Travel Notes | Self-driving Qinggan Loop Line

Students from all over the world come to Lanzhou to study, and many of them may never come back in the next few decades or even in their lifetime. Taking advantage of its geographical location, we set our sights on the Northwest for graduation travel. The graduation trip was originally planned to be in Xinjiang, but due to the impact of the epidemic in Guangdong, it was difficult to travel, so we chose the Qinghai-Gansu Loop Route. I just never knew when to start.

On the afternoon of June 8th, "Let's go tomorrow." On the morning of June 9, I packed my luggage, rented a car on the school bus, picked up the car in the city, and headed to Xining.

The Northwest Ring Road (Qinggan Ring Line) is a very classic tourist route. Every node is ready-made. You can get on the road after understanding it.

I don’t plan to write a guide. Self-driving travel is just a matter of driving the car to connect the places. Just have a navigation. There is no need to plan the time and place of public transportation or chartered cars. It is much simpler. Different people have different travel rhythms, and the things they do and see are similar. If you drive slower, take more photos, or go to places that you just want to visit, the itinerary will fluctuate for a day or two.

Just write down what you think during the trip.

Total itinerary:

Lanzhou - Xining - Kumbum Temple - Qinghai Lake Erlangjian - Chaka Salt Lake - Crook Lake (nothing to see) - Emerald Lake - 315 Provincial Road - Shuiyadan - Dunhuang - Guazhou ——Jiayuguan——Zhangye——Wuwei——Lanzhou

The sun in the northwest "moistens everything silently". By the time people's skin feels the sun, it is already too late. This time we set off without any sunscreen. So after being in the sun for a long time, Longzi suddenly felt his legs were a little itchy and looked at:

(laughing to death)

This trip in Gansu Province, except Jiayuguan, was my "World War II", but I didn't feel bored when I arrived at the scenic spots I had visited, and I had a new experience.

During the journey, I kept thinking, what has traveling left behind for me?

Reading and traveling can make one's understanding of the world closer to the facts. Looking at other people's photos and listening to other people's descriptions are not as useful as being there yourself. Traveling allows you to see the lifestyles of people in other places, and you will know that the world has various possibilities and is less narrow-minded.

Travel is constantly faced with choices, and you immediately bear the consequences of your choices. Which one to go to first, or the other one? Wake up earlier or later? Should I stop at a certain point? Do you want to go to this attraction? When we were in Dunhuang, we didn't go to see the Mogao Grottoes due to an accident, but we went to the Western Jin Dynasty Mural Tomb next to it. We had a surprising experience. Fatty also had a lot of fun while the tomb was drifting; thinking about it again, if we had gone to the Mogao Grottoes , you won’t have this experience. Is it a gain or a loss? The attitude towards gains and losses is gradually established.

When traveling with others, you can see up close how others make choices and approach life. This kind of observation is a good supplement to yourself, but usually there are few such opportunities. The traveling companion was only for a short period of time, but in this short period he displayed all his previous decades of life experience. The biggest gain from traveling with Fatty is photography. Because he has very different tastes in photography and photo editing from me, I can constantly adjust my own style when observing his pictures, which makes my pictures richer. .

Traveling definitely comes with photography. Photography is a kind of record. For many people, it is just the same tourist photos. The only difference from Baidu is that the photographer or the subject is themselves. I hope that the camera can also help me record a certain feeling. When I see a photo, it is not a static node in time and space, but has a certain degree of malleability. I hope to take photos that are "unique" or have a story. At least when I look at these photos many years later, I can not only tell myself "I have been here", but also recall the feeling at that time because of a certain photo, why I took this photo, etc.

The iron-clad scenic spots and the tourists on the flowing water are all unique in time and space, which makes tourists naturally good shooting subjects. In addition, many people wear special clothes and have certain postures when taking pictures, which will make them the finishing touch of landscape photography. You don’t even need to take a clear picture of the faces of tourists you’ve never met before. Just use the colors of their clothes and put them in a suitable composition, and you’ll have a great picture.

(Taken at Chaka Salt Lake)

(Taken at Emerald Lake)

It’s also a great choice for photographing couples. The interaction between lovers can effectively soften the picture, thereby preventing the shot from becoming a cold record.