Cabin under the Northern Lights

一

Above the Earth's Arctic Circle, auroras visit from east to west every night.

In winter, in the white snowfields and deep forests, the chic cabins are the best stop for tourists to pursue the Northern Lights.

This is located 50 kilometers north of Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. It is said that the Northern Lights can be seen nearly half of the year.

The wooden house is actually a large hotel.

The hall is spacious and warm. The soft lights melt the cold outside instantly. The bright star decoration makes people forget their loneliness while waiting. A strong aroma of coffee spreads everywhere, arousing people's spirits.

Because it is located in a sparsely populated cold zone, tourists come here after many journeys. Unlike nightclubs in other cities in the United States, there are almost no people drinking and singing at the bar here, everyone is silent Rest and wait for the aurora to come.

When night falls outside and everything is dark and quiet, this cabin gives people a slightly tipsy atmosphere.

This lifelike stuffed bear will accompany you to sit and relax. Every place you touch in the room will appear extremely thick and warm.

These contemporary man-made facilities seem to make the Northern Lights lose their ancient mystery. We are like walking into a movie theater, waiting to watch the next scene of nature's scenic masterpiece.

2

There is a huge world map hanging on the wall in the hall, and a slogan is posted next to it: Where are you from? Visitors can put a colorful pin on the map of their country as a souvenir.

I asked the landlady for a few coins to share with fellow tour members, but little did I know that China’s huge territory was already densely populated.

Although the lady boss didn’t speak Chinese, she might have seen a lot of Chinese tourists. She pointed to the two walls of the passage next to me.

When I took a closer look, it turned out that there were maps of China and the United States on both sides. The palm-sized block on the world map was enlarged dozens of times.

Before everyone could get excited, they were stunned by the stitches on the map of China.

Except for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and large desert areas such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, almost all places with cities have been marked by "predecessors", especially the big cities in the eastern provinces. gap".

"Auntie, are you also from Guangzhou? My friend said that when she went to see the Northern Lights the year before last, this area was full of sticks."

A girl named Xiaoli pointed her fingers I gestured above the Pearl River Delta. She and another girl from Shenzhen are attending college in San Francisco, and this time they used their spring break to travel to Alaska.

"I thought it would be difficult to come all this way, but I didn't expect that we were still lagging behind." I said mockingly.

"It doesn't matter, this is just the starting point of our Alaska trip. We will continue to go north to Dead Horse Town to see the Arctic Ocean!" Xiaoli and the Shenzhen girl said with a smile.

Looking at the two southern girls in their 20s, I was a little confused, "Are it just you two?"

"No, there are two of them!" Lively Xiaoli He pointed at the two boys at the other end of the table.

The fat boy who was playing the game smiled at me and quickly moved his eyes to the mobile phone. Another fair-skinned boy looked more steady, as if he was older than the three students, and he nodded solemnly towards me.

They met in an exchange group for Chinese students studying in the United States more than two months ago, and the four of them agreed to take a self-driving trip to Alaska during the spring break.

Last night, two girls took a flight from San Francisco to Anchorage. After meeting up with the fat boy, they rented an off-road vehicle. Today, the three of them drove more than 400 kilometers north to Fairbanks. .

The fair-skinned boy known as Da Zhou is studying here as a graduate student and is the leader of a new starting point.

How far is Dead Horse Town from here? Why do you want to go there?

Looking at the young man who is about the same age as my child, I am very curious.

The girl from Shenzhen told me that Dead Horse Town is the northernmost town in Alaska and the end of the All-American Highway. It is on the edge of the Arctic Ocean and is about 800 kilometers away from here.

China is only a country on the Pacific coast, while the coast of the United States includes the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans, so I want to take a look at the coasts of each ocean while studying abroad.

"You have to take the Daton Highway to get there. This is the most dangerous road in the world. Don't take the risk without a local guide!"

The local guide of our group is in A Chinese who has lived in Alaska for more than ten years, when he heard about the children's plan, he immediately gave a kind reminder as a person who has been through it.

"Don't worry, Da Zhou is an expert on the Arctic. He has been there more than once." When the fat boy who had been obsessed with mobile games spoke, Da Zhou felt a little embarrassed, and his fair face looked a little embarrassed. reddish.

Da Zhou is a graduate student at Alaska State University, Fairbanks, and his research direction is related to polar science.

Before, I really didn’t know that in the remote area in the northernmost part of the United States, Fairbanks, a city with a population of only 30,000 (it looks like an ordinary town in China), actually has a well-known university. There are also exchange students from China.

Alaska State University ranks around 150th in the United States, but its Fairbanks campus has the National Polar Research Center and is one of the few top oceanographic and meteorological science temples in the world.

Da Zhou said that because the domestic university where he studied as an undergraduate is a sister school here, they can communicate with each other in majors and share resources.

He followed his mentor's advice and gave up the opportunity to change his major and go to Beijing for graduate school. He came to this remote place for a year of exchange, hoping to join the "Snow Dragon" scientific expedition team with his mentor next year.

I asked him which university in China he came from.

OUC, Ocean University of China!

Where? I asked him again in surprise.

"Oh, Auntie, you may not know much about this university. Most people don't know it is in Qingdao, but it is...", Da Zhou patiently explained to me.

How could I not know about this university, because my child happened to be studying there, but our scores were not enough to get into the school’s top majors, which were all related to ocean and atmospheric sciences. So I switched to the business major.

Only when you reach the end of the world can you understand what it means to be close to each other. Unexpectedly, in the cabin tonight, I not only met a fellow from Guangzhou and Shenzhen, but also a senior from my child’s school!

Three

"Why did it suddenly snow outside? Such thick clouds may have ruined the Northern Lights tonight." Director Gu walked around outside the door and walked into the room.

"Wait a while, if the sky is still full of dark clouds after half an hour, then we have to look forward to tomorrow night."

After that, this ray of northern lights will drift away from the United States and head towards Russia. , and go to the Nordic countries.

"What if we don't see the Northern Lights tomorrow and the next two nights?" a group member asked.

"Then come again next time," Director Gu smiled awkwardly.

"If I had known, we should have applied for visas for more countries and caught up with the Northern Lights before it visited seven other countries," the humorous group members speculated one after another.

"Perhaps it won't be so troublesome for Chinese people to go to the Arctic region to see the aurora in the future." Da Zhou said softly.

"Why?" Everyone was puzzled.

Because our country is a party to the "Svalbard Treaty", it was signed in 1925.

From that time on, Chinese people did not need a visa to go to the Svalbard Islands in the Arctic Circle and could freely enter and exit to engage in production, commercial and other activities.

Currently there are no direct flights to China, and they usually have to divert via Norway, so it is still very far away for most Chinese people.

The red arrow points to the Svalbard Islands, located between 74° and 81° north latitude, which is closer to the North Pole than the 65° north latitude of Fairbanks pointed to by the red Polaris

Currently Our country has established the Yellow River Station scientific research base on Svalbard. The orange-red building is also the largest physical space station in the world.

"My goal is to be selected into the mentor's team next year and go to the Yellow River Station with our country's 'Snow Dragon'."

As soon as Da Zhou finished speaking, it caused a stir Applause from all the Chinese tourists around.

Four

During the three days my group stayed in Fairbanks, I only witnessed the Northern Lights one night.

I have written about its spectacular scene in another essay, so I won’t go into details here. But what I saw and heard in the cabin on the first night is unforgettable to this day, and it makes me admire today’s Chinese young people.

When saying goodbye that night, everyone wished those young people a safe journey tomorrow.

The Dalton Highway runs directly through the hinterland of Alaska from north to south. It is a special transportation channel built for the large oil fields in the north.

During this period, we passed through countless plateaus, mountains, rivers and mountains with complex terrain. The severe cold and harsh climate has made the frozen soil roads bumpy and dangerous.

But none of this can stop the pace and dreams of China's new generation.