Travel Notes: Freedom is in the heart, and the distance is always on the road

Ever since it was knocked down by a retrograde motorcycle last year, the front of the bicycle has been in a crooked state. I wanted to do a comprehensive maintenance, but after asking about the price, I thought about it again and again, but I still couldn't bear it and decided to do some preliminary cleaning myself. . Gently "stroking" every part of the car, I realized more deeply for the first time that it has been with me for 7 years. It has been 6 years since my last trip, but those memories are still there. Clear and memorable.

Speaking of cycling, it seems that it is not a hobby, let alone a profession. If you want to delve deeper into the reason, it may be that after constantly struggling, you want to walk freely and look for your own poetry and the distance. .

It has been 10 years since I moved from a remote mountain village to a big city. In the bustle and hustle and bustle of the city, there is always a longing for peace and quiet. Two short stories come to mind. One story is that when my brother and I were looking for jobs, my brother was admitted to a public institution in our county before graduating from undergraduate degree, while I stumbled into graduate school and stayed in school. When I go back to my high school alma mater for a walk, the teacher always likes to compare the two of us. What’s more, I regret that my brother has returned to such a small mountain town with an extremely slow pace, and Qianlong is trapped in Yuyuan. But actually, I envy my brother more, he is not as lonely and easily irritable as me. Another story is that I was chatting with a graduated student some time ago. She said that every time she felt the "unfriendliness" of Beijing, she wanted to sneak back to Xi'an and dream about it. Only she could understand the pain and sorrow in this process best. I can't comment, let alone how to comfort me. Compared with the work pressure and competitiveness in Beijing, I am the one who stands up and speaks.

I remember when I was in school, I always liked to take the 600 bus all the way to the end and then back. I would curl up in the corner and quietly watch the feasting and feasting along the way, thinking about nothing but being in a daze. Now, whenever I feel troubled or doubtful, I like to pack my bags and ride on unknown roads at night, away from the hustle and bustle, to pursue the belonging in my heart. There is no need to care about honor and disgrace, no need to pay attention to the ridicule and puzzled eyes of others, and no need to speculate on the complexity of people's hearts. In the whole world, there is no one else but yourself. Therefore, cycling seems to have become a kind of catharsis, trying your best to break through the wind resistance, releasing and challenging yourself again and again. Through cycling, I think about my life and continue to look for the answer in my heart. The farthest I have cycled is from Xi’an to Qinghai Lake in the summer vacation of 2014.

Riding all the way, what I yearn for is freedom, but what I gain the most is loneliness. When I first set out, I worked hard for five days in the pouring rain alone and in a car. It seemed that I never knew where the end point was, and I didn't want to think about how far away I was from the end. I was afraid that I would be discouraged and lose everything. courage. Along the way, I always feel paranoid. I am worried that I will be abducted and made difficult by bad people on the road. I am worried that I will not arrive at the scheduled place on time and sleep in the wilderness. I am worried that I will encounter natural disasters such as landslides and mudslides. I am worried that I will accidentally get into a car accident. I always want to look back unconsciously. When I learned that Lao Fu was about to catch up, I felt like I had been given a shot of blood. I ran more than 140 kilometers over mountains and ridges in one day. I finally had someone to accompany me and felt a sense of "security." Only then did I realize that one person can ride faster, and a group of people can ride farther.

Teacher Fu’s stamina is better than mine, and my climbing momentum is slightly better than Teacher Fu’s. We stopped and stopped along the way, and we always maintained the farthest distance we could see each other. On the way, I met two brothers who were riding bicycles from Yan'an to Qinghai. One had already passed half an hour ago, and the other had not caught up yet. Teacher Fu and I laughed and said: "How do these look like teammates? They are not brothers at all!" Fei Xiaotong said in "Russian China": "The unity of an intimate community depends on each other's mutual arrears. Unresolved favors can be seen most clearly in our society. Friends are rushing to repay the debt, which means that they want the other party to owe them a favor, such as investing a sum of money, so they have to find an opportunity to aggravate the favor. Some return a favor, while others make the other party owe you a favor. It is necessary to maintain mutual assistance and cooperation between people in an intimate community, and the most fearful thing is to settle accounts. '. 'Settling accounts' is equivalent to severing friendship, because if we don't owe each other any favors, we can't communicate with each other. "On the way to the bike ride, it was because I had Teacher Fu walking around and so on that I persisted all the way and never got lost.

Sometimes, if we stop and think about it, we are not only on the cycling road, but also in the noisy city, among the bustling crowds around us, and in the complexity we face every day, we are often full of worry, fear, and timidity. and fear. This is like the "no man's land" in our subconscious. Many times we are afraid of it, and we desperately want to get rid of the constraints and cages, but we don't know how to break through or cross... Choosing to ride long distances may be just because we want to Release yourself and find your true, free self deep inside.

But what is freedom? Someone asked in the Douban short review of the movie "Seventy-seven Days": "The scenery is beautiful, Jiang Yiyan is beautiful, but I just can't understand it. How can crossing the Qiangtang prove that you have freedom, courage, and ideals?" Regarding this question, I don’t seem to know how to answer. All I can say is that when you are confused and overwhelmed, when you are bound by life, the directionless distance, the past self, or even suffocated by all the little things that others don’t take seriously, we What I want to seek is nothing more than a clean soul and a peaceful pure land for the soul. Crossing Qiangtang is just one of the ways. The same goes for riding. It’s better to burn calmly than to linger. Sometimes, what we need more is not the freedom to relax the constraints, but the courage to break the boat.

After you have truly traveled once, you will find that cycling and life have too many similarities. Along the way, I encountered wide and flat asphalt roads, which allowed me to spread my hands leisurely, hum a tune, look at the scenery along the way, and play in the wind. I have also encountered various slope roads. Some are short and I can climb them in one breath. Others have no "end" in sight, so I just keep pace with the big trucks, "you chase me". There are also downhill slopes, the slope is so steep that you can catch up with a car without pedaling, and the slope is so long that you just want to keep walking like this. However, in the end, you will find that the only thing you look forward to is the uphill, and the only despair is the downhill, because after the uphill there will definitely be a downhill, that is hope, and after going downhill, there will definitely be an uphill, that is suffering.

I remember that when we were crossing Liupan Mountain, it was raining heavily. Although the raincoat blocked the rain, it was still so stuffy that water could flow inside. Starting from Jingning, the road keeps going uphill, uphill, uphill, and it seems like we can never see the end of the slope. When I was still two kilometers away from the tunnel at the top of Liupan Mountain, I stopped in despair. Sitting on the roadside, rainwater and tears flowed down my face. I was struggling in my heart, swaying, wanting to give up, wanting to hail a private car to take me up. I sat like this for more than half an hour, looking at the terraced fields at the foot of the mountain. Inexplicably, Chairman Mao's poem came to mind: "The sky is high and the clouds are pale, and I can see the wild geese flying south. If you can't reach the Great Wall, you are not a hero. You can only travel 20,000 miles." On the peak of Liupan Mountain, the red flag is swirling in the west wind. I have a long tassel in my hand today, when will I tie the blue dragon?" ("Qing Ping Le·Liu Pan Mountain"), maybe my mood was broken to a certain extent, so I stupidly stood up and faced the mountain. He shouted every line of the poem loudly, and shouted it three times in a row. After shouting, I felt a lot more relaxed, and with more courage and determination, I got on the bike and once again joined the snail-like climbing team and moved forward silently. But what I remember most is not simply going uphill or downhill, but experiencing the magnificence and ups and downs of life in the constant ups and downs of the road. This uncertain and unstable "torturing" may be the most difficult thing in my life. Disgusting state. Honestly, it hurts in the butt. Facing these different road conditions, not only should you not panic or rush, but you must also maintain a stable pedaling frequency. Only in this way can you maintain the most effortless state. This kind of calmness in life can only be felt most clearly while riding.

Although we are well prepared, we can never know the accident or who will come first tomorrow, and we will still encounter various surprises along the way. I remember that on the second day of departure, I fell forward to avoid a passerby who suddenly rushed out from behind a tree. I fell to the ground, and my knees were scratched with long bloody marks by cinders on the road. Although the wounds were treated in time, I still couldn’t do it because of the timely treatment. It was raining, so it couldn't be bandaged well, and I had to put on shorts to expose the wound. The cold and shivering inevitably left scars. It was already around 10pm when we arrived at Haishiwan. As soon as we stopped, we heard that there was a car accident behind us. Teacher Fu and I took a deep look at each other and secretly rejoiced. By the time we got to Gangcha, my buttocks were so worn that I couldn't walk, so I could only move with my "waiba". Fortunately, Teacher Fu was supporting me, otherwise even finding food would have been a problem. What’s even funnier is that the next day I was wearing long pants and was stung by a bee on my thigh. It was itchy and painful... Although I couldn’t laugh or cry along the way, my love was always high-spirited and I never really gave up.

I am born in the 1990s. When I was in elementary school, I would often be asked about dreams by my teachers. At that time, it seemed that most students had the same answer. Maybe it was related to the teacher’s guidance. They were either scientists or astronauts. Dreams became universal. Yes. It wasn't until I went to college that I realized how important it is for a person to have a dream, but I always seemed to be slow and never really figured out what I wanted to do! Although cycling is not strictly speaking a dream of mine, it can still be regarded as a hobby. Only with hobbies and pursuits can life have a flavor. Therefore, I often advise my students: "If you have something you like, you must keep persisting. Even if there are thorns along the way and you fall down countless times, you must stand up again. It doesn't matter if it hurts. What's important is The best thing is that you can still know the pain, instead of never getting up again and losing the free soul that truly belongs to you.”

The joy of riding lies not only in the scenery around you, but also in the baptism of the soul. The biggest temptation of cycling is that you set a goal and then set off from the starting point, always thinking about how beautiful the scenery at the end is. Once you hit the road, you will never look back. Look up and see the road stretching in front of you. You cannot cross it, but you will conquer it bit by bit and enjoy the joy of victory.

When I saw the perseverance of the tanned cyclists traveling around China, the piety of the pilgrims who knelt every three steps and kowtowed every nine steps, and the determination and joy written by the cyclists on road milestones, my heart suddenly became brighter. I can hear my inner voice more clearly and move forward with determination.

There is no conflict between cycling and life. I like this kind of life!

Attached: 2014 Xi’an Cycling Qinghai Lake Itinerary

Day1: Xi'an-Xianyang City-Liquan County-Qian County (about 90 kilometers)

Day2: Qian County-Yongshou County-Bin County-Changwu County (about 106 kilometers)

Day3: Changwu County-Jingchuan County-Pingliang City (about 117 kilometers)

Day4: Pingliang City-Liupan Mountain-Longde County-Jingning County (about 106 kilometers)

Day5: Jingning County-Huining County-Dingxi City (about 140 kilometers)

Day6: Dingxi City-Yuzhong County-Lanzhou (about 108 kilometers)

Day7: Lanzhou-Haishiwan (about 107 kilometers)

Day8: Haishiwan-Minhe County-Ledu District-Ping'an Yi (about 80 kilometers)

Day9: Ping'an Yi-Xining City (about 40 kilometers)-Take a bus to Kumbum Monastery

Day10-14: Xining City-Qinghai Lake Surrounding-Xining City