Yu's footprint

It’s a bad title. If I were you, I won’t like it. It makes me think about a long boring list of goods and things. As an unprofessional traveler just like me, you can find a lot of unimportant things in my bag. You’ll find a heavy Bible; I believe I may need it when something happens. For example when I fail to find my way, God will be easier to recognize that I’m His people and send me an angel. You can also find a pile of modern world’s productions ---- my DV’s charger, my cellophane’s charger, my MP3’s charger... I hate long black wires, but I have to play a role in this hi-tech tragedy ---- they are always lying in my bag in a mess and reaaaaally make me crazy. This is not the worst. Finally you will find a group of heavyset guys. I also don’t understand why I have to carry so many books. Most of time I only holding them in my hands, admiring their colorful covers, spelling the writers’ names, and then putting them back into my bag. I’m always not in mood to read them, but I still keep carrying them! It’s just like a woman always goes out with a boring guy because she believes she should dating. Sounds ridiculous! When I put down a book on my table of the train to Luoping last month, it cought my neighboring passenger’s attention. It was a book about the history of love and sex in Europe. The reason I carried it with me was that I felt if a book described how the people flirted 300 years ago in a historical way, it must be an interesting travel companion. A young couple who were sitting right next to me stared the book cautiously and kept silent during the whole journey. They must thought one who study this on the train should be some kinds of freak, and they felt the topic of my book had some kinds of relationship with them and this made them worried. But actually I even didn’t touch the book for one second.

There are thousands of times I wanted to carry some more useless things on my way. For example, instrument.

Since the day I decided not to be a violinist, I felt I killed a way to survive by my own hands. I felt I was a murderer. I murdered the chance or excuse to play violin when I didn’t want to do my homework, I murdered a good job I could choose in the future, and the most important, I murdered my longtime hobby. My feeling about this didn’t stop until a guy in my school quit class and went away with his guitar. From that moment, going away with my violin slided into my mind. I dreamed to go to an unfamiliar place and played music there. I wasn’t sure if I had courage to stand in the middle of a square and played violin, but I admired those artists who did that. Always confident, always free, always share their music with others. I had so many ideas, like play a same song in different places and make a record of that, or just travel from one place to another with my violin, add music to my journey.

But up to now, during all my travels, among all my packages, there’s no space for a violin.

I still remember the journey from Hong Kong to Macao many years ago. Since Macao came back to China in 1999, it became a popular place that gathered thousands of tourists and gamblers from all over the world. We were on a small ship at that moment, my mother, my grandma and I. It was a windy morning. With the curiosity to a former colony, with the ambition to be a millionaire in casino, a load of people crowded on the deck, nobody preferred to be the last one to find the “ new continent ”. I cared about nothing. I just hold up the railing and felt sick. The sea was quite unstable, which gave me a strong feeling that I was sitting in a roller coaster. I threw up again and again, and that was only what I could remember. I didn't know how we got to the harbor, how we passed the customhouse. That was an exhausted memory of my childhood.

It was a way of journey. Tourists cannot always be very comfortable. Travelers are not that kind of person who are lying in the first-class carriage, drinking brandy and making their journey like staying at home. This is not the way I want.

I traveled to Lugu Lake in this February. The whole journey proved a theory: only took a risk can you approach the beauty.

It was an incredible way. Not only the unrivalled scenery around the whole journey ---- fabulous Jinsha River, elaborate terrace, primitive villages ---- made it unbelievable, but also the all dangers we met made this journey unforgettable.

When we passed a stoney road near the Jinsha River, my imagination was still floating above the perfect panorama right before my eyes, suddenly the bus driver shouted: “ Take care of the dropping stones! ” I realized there was a big slope full of stones stood by the road, outside of my window. The bus stopped, the driver calmly asked all passengers sitting on the right side of the bus paid attention to the dropping stones. “ You’d better move away from the window. ” We carefully passed the slope, as slowly as we could. I gazed at the stones deadly, thought if there was a boulder dropping on my window, I had no way to escape. Hallelujah we made it! The driver was a good guy. He didn’t tell us there was a bus being destroyed recently by the slope until we passed it. He also didn’t tell us it was only the beginning.

After spending nearly 40 minutes in a garage (one of our tires refused to work any more and ended its life), more than an hour in a Sichuan restaurant, we started a brand new way. Our bus carried us, and played as a climber towards the mountainous area. The bus zigzagged on the zigzag roads, this made me feel sleepy. I was quite familiar with the mountainous terrain of Yunnan, nothing made me worried, so I decided to close my eyes. Two women from Taiwan on the same bus screamed all the way, they might believe it was a fatal journey. Their extreme fear led the bus driver pressed the throttle with all his strength, he hoped to use this way to prove it was just a piece of cake. I fell asleep with confidence. When I felt the bus nearly walked haltingly, I opened my eyes. Was it a dream? I almost couldn’t see anything outside of the window. We were surrounded by the deep fog! Everyone on the bus fell into a terrible still, including the women from Taiwan. We fumbled the road with the driver, like Madam Curie fumbled her way in chemistry. My gosh! If I died here, I even didn’t know where it was!

Finally, with triumphal smile, our captain broke through the fog. Oh captain, my captain! But obviously, this was not the worst thing. On the contrary, far more than the worst.

As the elevation was higher, the weather was worse. In the end, it even began to snow. Some natives on the bus cried happily: it was the first snow in the year. Usually it was considered to be a symbol of good harvest. But I couldn’t be happy. The road was covered with ice, and what made things worse was that, we were moving down from slopes! At the top of a steepest slope, our captain could not bear our shouting any longer, he stopped the bus, and shouted back: “ You, all of you, get off, walk ahead and wait there! ” We dared not to disobey, and soon I treaded on the soft snow. Nice feeling! When I nearly forgot the danger we faced just now, something came into my vision ---- a rushing bus! Our captain crazily steered his ship passing by his distrustful crew with mocking smile. Wow!

When we arrived at Lugu Lake, everything was in the dark. It was not a nightmare, it was the most exciting dream I’ve ever had. We took 8 hours on the way. Eight hours to cross 300km!

When I sat in a pub near the lake in that deep night, I felt really happy. What a risk I took! And what amazing scenery right before my eyes! I still alive, what a euphoria and sensation in my heart!

way to Lugu Lake

Chinese government made a talented dicision. The legal holidays become scattered, which means we may also have holiday in the festival such as Mid-autume, Dragonboat festival, etc. That’s good for the traditional culture, good for the economy, and without any doubt good for ME! I have more chance to go out without guilty, because it is legal.

Last week was the Sweeping Tomb Day. Every Chinese got a three-day-holiday. Thank God! None of my relatives has passed away, so it’s not a sad day for me. I needn’t to climb the high mountain to sweep the tomb, and cherish my memory of them. On the country, I went to travel again. It’s the second time for me to travel within three weeks. But this time, I went with my family.

Traveling alone has a lot of fun. But traveling with mum and dad, the biggist advantage is that I almost needn’t to pay anything! Living in better hotels, eating better food without paying, I think only foolish people will refuse it, right? Wrong! Nothing will be so perfect. Parents of couse will not allow the younger ones to stay in pubs so late. When I lived in a same room with my mum last week, she even didn’t allow me to watch a footbal game on TV after midnight. So my advice is, when you make the choice about traveling alone or with some others ( no matter whether they like footbal or not ), think twice!

Luckily this time we traveled to a small town in countryside, which had less pubs to spend the time after 22:00. This stifled an argument between parents and children. Weishan, locates near her famous sister Dali, is a place shyly hiding her beauty.

Now I need you to follow with my footprints, through the photos to go into that small ancient town with me.




The ancient city has a glorious history. The low houses along the street are nearly 700 years old! Some of them are rebuilt by different emperors in different dynasties, but we can still find all of the houses and the streets are streched out in a good order nowadays.


This building’s name is fasinating ---- a building with stars around it. It was built in 1390, when it was the Ming Dynasty of China. The time I went there was in the early morning. Though I had no chance to see whether there were a lot of stars around it in deep night, the sunlight lit up the old gate was also very beckoning.

This alley is unforgetable for me. Not only because of its narrow width ( I bet Hurley on Lost has problem to pass it ), but also its startling length. The full length of it is 412 metres. I was thinking in this alley, if I meet a robber in front of me, and with his confederate behind me, the only thing I can do is giving them all, and asking them to let me take part in their job. As their work in this place is so easy to complete.

What am I talking about? Robbing is impossible in such a pure place. You can push any doors of natives’ houses in the street, nobody will lock their doors. They are not worried about crimes. They are good souls.

An antique shop came into my eyes. Saddle, container of rice, wooden walking stick, Buddhist Scripture… Maybe some of them were dug from mud, maybe you will amazingly find a hairpin once belonged to a Chinese emporar’s lovest woman.

I guess this small old restaurant was very very renowned. The people who came to have breakfast stood in a long queue. The chef or the owner herself was busily cut the pork into long narrow pieces. It’s a traditional dish of local area. A kind of noodle ( perhaps I cannot call it noodle, it’s hard to describe ) with very soft pork. All right, I’d better give you its Chinese name ---- Weishan Parou Ersi. If you are able to be here someday, you must taste it, just like what I did. You can put the ingredient into your dish by yourself. Really tasty!

What made me impressed was the bus in the town. Without any pullution and harmful gas, makes me ---- an environmentalist ---- feel excited. Riding this kind of bus, you can also go sightseeing with fresh air and soft breeze.

See my shadow? We are in a same place, I mean me and a dog with an unknown name, under the same sunshine, but we are in two different world. He ( or she ??? ) is carefree and live in such a peaceful way all the life. I really envy him. I was still worrying about the poem reciting competition next week in my college!

Since the day I became a university student, I have had a strong feeling to escape from my university. I don’t know why. Maybe my university is too close to the place I live (only 30km), that terriblely proves I still live in a tiny circle. Or maybe I hate my new campus, it’s a wasteland and I know I shouldn’t be there. So I choose the only way to realize my escaping ---- TRAVEL.

I don’t have so much time to spend during a journey. I have class from Monday to Friday, and have to be back to my dorm in every Sunday evening. The only method I can figure out to travel is playing truant. Luckily, my major has some relationship with tourism, so I get a perfect reason to travel around and that’ll make me feel less guilty.

Sometimes I only carry a small bag, without too much money, without fellow travelers, even without knowing where to go. I often find a place on the map where is no more than 300km away from my city, and then start to approach it. For me, there’s no destination, no schedule during my journey. I may keep walking for a whole morning, towards somewhere I don’t know, or may stay in a certain place for quite a long time, without doing anything.

I went hiking near a river two weeks ago. I got a very negative attitude the night before that day. When I lay in the small hostel, the fragments of memory flooded back. All I could see in my mind was the dark side of my life. I remembered the feeling when I failed my college entrance exam ---- such helpless and despair. I believed that I deserved a better university, not the one I was stuck with now. When thinking all of this in the darkness, I felt really down. The next morning I went to the riverside. It was a still place. There’re almost no other travelers there. I walked along the river, listened to the sounds from thousands of insects in the forests, and noticed a group of waterwheels in the clear water. The waterwheels looked so old, I bet they existed there for more than a hundred year. They still kept moving, without complaining about their destiny, without any bad mood, just kept moving with their beautiful songs. Thinking about those things appeared in my mind last night, I felt ashamed. I even didn’t know the meaning of life a couple of hours ago! I’ve got everything in my life. I had my family who love me all the time, I got so many wonderful friends, I got someone I love, I got a life that I almost needn’t to worry about anything… But I still complained and wanted to escape from everything!

I’ll still travel. Maybe sometimes I have to quit some classes, but I know the real meaning of traveling. It isn’t escaping from the realist life; on the contrary, it is trying to find the meaning of my life and myself. The blog should be a piece of land to show my footprint, or some pages of book to mark the process of growing up.

Like what I said, my trip has no direction, no destination. It’s a kind of life style. Welcome to my life!