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Text: Uncle Luo Ying
Edited by Uncle Luo Ying
Tibet is a mysterious and tranquil place, not only with a vast land, but also magnificent natural scenery, coupled with the unique national culture of the Tibetan people, which makes many people yearn for it.
But many tourists have found that many drivers on the Sichuan-Tibet line like to light a cigarette and throw it out the window, and the local Zang people said that the people who throw cigarettes are smart people, what is the reason for this?
Self-driving to Tibet, the only way is the 318 National Highway, often known as the Sichuan-Tibet line, along the Sichuan-Tibet line, the whole scenery line is in full view, many people choose to drive to Tibet, is to enjoy the scenery changes on the road.
However, behind the beauty, there are many dangers lurking, and people who go to Tibet will be prepared in advance, because the situation on the road is complicated, and there will be various emergencies at any time, and there is no one to help.
It is worth noting that the Sichuan-Tibet Line is the world's highest altitude and oldest highway, passing through mountains and rivers along the way, and is extremely difficult to build, and was once called "impossible transportation route".
However, China has its own "infrastructure madness" attributes, not only built this road, but also led the surrounding villagers to rise up the tourism industry, creating huge economic wealth for the land of Tibet, but the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet line is not easy, and many workers died during the construction process.
Many drivers come to this road, will light a cigarette and throw it out the window, at first only a few people do this, but with more people traveling by car, throwing cigarettes has become a custom, and even many people do not smoke, do not understand why they do this, but will also follow others to learn, light a cigarette and throw it on the Sichuan-Tibet Road.
Later, the old driver of the Sichuan-Tibet line stood up and explained that the reason for this was to commemorate the migrant workers, you know, the Sichuan-Tibet line is very long, crossing the north and south of the river, passing through many steep mountains and turbulent rivers.
When the road was built, many workers were injured and some lost their lives in the work, and according to statistics, more than 3,000 people died as a result of the project.
As the saying goes, the predecessors planted trees, and the descendants enjoyed the shade, they dedicated their lives to complete the mission, but could not enjoy this honor, it is a pity, in order to express respect for the highway builders, this is the custom of lighting a cigarette and throwing it out of the window.
Later, this custom spread widely, and drivers driving on the Sichuan-Tibet line followed suit, and their purpose in doing so was simple, just to comfort their hearts and pray for a smooth journey on the Sichuan-Tibet line and no risks.
Tibetans said that it was smart people who threw cigarettes, they understood that the Sichuan-Tibet route was not easy to come by, and they knew how to cherish the present, but some people believed that throwing cigarettes out of the window was an unsafe practice and could cause fires and bring inconvenience to residents along the line.
In any case, the fire department does not advocate throwing open flames everywhere in the wild, but many places on the Sichuan-Tibet line are wasteland, and there is nothing to burn, so no one cares about these hidden dangers, and the practice of throwing cigarette butts has been handed down in this way.
Looking back on the construction process of the Sichuan-Tibet line, it is always full of hardships, and the older generation who participated in this project has witnessed too much suffering, and the stories they tell and the photos taken at that time often touch the souls of future generations.
This photo was taken in 2018, and the Tibetan pilgrims have always been a unique scenery in Tibet, and every three steps they take, they have to perform a prostration, and even put their whole body on the ground, meaning "five bodies to the ground".
However, many people do not know that the Sichuan-Tibet Highway originally started in Ya'an, and then extended to Chengdu, Sichuan, and ended in Lhasa, Tibet, which is part of the 318 National Highway (Shanghai to Zhangmu, Tibet), which began construction in April 1950 and was completed after more than ten years of hard construction.
Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was not a single usable road in the whole of Tibet, and the so-called small roads were all made by the people, which were slippery when it rained and frozen in winter, not to mention people, and even it was difficult for livestock to walk on the road.
In this case, a lot of materials have to be transported by manpower, and if the weather is good, they can catch up with the easy road sections, and they can be transported with the help of livestock, in short, the transportation cost is very high, resulting in the people of Tibet almost isolated from us, living in poverty and misery.
In 1950, when New China had just been founded, and the great northwest had not yet been completely liberated, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) came to Tibet to set up a military camp in accordance with the instructions of the Central Military Commission.
The picture above is a difficult picture of the People's Liberation Army's march back then, as they marched while surveying the geological conditions and preparing for the subsequent paving project.
After some discussions, the leaders of the relevant units finally finalized the construction plan and decided to build an internal line from Ya'an to Lhasa to facilitate the march and transportation of resources, which was called the "Kang-Tibet Highway" at that time.
Modern people are puzzled by this name, because Ya'an is the provincial capital of Xikang, and after Xikang withdrew from the province, the Kang-Tibet Highway was renamed, which is the Sichuan-Tibet route that we are familiar with.
At that time, industrial technology was not developed, and many construction projects needed to be completed manually, not to mention that there were no available transportation routes at that time, and large machinery could not get to the construction site.
On the cliff face, the construction workers tied safety ropes and struck the stones with iron picks in rows to clear these obstacles little by little until the roadbed was exposed.
By the standards of the time, the road had to be left in three layers, the first layer of lime, the second layer of clay, and finally the crushed gravel, which was repeatedly rolled by a roller to form the original pavement.
At first, the project went well, but as the route was opened up little by little, the construction team encountered various problems, the most difficult of which was the snow-capped mountains.
We all know that there are many areas along the Sichuan-Tibet line where the temperature is relatively low, the snow on the snow-capped mountains does not melt all year round, and the geographical environment is far worse than we can imagine now, according to statistics, there are more than 100,000 people in the first batch to participate in the road construction, of which the People's Liberation Army occupies the majority, and there are countless geology experts and technicians.
Such a huge scale of construction has never appeared since the founding of New China, and it can be seen from this that we are determined to build the Sichuan-Tibet line, and the surrounding masses have also voluntarily participated in this project in response to the call.
These 100,000 people only relied on steel nails and hammers to smash stones on the mountain for four years, during which many safety accidents occurred, such as when smashing stones, landslides occurred, and a large number of workers did not have time to escape and fell from the cliff.
Afterwards, the safety director of the project also made a review, but the project could not be stopped, and almost every meter of road was chiseled forward, the construction workers had to bear huge psychological pressure, and they did not know if there would be an accident.
In fact, in the first year of construction alone, there were nearly 2,000 PLA soldiers sacrificed on the Sichuan-Tibet line, counting that people died every day, everyone is familiar with Qi'er Mountain, tens of thousands of people participated in the construction that year, the construction of the road section ended, and the number of casualties was nearly 300 people.
Now on self-driving tours, many people are carrying tents, hoping to experience the feeling of returning to nature, but for the People's Liberation Army involved in the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet line, they eat in the wild all year round, and there is not even a decent single tent, and there are countless people who are frostbitten in winter.
The most worrying thing is that the altitude in Tibet is relatively high, and ordinary tasks such as life and cooking have become extremely difficult in Tibet, and the boiling water is only 70 degrees Celsius, and even the eggs are not cooked.
In order to speed up the construction progress, the workers eat basically ready-made "food replacement powder", grab a handful of snow when thirsty, according to the memories of the workers of the year, the food replacement powder is actually flour mixed with sugar, although it is difficult to swallow, but it is rich in nutrients and can make people quickly recover their strength.
In recent years, I have trekked to Tibet. Or there are many people who ride to Tibet, and the road is difficult, which is the consensus of almost everyone, then you can imagine how many difficulties the workers and the PLA in the photos experienced when the Sichuan-Tibet line was not completed.
We will never forget Tibet, and every kilometer has the sweat of our predecessors.