—Over the Tanggula Mountains—
100,000 miles of the end of the world, 8,000 miles of no man's land.
Looking at the mountains and rivers, it is really boundless.
One is vast and vast, and the other is icy and snowy.
Watch the prayer flags fluttering and the snowflakes flying, and the vast wilderness is lonely.
The first class is the 109th class of the Qinghai-Tibet line, the fourteenth working area of the original Qinghai-Tibet Highway, and now the twenty-first working area, known as "the first class in the world", is the highest altitude of the Qinghai-Tibet line, with an altitude of 5232 meters, this twenty-one work area is very large, it is the largest class I have ever seen, just like a big house.
Came out of the first class and began to climb over the "Ghost Gate" - Tanggula Mountain. "Tanggula, reach out and grasp the sky", Tanggula Mountain is the boundary mountain, and Qinghai is on the other side of the mountain. The road was fairly smooth, and the flat asphalt roads were much easier to walk on than those dirt roads. The altitude of this place is more than 5,000 meters, although the road is gentle, there is not much slope, but the plateau lacks oxygen, the legs and feet are weak, and the head is faintly painful, so you can't ride, you can only push the car away. On both sides of the road is a gravel land, which is also considered the Gobi Desert, without any plants and no living things in sight. Unlike the previous road, there are forests, rivers, grasslands, eagles, gray rabbits, yaks, there is nothing here, the only thing I feel close to is the telephone poles on the side of the road, without this, I really don't feel that this is the world. In the distance, there are snow-covered mountains and rivers, one after another, and the boundless ......
From the first road class to the Tanggula Mountain Pass, it took me half a day to travel more than 30 miles. When I was about to reach the Tanggula Pass, snow began to fall in the sky, at first I thought it was a mistake, but after a closer look, it was true! It's snowflakes! And at this time it is only August, and it is really "a mountain has four seasons, ten miles of different days". At first, it was quite fresh, curious and fun, but then I immediately realized that it was very dangerous, and I had to cross the mountain pass as soon as possible to find a safe place to live at the bottom of the mountain. Before coming here, I had heard about the terrible Tanggula Mountain, and I don't know how many people were killed here.
Tanggula Mountain is not the highest of the mountains I have climbed, and I think the reason why it is terrible and dangerous is that there is no water here, and it is too cold for most of the year; There is also a lack of oxygen in the high cold and a harsh climate. "The sky in no man's land, the face of a doll - change when you say it", the plateau frozen soil, the environment is treacherous, and I don't know how many road construction workers and PLA soldiers died here. Tanggula Mountain means "mountain on the plateau" in Tibetan, also known as "Dangla Mountain", and in Mongolian it means "mountain where eagles can't fly over", which can be imagined how dangerous and terrifying it is!
When I set off, I changed into a sweater and pants, but I still felt a little cold. After walking a little further, I saw the towering monuments and prayer flags, and the mani pile with many wooden sticks stuck in the piles of stones, and I was overjoyed at the moment, and finally there was hope, and the Tanggula Pass arrived, and after crossing the mountain pass, it was all downhill, and I could ride a bicycle.
Approaching the pass, I stopped and put the car on the side of the road. I saw a monument on the left side of the road, with an inscription on it: "Commemoration of the joint construction of Lanzhou, Xining, and Lhasa optical cable communication projects by the military and the people, March 10, 1998", which is to commemorate the vast number of cadres, masses and PLA officers and soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet line; On the right side of the road is a huge rectangular stone monument embedded in a strip of stone foundations, with the words "Tanggula Pass" and "5,231 meters above sea level" engraved on it, surrounded by stone railings. Next to it is a pile of colorful prayer flags and wooden sticks inserted diagonally, as well as many painted stones, totems and so on. I took pictures in both places as a souvenir, and I didn't dare to stop too long, so I packed my things and hurried down the mountain. There is already snow at the mountain pass, and as far as the eye can see, it is white, as if a cold winter is coming. I thought: This place should not stay for a long time, the cold and lack of oxygen, in case of fainting, the consequences are unimaginable.......
I rode down my bike, all the way to the gallop, so unhappy! Qinghai is the same, everywhere the eye goes, there are glaciers, snow fields, perennial snow and permafrost, a vast and vast scene, no people, the same is not a single inch of grass, no trees, no traces of life, only gravel land, saline-alkali land and the Gobi desert.
After a while, it began to rain cold again in the sky, occasionally mixed with some hail, it hurt very much on the body, the body was completely soaked, cold and cold, so cold that I shivered, the hand holding the handlebar was also numb from the cold, the ten fingers curled up and not together, really a little unable to hold the handlebar.
Fortunately, Tanggula Township and Tanggula Military Station are not too far, and they are more than 40 miles away. After arriving in Tanggula Township, I visited the Tanggula Military Station, the township**, and the homes of some herdsmen, and stayed in a guest house for the night. This road is quite smooth, there is no danger, not as terrifying as the legend, not as difficult to walk as I imagined, it is likely to be related to the season: the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in August and September, the autumn is high and cool, and there is no summer ice and snow melting rivers and rivers, water blocking the situation of the road, and there is no winter and spring heavy snow to close the mountains, the weather is cold, and people and vehicles can not pass.
* It's finally over, and Qinghai should be even more so.