A post-00 generation decided to go to graduate school after bus rafting

Shanghai, buses passing on the Waibaidu Bridge in the morning light (Visual China/Photo)

In December 2022, Jiang Xia, a post-00s college student, took a bus from Shanghai all the way to Beijing, and he posted this journey on social media and suddenly became a hot search figure. Since then, he has taken buses to many places, and has also released plans for bus rafting to Taiwan and Japan.

College student special forces travel is becoming a certain trend of the moment, and it also reflects a certain general sentiment of a generation. Jiang Xia is regarded as one of the maverick representatives, and in many previous interviews, he has shown a state of inner peace and stability, unaffected by the outside world, although at the same time some people have described him as "not doing his job", and the two strands of yellow hair he picked and dyed have become a label of deviance. A Chinese version of the story "on the road" is being generated in the comments, flesh out in people's imagination.

Half a year after becoming a "net celebrity" due to bus drifting, when a reporter from "Southern People Weekly" talked to Jiang Xia on June 12, 2023, he had cut off his yellow hair, and the reason was just "hot". He is preparing for graduate school, and the next long-distance bus rafting will start after the final exam, not necessarily, and may be postponed if the preparation is busy. Is even him going to start "rolling"? This doesn't seem to meet people's expectations for this story.

Jiang Xia did not think, "If I don't conform to the mainstream coordinates, I will be said to be 'not doing my job', and if I do, I will be said to be 'volume', I am just doing what I planned, but I just haven't lost myself." Jiang Xia, who had just finished his daytime course, did not use the expression "passing" or "passing by" when talking about each city on the road in the two-hour narration, but said "met", which was his emotional outpouring.

Jiangxia's record of passing through 24 cities in China by bus during the winter holiday (Jiangxia/Photo)

The following is Jiang Xia's dictation:

Recent trip

My mindset has changed a bit from before, and it's related to my last trip. During May Day in 2023, I took a bus from Shanghai to Suzhou, Zhangjiagang, Jiangyin, Taixing, Nantong in Taizhou, then to Chongming Island, and finally back to Shanghai.

May 1-5, 2023 when in the Yangtze River Delta, go to Tangqiao Town, Zhangjiagang City, Nantong Qidong Yellow Sea (Jiangxia/Photo)

I have been traveling by bus before, it is a little impetuous, and I have not enjoyed it much on the road to travel in order to rush. This trip I stopped and stopped, although it is still a bit "special forces" color, but it is much more comfortable than before. I gained a lot from this journey, my heart settled, and I was able to see more details.

Due to my status as a medical student, I pay special attention to medical facilities in an area. I passed through Nantong, Jiangsu this time, and for the first time I knew that there is an undergraduate university in Nantong called Nantong University, and then I searched on the Internet, although this school is not very famous, it is also double-non, but its medical major has a doctoral program. The medical resources here are particularly good, even the best in the Jiangsu-Central region in my opinion. I also went to the medical school of Nantong University and found that their learning atmosphere is really very good, which I think is no less than some universities here in Shanghai. During college, I observed that most of the people around me were mentally exhausted and spent a lot of time on meaningless aspects.

Mid-May 2023, at Shanghai Nanhuizui Guanhai Park (Jiangxia/Photo)

I now look at the younger juniors and sisters who are younger than me, and on the one hand, I think they understand things quite early. For example, because the Internet is relatively developed now, maybe a freshman sister of mine already has the "experience" that I only have in my junior year. I took the bus from Shanghai to Beijing before, and the people who saw these vlogs may not have an intuitive feeling, but in a way they walked through these places with me. Don't underestimate people who are young, young age does not mean less experience.

The other side of the development of the Internet is that everyone is very confused, I found that the younger the more confused, the more people do not know what they are going to do, and they are sleeping at night during class. It seems that the more things you see, the more you absorb, the more you don't know how to choose, and it seems that all the roads are clearer and broader, but you don't know where to go.

May 21, 2023, Yuehe Ancient Street in Jiaxing (Jiangxia/Photo)

Now we are told that we can go to graduate school or public school, and we think that everything is good and that we can do anything. Anyway, if you can't pass the graduate school entrance examination, you will go to the public examination, and finally find that you may not be ready by the last month of the postgraduate examination, and the same situation also occurs during the public examination.

For example, if you go to a mall, if the mall only sells one thing, such as selling clothes, then you will definitely buy clothes when you go in, but if the mall has food, drink, and play, you don't necessarily go to the clothing store, you may go to eat something first. When I wanted to buy clothes, I found that I had no money after shopping, so I had to dismiss this idea and not buy clothes.

I myself have gone through such stages. The point of change was the reunion with one of my classmates. I repeated my third year of high school for a year, one year below him, he was already a senior, he was ready for graduate school but did not pass in the end.

I had a good relationship with him in high school, but when I met again, I found that I didn't have a common language with him. In the past, we would talk about traveling and collecting. I am a collector and love to collect all kinds of banknotes, stamps, coins. Now he doesn't find any of the above interesting, uninteresting. We also had a big disagreement on the matter of tourism, he felt that travel is spending money to find guilt, and from this point on, I felt that we had nothing more to say. He has lost that zest for life.

May 21, 2023, Yuehe Ancient Street in Jiaxing (Jiangxia/Photo)

The speed of the bus

I went to many places on the road, and this speed and method allowed me to see the customs and people in various places and see some real situations.

Jiang Xia shoots "Spring under the lens" (Jiang Xia/Photo)

I am a more conservative person, I like ancient buildings, old houses, old towns, prefer the old-fashioned places with life and fireworks, and do not want to see them demolished like this, turned into modern shopping malls, and high-rise buildings made of reinforced concrete.

When I was a freshman, I ate in an old lane in Shanghai, which is a very small noodle restaurant, not a chain, often opened by a family. In the particularly small and deep alleys, many of them have now been demolished, and all I see is ruins, which may also become modern shopping malls in a few years, and the same majesty makes me feel very uncomfortable. Walking in the Lujiazui area of Shanghai, once a prosperous place, now I see the business is also relatively bleak, I went there to eat today, the original queue in the big shopping mall, now there is no need to queue, although it is the weekend, the business is not very good.

Speaking of urbanization and modernization, I think of 13 years ago, when Shanghai hosted the World Expo in 2010, it proposed "Better City, Better Life" - Better City, Better Life. Walking through the city and the countryside, on a long journey, although my preference for the ancient is disappearing, I still agree that it is the city that makes life better, and the city provides a lot of convenience to people. Watching movies, ordering takeout, picking up deliveries, these have become the details of my life that I am used to.

I have traveled through so many cities, and I am very impressed with each of them, and they are all fresh in my memory now, and I can't forget them. My favorite city is Nanjing. Strange to say, probably there is a wonderful fate, every time I walk to Nanjing, it is that rainy weather, in that weather people will feel inexplicable sadness, after all, it is a city with a thick history. Every time I come to Nanjing, I have a sad and romantic feeling.

I am from Anhui, and some netizens ridiculed that the capital of Anhui Province is Nanjing. In fact, we Anhui people do have a strong sense of identity with Nanjing, I am from Hefei, we and Nanjing's dialect are the same, I can really speak my own Hefei dialect directly with them on the streets of Nanjing, and the locals can understand it. I will feel that Nanjing is my second hometown, or rather, this feeling is that the scenery is catering to people's hearts, rather than people looking for scenery.

Thinking back to the bus rafting all the way, when I took the bus from Shanghai to Beijing, to be honest, it was quite lonely to be alone. There are many drivers who will chat with me, very enthusiastic to give directions, sometimes I can't find a stop sign during the trip, and I will ask people. In fact, I was a very introverted person before, not very talkative, and did not dare to ask people. After these trips, I became outgoing and most of the people I met were very patient, which was the greatest kindness I felt. Such kindness may be subtle, but for those on the road, it is deeply felt.

Once when I set off from Hefei, there were two platforms with the same name, both called Binhu Times Square Station. I asked the driver at the time, and he explained that the two stop signs were indeed the same name, and told me which station to sit at if I wanted to transfer. He was worried that the other passengers would not know, and specially said to everyone again. Sometimes when taking the bus, I find that many drivers look a little fierce, but when the elderly and children come up, they will wait for a while, they would rather wait for four or five minutes, and they will wait for the old people and children to sit firmly before driving. This moment made me feel particularly touched, they were really thinking about others, not just being busy looking up at the front or looking down at their own steering wheel.

Like a bird soaring in the sky

After the final exam in July, I will still be on the road, and there are two options for the next stop, one is Lhasa and the other is Sanya. I'm not sure which one it is, but it's all doable, because I've already planned how each car will transfer. In fact, I will visit both places in the future, just in chronological order.

Going to Sanya may encounter cyclones and typhoons, but I think you don't have to deliberately dodge possible dangers during the trip, you can experience it. Even if it is a natural disaster, I think it is a rare experience to experience it once, as long as it is not life-threatening. If you are in the mood to avoid danger, you will not choose to go on the road. Not long ago, on Children's Day, I went to the playground with a classmate and took a roller coaster and a pendulum for the first time, which was a challenge for me, and I like to do things I haven't done before.

The most thrilling time is to be half-hung upside down in the air, the feeling of weightlessness makes my adrenaline soar all the time, at the same time, dopamine is also secreting rapidly, the stimulation and joy, I feel like a bird soaring in the sky. I may go again later, because I feel that if I am afraid of everything, I will have to stay where I am, and the radius of life will become smaller and smaller.

I believe in playground safety measures, accidents do happen, but that's a matter of probability. Even if people walk on the road, they are dangerous, and some flying disasters cannot be avoided. I don't want to stop because of these probabilistic questions, my life is not statistics, my life should be to do things that I have not done before.

I took the bus from Shanghai to Beijing in a similar situation. It was December 2022, when the new crown epidemic lockdown measures had just been adjusted and relaxed, and it was also a time when the epidemic was more serious in society. I was still resolute and decided to rush, and when I arrived in Beijing, the epidemic was actually quite serious, and a large number of people were infected.

Some people have malicious intentions and say that I am "poisoned by thousands of miles", which makes me feel bad. They said I was infecting the virus everywhere, and even though the policy was liberalized at the time, people would still scold me online. I think I can look at this matter objectively, and the relatives of those who may scold people have indeed died of the new crown virus, and I understand their feelings.

At that time, I thought I was still well prepared, wearing two layers of masks, one was an ordinary medical mask, another layer of N95 masks on the outside, and I also wore plastic gloves to try not to talk to others. During that trip, I basically did not chat with others, on the one hand, I was afraid that others would infect me, and on the other hand, I was afraid that I would infect others if I was infected. It's not that you don't want to communicate, you don't dare to communicate.

I spent most of the past three years in college in lockdown, and we spent a long time in a tense environment before the college entrance examination, thinking that the university would have a broader public life, but I lost these three years in a sense. Perhaps, this is not a real loss, only a real loss if you are unconscious of the loss and do not feel what you have lost. I've always wanted to explore where I want to go during college, explore my country, and explore the world.

Whether it's traveling or going to graduate school, it's all my dream, it's my goal, and since it's set, I want to achieve it. I am a stubborn person, and long ago, I had the idea of taking a bus from Shanghai to Beijing, but at the age of 22, I realized it, and when I was finished, it was no longer my dream, but something I actually did.

Jiang Xia's hand-drawn route map from Beijing to London by bus posted on social media (partial) (Jiang Xia/Photo)

It's just that I didn't lose myself

I plan to go to graduate school, which is also my dream, and it has nothing to do with the external "volume", and I feel that meaningless competition is not necessary. I'm just fulfilling my dreams, some of which are consistent with the mainstream, which may be seen as "volumes", and some of which are inconsistent with "mavericks", but I just haven't lost myself, and I'm following my own plan step by step.

On the road must be accompanied by accidents. For example, if I can't catch the bus at night, I have already decided where I will spend the night, but after arriving at the stop sign, I find that the bus is stopped, and I can't get to that place, so I have to find another place to spend the night temporarily. If you can't find it, you may have to walk several kilometers or even a dozen kilometers to a convenience store such as Rosen and Family Family, where you sleep on the table or on the platform. I've also slept in the grass and slept on the side of the road.

When I slept in the grass, it was winter, and in the Suzhou area, I wore thick clothes. There were no bugs at that time, so I just lay in the grass, with a hat covered and clothes wrapped, and I slept like this, there were trees in it, and no one came in.

Unlike some travel bloggers now, they often have a special team to plan and set up a variety of personalities after they become popular, and I think these are all with filters. They don't really enjoy the journey, purely to make videos. I am now alone, without any team, I can shoot if I want to take pictures with my own mobile phone, and I will not shoot if I want to, which is the best state for me, I like that I am like this, and I have no plans to become an Internet celebrity. Because I think that once people have an "identity", they will find ways to retain this identity.

If I change a little bit one day, people may be a little disappointed in me and think that I am not a travel blogger. But life is complex, I want to show my more authentic side, it must be diverse, and at the same time I want my every trip to be relaxed, without any identity, without the pressure of "personality" to do anything.

In the case of the current hot Zibo barbecue, many people go to check in for the sake of checking in, which is an era of fast food. Social media has its own algorithmic preferences, if I am a travel blogger, it is difficult to post other content, otherwise the platform will not attract traffic, and gradually it will become a video for traffic. In addition to the travel guide, I will post some other things now, even if no one likes it, I will keep it.

Recently, there have been "business opportunities" to find the door, bring goods or open live broadcasts, I have refused, I don't have such a big pursuit of money and traffic, I only hope to do what I like to do, that is, to be a doctor, to treat and save people in the future. In the future, I may go back to my hometown Hefei to develop, I want to go back there to become an ordinary doctor, it is best to enter a third-class hospital, I can't enter a third-class hospital, I can go to work in a rural community health center, as long as I do what I like to do.

I am still young and have an idea of wanting to break into the world, but life will eventually return to the ordinary, after all, it is for life, for livelihood, for my family, so I still hope that I can be stable in the future.

Now I am preparing for graduate school, and I am currently studying at a double non-secondary university in Shanghai, and my grades are still good, but it is still a bit difficult to get away from the institution where I want to apply for graduate school. Even if no one in our class is admitted, I will be the only one who will be admitted and I will compare myself to myself.

At present, it is very difficult to take the public entrance examination and graduate school entrance examination, and the number of college entrance examination applicants every year is there, the number of college entrance examination applicants is large, the university is expanding, and there are more and more college students. In the case of graduate school entrance examination, the number of graduate students recruited is there, it will not expand enrollment, and in the end, a lot of the pressure of competition is in the graduate school entrance examination. But this is also the path I chose, it is my plan, and it is the same as bus rafting.

In the tense state of preparation, I also always remember those moments during the trip:

In June 2023, Jiang Xia strolled in Lujiazui, Shanghai (Jiang Xia/Photo)

I have seen a sea of flowers, and fields of Kelsang flowers unfold in front of me. It was late afternoon one day, and the sunlight stretched through the bus window, hitting down the Tyndall effect, through which you could see the fine particles floating in the air. I pulled the car window and smelled the flowers in the wind. Do you know? In fact, at different times of the day, the smell of air is different, and I can distinguish the small smell in the air. At night, the air smells of hay, mixed with the smell of fuel and dust of the car.

To cross the Yangtze River by bus from Shanghai, you have to cross the Donghai Bridge on the sea, and the bus sails directly on the sea. I could smell the salty smell of the sea in the air, with a little fishy smell. Sometimes I can see wind turbines at sea, slowly turning in the sunset, and the waves on the sea, which makes me feel extremely romantic, and I hope that time can freeze at this moment, and I can feel my heart warm.

Southern People Weekly Han Ruxue