Plateau trip (2)

Visiting relatives in the plateau

As the summer vacation was approaching, my son Mu sent a WeChat message and suggested, "Mom and dad take the train to Lhasa together." This has also been our family’s long-cherished wish for many years. On the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, it would be so proud and satisfying to ride on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway that my husband once participated in the construction to experience the scenery of Tibet!

Time flies, and every time I went to the plateau to visit relatives is still vivid in my mind. It was June 29, 2001, when the first phase of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway project, including the No. 2 Dagangou construction site constructed by the China Railway Fourth Bureau No. 1 Company, officially started construction.

On August 8, as a teacher at the time, I finished my work at school, took the trust of my family, and embarked on a journey to visit my relatives alone with an uneasy heart. After taking a bus and changing trains, after many twists and turns, we finally arrived at Golmud Station. Seeing my husband appear at the exit of the station intact, looking at each other, I choked up for a moment. All doubts are instantly relieved!

In the summer vacation of 2002, I took my 7-year-old son with me and embarked on a trip to visit relatives again. We came to the Gela section of the second phase of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway built by the China Railway Fourth Bureau No. 1 Company at the northern foot of Tanggula Mountain and west of Hoh Xil. 15 bid project department. The altitude here is 4,680 meters, and the pipeline section passes through 800 miles of uninhabited land. The plateau in August is intoxicatingly beautiful. The car is driving on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, and the highway goes straight into the clouds. The fluttering white clouds and the snow-capped mountains are integrated into one. Overturned cars and discarded luggage can be seen everywhere on both sides of the road.

"The station has arrived." The gentleman told me. The car we were riding in stopped a hundred miles away from Yanshiping. This is an expanse of vast plateau Gobi grassland. At a glance, the gray-white color steel plate house shines under the scorching sun on the plateau. A courtyard house integrating offices, accommodation, and medical care protrudes from the wilderness of the plateau. The red couplets on the colorful door are particularly dazzling: "When you are tired during the day, pull a piece of white cloud to wipe your sweat and feel refreshed; when you are lonely at night, it is cool to pick a star and light a lamp." There are no heroic words, but the heroic aspirations of the builders of the Fourth Bureau are written.

After putting down his luggage, the husband went to the construction site and disappeared in the blink of an eye. I looked around at my husband's room, which contained a bed, a table, a chair, a water dispenser, an air conditioner, a simple wardrobe, and a cylinder oxygen tank.

On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in August, the wind still slaps my face like a whip. The midday sun scorched the steel-frame house, making it unbearably hot inside. The ultraviolet rays outside the house burned the face with burning pain, making it difficult to open one's eyes. The cold wind blew in the shade. Night falls, the empty plateau is exposed to the biting cold wind. Mu and I hid in the house early and didn't dare to go out. We wrapped ourselves tightly in quilts to keep warm. Severe altitude sickness caused us, mother and son, to have such headaches that we could not sleep. We could only lie quietly on the bed, sucking oxygen, listening to the "singing" of the wind and the "dancing" of the signboard room. It was late at night, the outdoor temperature dropped sharply to about minus 15 degrees Celsius, and the indoor air conditioner was of no help. I subconsciously wrapped myself up in quilt, looked at the big and bright moon outside the window, and waited for the return of my husband and his colleagues in fear and anxiety.

Mr. seems to be born with no fear of cold or heat. When he comes back at midnight every night, his thick cotton army coat is always covered with patterns - the art of pouring piles. No matter whether Mu and I fell asleep or not, he would wake us up, fearing that once we fell asleep we would never wake up again. During the day, in addition to Dr. Li from the health center and the cook in the kitchen, there were only two people in the project department: me and Mu. The loneliness was unbearable. Going fishing in the Dangqu River (one of the tributaries of the Tuotuo River) near the station, or following Dr. Li from the health center to the summer pasture near the construction site to provide free medical treatment for Tibetans, naturally became the happiest things for Mu and me.

The sky on the plateau changes at will. One moment it's heavy rain, another moment there's a rainbow hanging high, sometimes there's snowflakes dancing wildly, and now the sun is shining brightly. It's true that "the sky is different in ten miles, and there are four seasons in one day".

? In the early days of building the site, the food in the canteen was usually half-cooked, and the water would boil before it reached 80 degrees. Later, a pressure cooker was used to solve the problem. Coupled with altitude sickness, it is normal to have no appetite when it is time to eat. What makes Mu the most happy is the transport vehicle that drives from Golmud once a week (the Qinghai-Tibet Engineering Bureau of China Railway Fourth Bureau refers to the special vehicle that distributes daily logistics support items to various project departments). That vehicle is loaded with various daily necessities, fruits and vegetables. Vegetables and letters. It carries the warm care and love of family members.

The first time I had close contact with the first Tibetan girl was in the yard of the project department. She looked like a teenager, with a pair of big black eyes, a head full of braids, dark skin, and a face The unique plateau red color adorns the cheeks, so beautiful that it makes people love and feel heartache! Looking at her and then looking at Mu and himself, what's the difference between them and her? We haven’t washed our hair or bathed for more than a month! Due to language barrier, conversation was impossible. I learned from Dr. Li that her name was Zhou Ga and that she was in the third grade of primary school in Amdo County, Tibet. Her father was driving and hauling dirt on the construction site, and their home was in a tent built for them by the project department.

School is about to start and students are returning to school. Since it was hard to get a ticket, my husband had no choice but to accompany us, mother and son, on a ride from the project department to Lanzhou to deliver raw materials for inspection. I don’t know what it is like now, but the condition of National Road 109 was very bad at that time. Get up early and hit the road from the project department station. From Fenghuoshan to Kunlun Pass, there are wind, rain, thunder and lightning, and snowflakes flying all the way. After passing Dagel Township, the Nomuhong Gobi Desert immediately appeared in front of us, and a burst of sand covered almost the entire road. The car has been traveling through the vast Gobi desert, crossing mountains and rivers. When the car arrived at Qinghai Lake, the night was already deep. The driver Xiao Shen reminded: "We are almost at Moon Mountain. Please fasten your seat belt. There is a cliff on the roadside. If you accidentally fall, the car will be destroyed and you will be killed." I was so scared that I didn't dare to lie down in the back seat. Close your eyes. This was especially true for Mr. Shen. He was worried that Xiao Shen was too tired, so he kept talking to him all the way. It was around 3:20 in the morning the next day when we arrived in Xining. After taking a nap, it was already dawn. We continued on the road at 7 o'clock, but rocks fell from time to time on the road. We stopped and walked. We arrived at Minhe County, Qinghai Province at 11 o'clock at noon. The collapsed mountain completely blocked the way. It was around 3 p.m. when the clearing was completed and the car was opened to traffic, and it was nearly midnight when we arrived in Lanzhou.

Early the next morning, my husband put us on the train from Lanzhou to Shanghai. I quickly put my luggage away and got off the train alone. The moment the car door closed, Mu found that his father was still under the car. So, I shouted to my father to get in the car, and then the car started. Outside the window, with tears in his eyes, the gentleman waved after the train. Mu shouted hysterically: "Dad, get in the car, let's go home." The child's cry made two children who went to study in Shanghai also shed tears. My husband gradually disappeared from sight...

That summer vacation was the most fulfilling summer vacation that Mu and I had ever had. "Drinking" the cold wind from the plateau, eating raw food, and enjoying the fish in the Tuotuo River. Walking through the Tongtian River, crossing the Sanjiangyuan, standing at the Tanggula Mountain Pass and feeling the changes of the four seasons in a day, witnessing the rise of an iron dragon on the plateau, and witnessing the "Steel Man and Iron Horse Spirit" of the people of the Fourth Bureau, what a blessing it is!

Behind happiness is endless sadness! Just in 2003, my father left me, and my mother lay in bed for three months with intubation for gallbladder and bile duct stones surgery. During the summer vacation, my father-in-law was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. I encountered all the misfortunes in the world, but my husband was nowhere to be seen...

Today, as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is approaching its tenth anniversary, as the first railway of the year, I I was touched by my courage as a family member of the Fourth Bureau who took the risk to visit relatives on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway! Be impressed by the power of love! Looking back on the past, I am filled with emotion. Today’s plateau will definitely be more beautiful!

More than ten years ago, the little Tibetan girl who played with Mu and her family no longer had to travel between Amdo and Yanshiping in a convertible!