Yu Bengxing Travel Notes: The first day, Shuhe Ancient Town

Preface

First of all, let’s talk about the 13 team members on our trip. The oldest among them is 49 years old, and the youngest is born in 2000 and is only 22 years old. Some of them work in engineering, some work as teachers, some work in IT, some run inns, some make plastics, and some are homeless. Zhan Tai and Luo Yi are from Fujian, Yuanyuan and Shuya are Hakkas from Meizhou City, Lixia is from Yulin, Guangxi, Miss Zhang and Yilidu are from Hunan, Luo Ke is from Hubei, and the others are all from Guangdong. The chartered bus driver can be considered one of our team members for this trip. After all, he also accompanied us for a day and a half. He is a Naxi ethnic group in Lijiang City. Every one of them is excellent, and some of them have abilities beyond my expectations. Not only are they physically strong and well-educated, but they are also very good-looking.

Our little friends:

Unlike other travel notes, I don’t want to write them in a clichéd beauty style, because too many people have already written such travel notes, so I won’t join in the fun. Of course I also know that writing in that style will definitely get more traffic, but this is not what I want. I don’t want to write a travelogue just to satisfy others. When traveling, it is impossible to have beautiful and smooth experiences and sweet and unforgettable memories every moment. You will definitely encounter unpleasant things along the way. I hope that no matter whether you are happy, sad, angry, or regretful, you should write it down. This is what I call a travelogue. Otherwise, I would feel like I wrote a composition that just happened to fit the occasion.

 

Yuanyuan and I wanted to go to Yubengcheng for a long time, but every time we went to other cities for various reasons. At the end of July this year, Yuanyuan said that she wanted to go to Yubeng, which she had been thinking about for a long time, on this National Day. I said go for it. So, I posted a post on a well-known outdoor website in Guangdong, "Two Steps" to make an appointment.

The reason why I did not choose to travel with a tour group is that firstly, I have a lot of experience in traveling alone. I can travel and hike in most places without anyone taking me; secondly, I have been with several tour groups before. , I found that there are too many constraints when traveling with a group, and I cannot do whatever I want, let alone make the itinerary full; thirdly, booking an AA companion can save some money. It’s not easy to make money now, so it’s good to save a little.

During the National Day, I found a 6-day and 5-night tour from Lijiang to Yubeng. The cheapest price was 3,680 yuan, and it did not include round-trip transportation and food. After all, if you start from Guangzhou, it will cost you at least about 5,500 yuan per person.

I post appointments on the Two Steps website and have very strict requirements for members.

Please see the post:

Because I didn’t think about making money from the team members this time, I just wanted the trip to be completed smoothly, so I hope to make appointments with more outstanding team members. We have 13 members on this trip, but in fact there are more than 30 people who came to me to sign up. But most of them were dissuaded by me. They added my WeChat account first, and I would check in their circle of friends to see if they had any hiking experience, or if they had done any moderate to high-intensity physical training recently. If not, I would deny them participation. Some people who signed up wanted to improvise, saying they would go to training right away and be ready on the day of departure. I didn’t have much patience to explain, so I just told them, don’t worry, the mountain is there and it’s okay to go later.

On September 21, two young guys came into our team, named Shi Lin and Yu Ting. Yuanyuan told me that Shilin was an outdoor expert and often went out with Brother Yu. She also went hiking with Shilin two or three times. I thought to myself, it would be great if it was a great god. Because I have various injuries from previous training, such as knee joints, hip joints, fracture sequelae, lumbar disc herniation, shoulder joint injuries, etc. Moreover, I began to suffer from intermittent insomnia again in late September, and I couldn’t fall asleep until nearly dawn every day. I knew that my speed on this trip would be very slow. With two more outdoor strong donkeys watching the track and leading the way, I could walk leisurely behind.

On September 26, the team's platform published some surprising political comments in the group. Dongdong may have rarely been exposed to such straightforward and fierce criticism, and raised objections, and they had discord in the group. I can understand Platform's thoughts. I know that if he had been born in troubled times, or at the beginning of the last century, he would have been the kind of revolutionary who would risk his life for the lofty ideals in his heart. But the words he used in the group this time were a bit excessive and a bit humiliating to women, which I think is inappropriate.

However, I did not interfere at the time. I personally support freedom of speech. I think everyone's personality is different and their way of expression will definitely be different. Platform's personality is unruly and outspoken. But he is definitely not a bad person. It can even be said that he is a person with great compassion in his heart and a kind person, which is why he feels great grief and indignation for the social injustice he sees. As for Dongdong, of course she is also a kind and lovely girl, but she is not deeply involved in the world and has not been exposed to much darkness. She has not yet glimpsed the real ugliness and irreversible status quo here. Therefore, in her opinion, maybe the platform is The kind of person who loves to make a lot of trouble. But she has a sense of propriety and knows that it would be inappropriate to argue in a group, but she still needs to vent her emotions, so she made a ghost drawing symbol and asked people to guess idioms in the circle of friends. I looked at it for a long time and still couldn’t figure out what it was. At first I thought it was a fish swimming in the river, so I guessed in the direction of fish or something related to water, but I couldn't figure it out. She later gave the answer in WeChat Moments, saying it was just nonsense.

 

The level of her painting is really difficult to evaluate.

Shilin, Yuting, Lixia and I all set off from Guangzhou South Railway Station on September 30. We took the train at 6:52 in the morning. In order to sleep a little longer and save money on taxis, we booked a bed room near Guangzhou South Railway Station for only a few dozen yuan a night.

But I really regret it. Because there were seven or eight people living in that room and some were snoring, I almost stayed up all night.

 

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Day 1: Shuhe Ancient Town

My backpack:

Some of our team set off on September 30th, some on October 1st, and some only met us on October 2nd. Zhantai, Shilin, Yuting, Dongdong, Lixia and Luo Ke and I all set off on September 30th. Platform is from Fujian. He took a flight from Longyan to Hunan, and then transferred a train from Hunan to Lijiang. He arrived at Shuhe Ancient Town that afternoon. And Luo Ke flew directly from Shenzhen to Lijiang, so he seemed to be a rich man. The other four people were on the same train as me, and coincidentally, we were all in the same carriage.

 

After getting on the train, I met Shilin, Yuting and Dongdong. As for Lixia, I met her last night. I was deceived by Shilin's avatar and thought he was a handsome guy, but I didn't expect that he was even more handsome than the avatar himself. He was a handsome guy. As for the hole, it was beyond my imagination. She huddled on the chair like a little bird, and when she stood up, she still looked like a little bird that could be blown away by a strong wind. I was wondering, can she walk through the rain with a heavy load?

Lixia was sitting in the row in front of me. She seems to have been eating non-stop, eating fruits and melon seeds, melon seeds and the leftover braised food from last night. She even brought soup. I told her that you should not eat cooked food after a few hours, let alone overnight. Unless it is heated to a high temperature to kill the virus, it will be eaten together with a large number of bacteria that breed in it, which can easily cause food poisoning. She said it was okay, and I stopped trying to persuade her. Not only did she eat it by herself, she also asked me to eat it with her. I said that I haven’t learned to eat without stopping, and eating constantly is not good for my stomach.

When we arrived at Dali Station, we had to transfer to the train to Lijiang.

Take a group photo of them at Dali Station:

At Lijiang Station, they wanted to take a group photo. When I took out my mobile phone from my pocket to take pictures of them, my ID card slipped out without me noticing. When I went through the turnstile at Lijiang Station and rummaged through my pocket, I discovered that my ID card was lost.

 

Fortunately, as long as you have the 12306 APP on your mobile phone, you can leave and enter the station. Here, I suggest that all friends who travel abroad for a long time should install 12306 on their mobile phones.

 

If China Railway Group sees this article, I hope to give me some advertising fees, thank you!

 

We hailed a 7-seater taxi from the taxi lane on the right side of Lijiang Station. After bargaining, we got to Shuhe Ancient Town for 70 yuan. There are 5 of us, and the average price per person is 14 yuan, which is still very affordable.

 

It's not yet 21 o'clock, but we saw very few cars along the way. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is the National Day. So why is this the case? Because of the epidemic in Kunming, some tourists were trapped in Kunming and could not come to Lijiang. Many distant first- and second-tier cities do not yet have direct trains to Lijiang. Most people choose to take the train to Kunming first and then transfer from Kunming to Lijiang. In addition, the epidemic prevention policy has issued new regulations. Anyone with a recent history of staying in Kunming must be quarantined and observed. This also scared off many people.

 

The highway was deserted, and when entering Shuhe Ancient Town, everything seemed to be in decline. Many shops have lights on but no one there, which makes them even more desolate.

 

But my heart is complicated. On the one hand, I lament the livelihood of the shop owners here, and on the other hand, I am glad that there are few people and it is lonely, because I love the quiet ancient village so much.

 

The seven of us stayed in four different inns. After putting away our luggage, we made an appointment to have dinner at a restaurant.

 

There are no people on the road in the ancient village :

The first three are our friends:

Alaskan Malamute in front of a restaurant:

Our restaurant is on the first floor and there is another restaurant on the second floor. I originally thought they were all from the same family, so I wanted to go up and look down and take pictures of the night view of Shuhe from a higher perspective. A man ran out of me, with a unique expression of excitement after being drunk, like a wolf seeing a sheep and asking me if I was here to eat. I said no, aren't you the same store as the one on the first floor? The man still grinned and said no. I walked away calmly, leaving him standing there, still smiling but feeling lost in his heart.

 

Hey, it seems that business is really difficult.

 

Lixia and I ordered food in the restaurant first, and Shilin, Yuting, Dongdong, Zhantai and Luo Ke also arrived one after another. Not long after we sat down, the platform asked who was Dongdong? Dongdong probably knew the purpose of the platform, so he covered his mouth and said with a smile that I am the one. The platform said, Oh, it turns out you were the one quarreling with me in the group. After everyone heard it, they laughed and made a noise.

We officially started hiking on the 3rd, so we could drink some wine tonight. I took a few bottles of beer from the refrigerator, poured a glass for each of them, and raised a glass to celebrate our happy reunion.

 

What surprised me was that Shilin, Yuting and Luo Ke were all non-smokers. I haven't met a non-smoker for a long time, which makes me very happy. Because when you go out to socialize and get along with others, you will inevitably smell the smell of smoke most of the time. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. When the smoke wafts into my nasal cavity, I feel as if I am wearing a thickened N95 mask and have difficulty breathing. I am also worried about the damage to my body caused by second-hand smoke.

 

During the conversation, I learned that Shilin and Yuting were both IT professionals, working on the system for a large bank. They often have to work overtime until early in the morning, sometimes even all night. It seems that those who say they need cigarettes to refresh themselves because of long working hours are all using excuses for their lack of self-control.

 

The website said that he used to open an inn in Thailand, and later returned to China to open a shop. It seems that he is now unemployed. I don’t know exactly what he does now, and I didn’t ask. I never like to ask what others do and how much they earn.

 

Yu Ting is a very funny person. I find that he often laughs out of nowhere. He was always like this in those days. What impressed me most was the day on October 6, when we were hiking from Yubengxia Village to Ni Village. I slipped on a very steep downhill slope, and he actually burst into laughter looking at my embarrassed appearance.

 

Dongdong is a very young girl. She is young and small in stature, but she is very courageous. She dared to argue with a man in the group who was old enough to be her father, and she dared to leave her home and go hiking in Yubeng, a place thousands of miles away. She is very polite and well-educated, speaks appropriately and appropriately, and is a little different from the others.

 

Rock is the strongest here, 1.78 meters tall and 170 pounds. He looked a little tired and spoke slowly. During the conversation, I learned that he had been hiking in many places. I had checked his Moments before, and I also checked the Moments of other members of the team this time. Because I first need to know where they have been hiking, whether they have outdoor experience and the physical fitness for this hike. Ke Luoke's circle of friends is almost full of forwarded links to various news. He later told us that he didn’t post on WeChat Moments when he went out. When he came out this time, he also lied to the leader and told him to go back to his hometown. If he said he was going out for a walk, the leaders would not approve of him leaving Shenzhen.

 

As for Lixia, she seems to love talking, eating, and running. Everyone said that she was the great one and could run the whole marathon. She also said that when she usually runs, she won’t run less than 10 kilometers.

 

They also discussed Shilin’s avatar, saying that he looked nothing like the same person as the WeChat avatar, and I didn’t think they were alike either. Apart from the fact that they both wear glasses, they didn’t look alike in any other part. But he insists that he is the person in the avatar, or in other words, the person in the avatar is him. To this day, I still wonder.

Our late order:

The inn where I stayed:

The food in this restaurant was mediocre and I wasn't full. As for which company it is, I won’t say. After all, it’s not easy for people to do business. After they each returned to their own inn, I planned to go to a barbecue restaurant I saw when I first entered the ancient village to have something to eat, but I found that it was closed.

 

It seems that there are really fewer tourists in Lijiang this year, otherwise the barbecue restaurants would not have closed so early. I recall that I came to Lijiang several times four years ago. At that time, the place was bustling with people, but now it is desolate and desolate, as if it was a world away.

 

Two hours ago, the taxi driver said that one-third of the shops here have closed down, and the remaining two-thirds are struggling. Perhaps this is not an exaggeration, but a reservation.