. In the following days, we were plagued by this sweltering heat until the day we finally returned to Chengdu from Danba Tibetans.

From Kangding to Xinduqiao, you have to climb Zheduo Mountain with an altitude of 4298 meters. Unfortunately, it was already evening when we arrived and it was impossible to stop at the pass to enjoy the magnificent scenery. This is the first level of Kham. After climbing here, you have entered the real Tibetan area. From then on, the scenery was very different, like a different country.