In the near distance, the barren grass swayed with the wind, and in the distance were the sea of clouds, the warm sun and the mountains of Guizhou. Under the guidance of the teacher of Fudan University, we walked up the hillside along the sheep's intestine trail and listened to him tell the story of the flowers and plants on the side of the road.
"If you take students out for the expedition, we certainly won't let the students go ahead." Why? Because we, the teachers, are most afraid of being asked about creatures that we don't know. ”
Before the words could be heard, the teacher threw an unknown plant away. Everyone laughed at the teacher's humor. This is a scene that happened in the Guizhou nature education classroom.
If it were not for bmw's invitation, we who are accustomed to "staying at home" in the city on weekdays should not have crossed the mountains and mountains to the "poorest" mountainous areas in Guizhou, walked with humorous and knowledgeable teachers, and witnessed the ecological wisdom of the unity of heaven and earth and people in Guizhou.
Let's go
Let's go to the mountain side of Guizhou to see
Dushan County, Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, southwest of Qianxi Province, a familiar combination of words, pointing to a mysterious mountainous area in Guizhou, it is our travel destination with the new BMW iX3.
If you have seen Lu Qingyi's documentary "Four Springs" by Lu Qingyi, a native of Mazhen, Dushan County, it is difficult not to have a yearning for his hometown. Under his lens, there are traces of wind blowing grass, and there are swallows streaking through the sky. Four hours of wild fun, local style, let the people of the city think of it.
Screenshot of the movie "Four Springs"
Behind the screen, Dushan County is another kind of vernacular magic realism. Debt of 40 billion yuan, the construction of the rotten tail water division building. Dushan County was therefore pushed into the limelight of public opinion in 2020. Under public opinion, it drags the shadow of a state-level poverty-stricken county, and it is also one of the true portrayals of Guizhou's "mountain poverty".
Guizhou is mountainous, and Dushan County is famous for its typical southwest karst landforms. For a long time, because of the land rocky desertification and the slow development of production, it has been trapped in the dilemma of "old and young and poor".
On November 10-11, with BMW's convoy, we headed for this remote wasteland.
The blue sky is like a wash, and we seem to be driving underwater. With excellent stability, even if the mountain road is rugged, the new BMW iX3 is also performing with ease, which makes people sigh: the original electric car is not exclusive to the city.
Coupled with the autonomous driving assistance system Pro, the new car brings enough safety and ease to the driver and occupants on the road, and get a kind of fish swimming in the water during each journey.
When we press the "function start button" on the left side of the steering wheel on the highway, the driver assistance function of the new BMW iX3 is turned on. Not only does the vehicle automatically adjust its speed according to the driving state of the car in front of it, but it can also naturally change lanes when we flick the turn signal pole. When we are on "stop-and-go" urban roads, the traffic congestion auxiliary function can also reduce a lot of human operation, thus avoiding excessive fatigue.
This sense of galloping makes driving a long distance of nearly 350 kilometers somewhat at ease. The green mountains in front of you are like waves, and they keep regressing backwards as the car moves forward.
As we traveled, we passed through tunnels. Between light and darkness, the shape of the mountain is constantly changing, like a bun, like caries, which is the trace left by the rain washing the limestone day and night, which is one of the characteristics of the karst landform.
And only the green of the mountain, stretching endlessly. A friend who was traveling with him suddenly asked, "How can the trees on the mountain grow so weak?" ”
This question has always been hovering in my mind. The trees here are not like the towering trees in the original forests of Yunnan, which are thick and huge; nor are they like the wide and deep street trees, which are plump and exuberant.
Compared with those "generals", the trees in Guizhou are like children. Standing up the weak and slender branches, thin and pulling, rooted in the cracks of the stones, and with the wild grass and wild vines, it seems that when a gust of wind blows, it will shake, and when a shower of rain comes down, it will slip away.
On the question "Why are the trees in Guizhou so weak?" we found the answer in the next trip. On the high mountain 3,000 meters above, we saw another side of Guizhou's ecology in a field nature education class.
Small mounds on the Sea of Clouds in Guizhou
We followed the teachers of Fudan University to "class"
Cross the Pingtang Bridge in Guizhou and drive all the way onto the newly developed highway. This mountain road has not yet been disturbed by a lot of artificial interference, and still retains the local wilderness. As the car drove into the depths of the dense forest, the green trees on both sides were like green walls, blocking the steep cliffs.
The steep slope, gravel and poor adhesion test not only our driving skills, but also the robustness of the chassis, as the power batteries of the new BMW iX3 are placed under the body. In order to ensure that the vehicle can also drive normally on the mountain road, the battery pack adopts a full range of safety design, and the internal multi-channel reinforcement beam, energy absorption structure and buffer space effectively reduce the risk of battery cell impact.
Between the peaks and loops, we came to the top of Yunshan Mountain in Qishan Village, Dushan County. Leaning over the cliff, looking back at the mountain road, the vegetation is like a thin layer of green flannel, which cannot cover the endless mountains. The mountain road stretches from the lack of green mountains to the nine curves and eighteen bends.
On such a road, a good handling SUV shows its magic. There is no sense of bulkiness during driving, and it is easy to operate. On the one hand, because of the pointing feedback and accuracy of the front, coupled with the fact that the center of gravity of the new BMW iX3 vehicle is 7.5cm lower than that of the fuel version, the handling stability during cornering has also been greatly improved.
During this trip, we also met Wang Fang, a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the School of Life Sciences of Fudan University, who has been engaged in biodiversity research for many years. This time, he used a nature education class to open up a corner of the biodiversity under the peaks of Guizhou.
Along the mountain road behind the Park Yu Ye Luxury Hotel, we followed Teacher Wang Fang up to the Tushan Mountain next to the homestay. On this small hill less than 50 meters high, we walked for almost half an hour.
Before he reached the middle of the mountain, Teacher Wang Fang stared at the small sapling in front of him. "Look, this is Masson Pine, it's the cannon fodder tree that we returned to forest." Masson pine is small, easy to survive, and has a lifespan of only 20 years, but it is a pioneer tree species in the "return of farmland to forest". After the Masson pine "dies", it leaves open space to provide nourishing soil for subsequent trees.
He suddenly crouched down, pointed to the stone and told us: "Don't underestimate the lichen, without it there would be no plants." ”
We followed his instructions and found lichens on the stones that looked like tea stains. Although the lichen looks small and unremarkable, the lichen acid it secretes has the ability of fossils to be soil, providing the basis for plant growth.
Along the way, Wang Fang teacher walked and stopped, like a walking plant map. Thick-skinned incense, hydrangeas, shiwei, those wildflowers and weeds, under his narration, have a figurative name and a vivid story, and spread on the ground a wordless poem about the return of farmland to the mountains:
Because of the existence of lichens, petrified into soil, weeds spread out of the soil, and the masson pine first opened the mountain from here, then the grass grew warblers to fly, and then the birds and animals foraged and settled here, forming a complex and exquisite food chain.
At the end of this nature education lesson, a butterfly suddenly flew into view, and in the hands of Teacher Wang Fang, it was a little lighter, and then it flew into the air, and then disappeared into the vast mountains.
The butterfly that unintentionally broke into our classroom seems to be a true portrayal of the butterfly effect of returning farmland to forests.
The bare mountains of Guizhou
Why there are very few big trees here
In Wang Fang's eyes, the small soil slope in front of us is exactly the small section of Guizhou's ecological restoration after returning farmland to forest.
In the past, Guizhou's land was fragmented and arable land was scarce, and in order to survive, it once fell into the strange circle of "the poorer the more the reclamation, the poorer the more the reclamation".
The situation in Dushan County, Guizhou Province, where we visited this time, is particularly serious, and half of the mountainous areas in the county are in a state of rocky desertification. In the worst place, the mountains of Guizhou are like suffering from vitiligo, with white stones exposed everywhere.
As a result, the habitat of the organism was greatly lost, and the vegetation was cut down, a phenomenon that lasted until the implementation of the policy of returning farmland to forests.
"China's policy of returning farmland to forests is one of the world's most remarkable ecological projects." Teacher Wang Fang said very affirmatively, "No country can achieve this level." When a villager plants a tree, the government pays for it. ”
Because of this, the sparse mountain forests of that year have been revitalized and flourished, and now the forest coverage rate in Guizhou has reached more than 61.51%. Although the vegetation is generally only in their 20s, they are a place of hope for the future.
The technology of returning farmland to forests has long been rooted in the traditional ecological wisdom of Guizhou people. In the early days, Guizhou and the mountains and forests coexisted, closely related and shared.
Driving in such green water and green mountains with a BMW iX3 makes me sigh: I can comfortably listen to the sound of everything in the world and feel the harmony between man and nature, which is inseparable from the concept of sustainable development.
As a century-old luxury car manufacturer, BMW has placed sustainability at the heart of its strategy. The new BMW iX3 is a green pure electric vehicle that practices the concept of sustainable development in the whole value chain, and the vehicle implements the concept of sustainability from the beginning of production design, with excitation synchronous motors without rare earth materials, components made of safe and pollution-free raw materials, 100% renewable energy electricity used in the production process, and a strict material recovery system, making the new BMW iX3 a strong testimony to BMW Brilliance's sustainable development strategy.
There is no doubt that such measures have also created a yearning for the harmonious coexistence of people, cars and nature. Perhaps this is why BMW chose Guizhou as the first stop on the new BMW iX3 journey.
Come and follow the trend
The future of sustainable mobility depends on the electrification of BMW
Mountains and forests are the fuel for human development. Since slash-and-burn farming, we have warmed our trees and then pushed up the steam train that symbolizes the Industrial Revolution.
In the past, the relationship between people and natural resources was tit-for-tat and unlimited. Due to excessive openness, natural resources will become more and more scarce in the future, which is an inevitable trend. People are beginning to understand the importance of natural resources for the ecology and climate of the earth.
From R&D to production, BMW's sustainable strategy has set a bellwether for the mobility industry, and it also has positive significance for the domestic new energy industry, and of course, it has also contributed to ecological protection.
The mountain forest full of life is fascinating. The restoration of ecological diversity in Guizhou is obstructive and long, and it is necessary to start from the little bit and persevere. We expect to see that companies like BMW take the initiative to assume social responsibility and coexist with Mori.
◐ Thanks to Wei Liangliang for providing some pictures
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The voice of the "mountain people" in the forest school