Traveling with parents—Daocheng Yading | Self-driving

An ancient saying goes: If your parents are here, you won’t have to travel far. Half-life fate, strictly speaking, parents and children only have half-life fate. If you must travel thousands of miles, it is better to start the journey with your parents. A journey through mountains, a journey through water, across thousands of rivers and mountains, no matter how windy or snowy, it is still a journey through wind and rain.

It actually doesn’t matter where you go, you are in the car, the car is on the road, the road is between heaven and earth, keep moving forward. They don’t talk all the time, but as long as the family is together, it doesn’t matter if the earth’s crust shakes, a volcano erupts, or Mars hits the earth, or the world is destroyed as long as the family is together.

▲It’s snowing in Zheduo Mountain

In the early morning of October 1st, I flew from Beijing to Shuangliu. My parents picked me up at the airport and took me directly onto the Western Sichuan Ring Road, taking the Yu Ring Expressway – Beijing-Kunming Expressway – Yakang Expressway – National Highway 318 – Provincial Highway 216, all the way to Daocheng Aden.

This is our family’s first long-distance self-driving trip. Sister Yang said that Brother Huang started planning this trip in August, buying bit by bit, luggage racks, camping tents, low-temperature sleeping bags, and portable gas stoves. He just bought whatever came to mind. . Dad's personality has always been a bit like that of an old boy. I imagined him to be like a primary school student preparing for a spring outing.

We stayed overnight in Luding County around three in the morning and continued on the road at eight in the morning. Probably because we started too early, the road was smooth. Most of the time we were the only ones traveling on the vast highway, like no one before or since. At noon, when we crossed the pass of Zheduo Mountain, little snowflakes began to fall from the sky. The traffic radio said that this was the first heavy snowfall in Zheduo Mountain this year. In just half a day, the mountains in the distance were already turning white. If I hadn't learned later that this heavy snowfall had caused many people to be trapped in a dilemma in Zheduo Mountain, I would probably have thought it was very romantic.

▲Roadside picnic

Most of the meals along the way are served on the roadside, and they are simple but not sloppy. The pots and pans are all available, the types of seasoning packets and the quantity of ingredients are all carefully selected and calculated by Sister Yang. A woman like my mother probably has the ability to keep everything in good order and bad days in her hands. When she was young, she was also a girl who was greedy for beauty. Later, when she got married and had children, she also had a noisy personality. She sang and danced, but she was quiet when she was washing her hands and making soup. The meal is her great masterpiece. What she likes most is seeing my dad and I eat two more bowls. But if the soup is salty and the meat is bland, she will be upset for a whole day. Oh my, it would be better if I put less/more of it. . The provision of food, rice, oil and salt, and taking care of everything in detail, are her long-lasting affection for her family.

From Kangding to Yajiang, from Yajiang to Litang, to the beautiful scenery under the sky above the plateau, the scenery along the way becomes more magnificent and the four seasons become more distinct. From the Zheduo Mountains where the first wind and snow hit, to the Kazila Mountain grassland which is as clear as a city in the sky, to the high mountains and lakes dotted with wind, rain and snow.

▲City in the Sky

Along the way, I kept listening to Li Zhi, City in the Sky, Love is just the fart of life, it tortures me, and it also tortures you. Above the plateau, below the clouds, the air is thin and clear. In such a world, people's thinking is clear but scattered. They think of many people and things, but they are nothing. I didn’t believe in soul-purifying journeys before, and of course I don’t believe it now either, but when I was there, with the clouds at hand, the wind at my feet, and seeing the lonely eagle hovering in the sky for a long time, I was really confused. It becomes less important.

Most of the time there was no mobile phone signal along the way, so we chatted one after another. We arrived in Daocheng at night. It was only one day, and it felt like we had experienced four seasons.

▲Daocheng Yading

The obsession with Daocheng Yading comes from a picture album I saw at my uncle’s house when I was very young. The Daocheng Yading picture album published by Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House in 1999. The literary and artistic works at that time were simple and pure. Mountains are mountains, water is It’s water. The landscape in Daocheng Yading is different from other places. I have never seen it before, so I yearn for it. Later, I fell in love with the young writer Qi Jinnian. She is also from Sichuan, and I can relate to it very much. She wrote that she failed the college entrance examination and did not get into Tsinghua University. Her mother drove her to Daocheng Yading with her devastated mother. "In all my travels, 18-year-old Daocheng is the most desolate station. Sadly, it is the closest to life. "At that time, I didn't think such words were pretentious. I read it over and over again, imagining the desolation and prosperity along the way. Life is like a road, you have to walk out of the prosperous scenery in the desolation.

When I actually arrived at Daocheng Yading, I was not very excited. Long-term office life has made me weak. Sister Yang and Brother Huang helped me climb up to the Five-Colored Sea at an altitude of 4,522 meters. They were so majestic and vigorous, pulling me to breathe oxygen and take a break every step of the way. Over the years, Sister Yang's love for outdoor sports has evolved from playing mahjong in farmhouses to hiking in the wild mountains of northern Sichuan and southern Tibet. She also guided Brother Huang to leave the teahouse and drive to Guizhou and Yunnan. My physical and mental qualities are beyond my reach. Sometimes I think they are quite interesting, and they have a kind of contentment of being happy with their fate. They have passed through all the rivers and rivers, and they don’t have too many entanglements and desires about many things. After all, humans are too insignificant when walking between heaven and earth.

▲White tower

On the way back, we passed through Hongyuan, Bamei and Danba. On the majestic green mountains, mysterious and ancient watchtowers are hidden in the clouds, and the shocking faults of the mountain wall are steep and steep. It took six hours to walk the 80 kilometers from Bamei to Danba. The traffic during the Golden Week was more turbulent than the water of the Yak River. Between the black mountains and white water, red taillights and white headlights illuminated the entire valley. On a moonlit night, along the narrow road in the depths of the canyon, meandering alongside the surging river, the only sound of roaring water can be heard in the darkness. The rolling torrent shone with a cold light under the moonlight, as if a sharp turn would cause it to plunge into the river valley without paying attention, leaving no bones behind. With the silent stars above my head, in the poetic and dangerous darkness, and in the unknown and deep danger that I was traveling through, I gradually found a trace of peace that was not afraid of death.

▲Eighteen bends on Tianlu

This journey has not been without regrets. On the way back, I passed by my good friend HX from high school. The closest distance between us was 80 kilometers from Xinduqiao, and the farthest distance between us was the erratic mobile 4G on the road. She was my front desk in high school, and she was a good writer. I loved borrowing her notes. She had an amazing writing style. After her, I have never seen anyone who can write really well. She said that when she was a sophomore, she changed her major to study economics. During the interview, the teacher asked her why, even though she had a dream of literature, she wanted to learn something practical for the world. She said that it was because she wanted to use one kind of thing to feed another kind of dream. In fact, we are all dreamers. At that time, we reviewed geography together and learned about the Tuotuo River, the source of the three rivers in the Tanggula Mountains, and about Namtso, the third largest saltwater lake in China. We laughed and joked about where we would go in the future. Where else are we going? We have to take a train across dark green Siberia. At the beginning of everyone's life, there is always a time when there is nothing to miss, only uncontrollable imagination, nothing to rely on, only his good body, no place to go, and just want to wander around.

Finally, some scenery during the journey

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