[Lifestyle] Drive nearly ten thousand miles to visit Altun Mountain, Lop Nur, and Loulan (Part 2)

Preface : After leaving Ayakkumu Lake, we embarked on the way back. Come out from the direction of Huatugou and go straight to the direction of Ruoqiang County. This time, the scientific research crossing activity in Altun Mountain was successfully completed. Altun Mountain, goodbye! After a short stay of two days in Ruoqiang, the first team of the expedition report started to drive towards Lop Nur again, heading for Milan and the Loulan ruins. (Source of the following pictures: Yang Zheng)

milan ruins

Through a curving field of farmland we came to the “end of the road”. A gray iron gate cuts off the road in front. There is a small blackboard on the gate, which reads “Sale red dates and black wolfberries”. looked at us stupidly.

This is the entrance to the Milan ruins, and this house is a cultural relic protection station in Milan, China.

Many people may know the ruins of Loulan, or know the ancient city of Jingjue (Niya ruins) because of fantasy novels such as “Ghost Blowing the Lantern”, but what is the ruins of Milan? What does it have to do with the 36 countries in the Western Regions? It is hard to imagine that the rise of Milan actually stems from an act of transnational theft.

The famous explorer and cultural thief Stein came here in the early 19th century to carry out extensive excavations and discovered the earliest murals and a large number of cultural relics with the intention of flying in my country. Needless to say, the artistic value and archaeological value. Stein stole it and brought it back to England, which attracted the attention of our country. After archaeological appraisal, it was confirmed that this place was Yixun City, where the Shanshan Kingdom (Loulan) garrisoned fields during the Han Dynasty. Not long after Loulan was destroyed, Yixun County also disappeared in a few years.

(Milan temple ruins photographed by British explorer Stein)

(Photo of Milan Stupa by Stein)

After showing the relevant procedures, the protection station opened the door for us, and within five minutes of driving, we saw the pagoda in Stein’s famous photo. I walked around, trying to pose for a photo in the same pose as Stein. Later, it was discovered that the pagoda had been severely eroded by wind, and the surroundings were no longer as majestic as it was more than a hundred years ago, and the angle from which Stein took pictures could not be found. However, compared with other houses and buildings, this pagoda is still well preserved.

(The ruins of the pagoda we took during this trip)

The courtyard is empty, with occasional bulges in the shape of Xiaoyadan. From a close look, it can be recognized as a private house. The walls are made of tamarisk and mud, and some places seem to be partitions for storing items. Perhaps this was once the home of a Han Dynasty soldier. Has he ever received the sunrise and sunset here, and has he had fireworks and food here? Perhaps he also fought the Huns, and lamented that the moon is the hometown of Ming at night, right? It’s just that a thousand years have passed, and everything has almost disappeared. I am standing here, touching that era with my imagination.

Being discovered stems from a case of cultural plundering, and being valued again is more due to the development needs of the tourism industry. Inside the dilapidated gate with “jujube sales”, the Milan ruins are slightly funny. Maybe the blackboard will be taken down in the future, and the house will become a ticket office, but I don’t know how many people will know this place, and how many people will know this place, besides climbing to a high place and admiring the unobstructed vastness, is there anyone else? Care about the stories that happened in this land…

Loulan Protection Station

In June of this year, I came to the Loulan Protection Station for the first time, drank Xinjiang Dawusu, and chatted with the staff of the protection station in a daze. Stationmaster Cui also jokingly said to me: “There are ancient tombs near our protection station. If you drink too much, don’t run around at night. It’s not good to disturb the people over there (referring to the people in the ancient tombs). “In the evening, the sky gradually dimmed, and the ancient city of Loulan in the distance gradually entered a dark world, and the protection stations with a radius of several hundred kilometers were lit. One night, I had the opportunity to guard this thousand-year-old city with the protection station, guarding the brilliant civilization here, as if I was lying on the layers of history of the Western Regions, which made me extremely excited.

This time, as the starting team came to the Loulan Protection Station again, my teammates, like me, kept asking Stationmaster Cui: “Is it dangerous to enforce the law?” “Did something weird happen… “One of the most asked questions is: “Are you guys going to be bored here?”.

Loulan is different from the piracy and poaching of people in the Altun Mountains. Tomb robbery and illegal crossing here are the most rampant. The prosperous Loulan Kingdom of the Han Dynasty, which was full of merchants, was brought back to the world by the shovel of Sven Hedin, and the staff of the Loulan Protection Station became the patron saint of the city.

The station master said that the three of them once shared 600 kilograms of water per month with several chickens and three dogs, and stayed in the ground nest for 8 months. Sometimes I dreamed that the mummy was dancing in the ancient tomb, and when I woke up the next day, I found traces of tomb robbers, riding a motorcycle to track and enforce the law in the 40-50 degree high-temperature saline-alkali land and Yadan group on the surface.

(Watch tower in Loulan Protection Station) 

Will they be bored? I asked the 21-year-old Uighur boy what he did every day during his two years at the protection station. He replied, eat, sleep, patrol. This is the first time I have heard that someone will specifically mention eating and sleeping and list them on the list of things to do every day.

Are they boring? They have seen people who came here to commit suicide because of heavy debts, captured skilled tomb robbers, and witnessed arrogance and illegal crossing. Each of them has an unusual story and the most steadfast belief.

(Accommodation environment for protection station staff)

The earliest brick houses in the protection station were built in 2008, and a few simple brick houses cost 800,000 yuan. The station master said that it costs 15 yuan to transport a brick from Ruoqiang to here, and the driver is still unwilling to come. Yes, there is no regular road to the protection station. The saline-alkali crust is pressed, sharp and hard, and the tires are easy to burst. We went to the protection station from Ruoqiang, which basically took five hours. It is impossible to go to this place to work and go back and forth in one day.

(The road leading to Loulan is said to have been pressed out by the army in recent years. Driving on this road for a long time will produce the feeling of driving a boat, because the two sides are at the same height as the road and flat like sea level , and boundless. But this road is not easy to walk, the road is full of gravel, and it is easy to puncture tires.)

A dog who came to the sanctuary last time was pregnant. This time, it has given birth to six puppies. The station master said that when there were no dogs, four or five pairs of eyes flashed at night when the flashlight was on. It was a fox. If there was a dog, the fox would not dare to come over…

My colleague said, Daru should stay here and pick me up in a month. I’m curious about everything here. I thought I liked this because of the magic. But what about curiosity? I thought, I’m afraid I won’t be able to stay for a day. In this no-man’s land that is almost isolated from the world, any mouse, flying insect may overwhelm me. It won’t look so cute.

Loulan Ancient City

The road to Loulan may be the worst road in the world. But everyone who has never been to Loulan is attracted by it. In fact, the Loulan City seen by the eyes is not mysterious, and the dimension of time must be added to observe the Loulan City. Here the loess is all over the sky, the wind and sand are raging, the sun is direct, and the heat is steaming. The breath of death enveloped the earth, people couldn’t open their eyes, they couldn’t open their mouths, and they had nowhere to hide.

The Bureau of Cultural Relics encircled a 5*5 square kilometer protected area with iron fences in the Loulan Old City. In fact, there is no difference between the inside and outside of the circle, but there are high and low hills and ditches, and dozens of roads are the same. The only recognizable buildings are the stupa and the three rooms.

(The nearby buildings are three rooms, and the far wall is the Loulan Pagoda)

I carefully looked at the 10.4-meter-high pagoda and the three-room wall that was swaying in the wind and rain, and thought about the outstanding explorers who made achievements in these two buildings. Maybe they are camping on the land under my feet, maybe smoking a cigarette, looking at this virgin land with deep culture and history, their blood spurted with excitement.

(Li Bowen. In February 1909, according to the geographic coordinates submitted by Sven Hedin, Ju Ruichao quickly found the ruins of the Loulan Old City, becoming the third person to enter the Loulan Old City after Sven Hedin and Stein Foreigners. In the old city of Loulan, Ju Ruichao found the “Li Baiwenshu” that shocked the world)

In the early 19th century, Sven Hedin brought the city of Loulan back to the world with a Greek-style carving. He once excavated a large number of magical artifacts on the high platform next to the stupa; Stein found and took away a large number of clerical silks in Sanjianfang and other places; Ju Ruichao came to Loulan with the attitude of trying his luck, and dug up the “Li Baiwenshu” that shocked the world under the garbage dump in the corner of Sanjianfang… A century has passed, dozens of excavations have been made, and the loess has been dug out. Are there any other precious cultural relics? Which are the keys to unraveling Loulan’s three mysteries (ethnicity, civilization fault, and mysterious destruction of the country)? No one can tell what kind of secret treasures are still hidden in the ground under our feet.

I am very satisfied to be here. In such a deserted old city, history has experienced a complete flow. War, prosperity, demise, silence, reappearance, excavation, visit, sentimentality… The pictures of different people in Loulan City in different periods spontaneously develop associations in the mind. I stood at the end of the time node and traced forward. In this way, at the same geographic coordinates, different time and space were strung together.

Yu Chunshun Tomb

In the distance, Yadan floats on the water, like islands. “It’s all fake. This piece of flat salt crust has no Yadan and no water. It’s a mirage.” My colleague told me. Even seeing is not believing, which amazes me.

The false scene must have deceived many people who walked here. They walked towards the oasis of longing, their will was eroded over and over again, and finally they were killed by exposure and thirst.

This is Lop Nur, a place where there is no grass on the ground and no birds in the sky. The saline-alkali layer on the ground was curled due to high temperature and dryness, and the sky and the earth were glowing bright white. Let’s visit a person who has been buried here forever, Yu Chunshun.

(Data map)

In 1996, Yu Chunshun set off from the Tuyin site, trying to complete the feat of crossing Lop Nur on foot in June. In Yu Chunshun’s eyes, this activity, which the predecessors could not challenge successfully, is more like a small test. His plan is to go to the Taklamakan Desert after successfully crossing Lop Nur on foot, creating the first person in history to cross the tower on foot. desert record.

Yu Chunshun has already won too many laurels. He completed the first human being alone to cross the Sichuan-Tibet, Qinghai-Tibet, Xinjiang-Tibet, Yunnan-Tibet, and China-Nepal highways on foot. He has been circling between challenging nature and challenging himself all his life. In the end, his soul was broken in Lop Nur and he was buried in Lop Nur.

At the site of the disaster, there are five steles erected at the front and rear. Except for the stele left at the time of the incident and the official inscription erected by the government later, the other three were all set up by Yu Chunshun’s “friends” before his death. It seems that everyone wanted to prove that they had a relationship with Yu Chunshun. Looking over in a row, five different inscriptions form a straight line, and a lot of mineral water is crookedly placed under each one.

(The place where Yu Chunshun died, later generations used bricks to show the shape of Yu Chunshun who fell at that time.)

In addition to praise and praise for him, some people say that Yu Chunshun has been burdened by fame and fortune all his life, some people say that he is paranoid and arrogant, and some people say that what he did is meaningless… On the way we left the cemetery, people with us also discussed this .

I really admire Yu Chunshun from the bottom of my heart, I admire his purity. A brave man pursues bravery all his life, and finally ends up with bravery. The word “challenge” is Yu Chunshun’s lifelong career,… Lop Nur, Tamer… There will be other places after that, he can’t stop, this is his life. He is like the bird without feet mentioned in the movie lines. It can only fly and fly, and sleep in the wind when it is tired. This kind of bird can only land once in its life, and that time is when it dies.