This world is purely non-fiction
Eight days, four thousand kilometers, nearly eight hundred kilometers above 4800 meters above sea level, this way I saw a tragic car accident, survived altitude sickness, and finally reached Lhasa - a special means of transportation.
I may not go to Lhasa again for a long time, and as I write this note, Lao Zhou has ended another trip to Tibet.
Cold and Warm Life on "Take Me to Lhasa"
One
After I decided on the shooting plan with Lao Zhou, I asked him several questions in a row: How to sleep? How to take a bath? (As a Southerner, bathing is an extremely important thing for me) Is altitude sickness life-threatening?
------------------------------------------------------
——Vehicle high-pressure shower system, rest assured.
- No, it's just uncomfortable, do you work out? If you don't work out, you don't have much to do, and you don't react much.
Old Zhou and the bunk beds on his car
Of course, I believe in Lao Zhou, he is an old driver with thirty years of heavy truck driving experience, running countless laps around the country, Laos and Myanmar have gone a few times, and the Qinghai-Tibet Line alone has run for three years. A guy who lives in a truck, I don't believe my dad has to believe him.
I prepared ten short sleeves, ten pairs of disposable panties, facial cleanser, water cream, razor, and even brought pajamas. I was excited. Ignorance excites people.
Me and Old Week
Zhou Yili, born in 1973, is based in Jixian County, Tianjin, with an accent that combines the depression of Tangshan dialect with the jianghu atmosphere of Northeast Dialect. He and his whole family dragged me around the Qing Dongling Tomb several times, which is the most accessible scenic spot in his hometown. He was sorry that he couldn't entertain me for a few more days, and he drank two bottles of beer with me for dinner— I drank very poorly, but I was even more afraid that he would drink another bottle (I don't want him to have alcohol in his body tomorrow morning) and could only touch the bottle in his hand.
Old Zhou and his wife have a good relationship, when I joked with them, my sister-in-law smiled, what feelings have not been emotional for decades, "My daughter-in-law is what I coaxed with the driving book, otherwise I would look at me like this?" ”
Old Zhou said goodbye to his wife
Two
Old Zhou did not love to learn since he was a child, he dropped out of school in the second grade of junior high school, he also wanted to learn to see others driving a big truck, his mother felt dangerous and did not agree, he also made a hunger strike for a few days. As an adult, he just got his driver's license.
In the 1990s, driving a big cargo was a skill, and truck drivers were a very popular profession, going out to restaurants and seeing the world bigger. Go to Qinhuangdao to run goods, he saw the Beijing sauce meat shreds for the first time in the restaurant, sneaking to see other people's tables, it turned out that this thing was wrapped in bean skins to eat meat, secretly learned, and then can not show timidity. He also pulled the goods for foreigners, looked at several blond hair and high noses through the rearview mirror, and when he put down the goods, fei lao nose vigorously said a sentence of "good bye", the foreigner shook hands with him, and also gave him a few foreign exchange coupons, which are still pressed by him under the glass plate of the table.
Old Week when he was young
Lao Zhou, a big cargo driver with beautiful scenery, has a monthly salary of twice that of ordinary workers, and he took 1800 yuan at the highest time, and others can't do business better than him. Later, he ran the goods alone, cobbled together 100,000 pieces, put together a down payment on a big truck, and bet all his money on this behemoth and began the road of car maintenance. In Lao Zhou's village, many of his peers are truck drivers, and half of his junior high school classmates alone have joined the industry.
At that time, they were tireless and did not know that the industry would rise and fall.
Old Monday home
Daughters and sons were born one after another, and the pressure of life suddenly increased. Raising a family, raising a child, raising a car, the result is that you are not home for many years. When my son was young, he went home and cried when he saw him - he didn't know this father.
Three
The big car building is very spacious, I can stretch my legs at will, which is more comfortable than any means of transport. The first day went very smoothly and nothing was too much trouble except boredom. In order to make myself look old, I behaved according to the status of 28 years old. In fact, Lao Zhou was the same age as my father, and if it wasn't for the interview, I really couldn't think of anything to talk to him about—there was no common topic.
Me on the co-pilot
Urinating urgently, I tried to take the mineral water bottle to solve, but the car bumped me and got myself. Halfway through, neither did the urine, nor did it pee. A few minutes of time is actually not delayed, but I am really embarrassed to open my mouth to trouble Old Zhou, and I also have to show my professionalism.
Bottle of mineral water
Initially, my vision for the film was "road movie." 46 tons of heavy truck, through Hebei Inner Mongolia Shanxi Shaanxi Ningxia Qinghai, 4,000 kilometers, spanning the four seasons, all the way to Lhasa. What will you encounter along the way? What happens? It's very hardcore to think about.
But in fact, we are just burying our heads in this road. Eat, sleep, hurry, and cycle over and over again. On the first day I was still amazed and anticipated by the changing scenery outside the window, and soon I started to get bored.
The same view on the road
Bunk beds are not easy to sleep, every time the vehicle passes by, the driving building will be illuminated, and the regular changes in light and shade make my heart palpitate. bathe? The high-pressure shower system is an outright lie, but the water tank is equipped with a high-pressure water gun, and the temperature in the northwest is low, so don't think about it in the open air.
I very much regretted not bringing thick clothes, looking at a pack of short sleeves that was angry and funny.
Cold and Warm Life "Take Me to Lhasa" next
Four
Lao Zhou knows the charging standards of each highway, how to avoid the height limit, how to save money with the combination of national highways and high speeds, which gas station is the most favorable, which service area is the best to eat, where is the safest - he has been stolen twice oil, the thief has used an electric pump and hydraulic tongs, silent, three minutes can drain 630 liters of oil. Another time, he pulled a cart of watermelon through Chuxiong, Yunnan, because the rear-end car stopped on the highway, the villagers rushed up to pick the watermelon, "My car did not overturn, they directly came up to cut, two pieces of tomarus were taken away."
I've seen similar reports of overturned drivers on highways begging villagers not to grab potatoes.
Pass through toll booths
There are also many unspoken rules that cannot be pointed out. After passing through some places, there are people at the intersection who stop cars to charge fees - there are large trucks that hit and kill people and then escape, and the family can't find anyone, so they stop the road to find every passing driver to collect compensation, "the police don't care." When walking on the country road, the children on the side of the road gave them a command: They are not allowed to go to my door. When the car started, a burst of black smoke came out, and when he looked in the rearview mirror, a big aunt shouted at him out of the country, "vicious and fierce", he could only hear it. He knew that his behemoth was indeed disturbing the people, but his heart was really wronged.
Five
One of the things often encountered on the road is: two whistles suddenly came from behind, Lao Zhou's eyes lit up, compared to the rearview mirror than "six", the truck behind overtook, and Lao Zhou responded with a whistle. Once passing by, I doubted that they had seen each other's faces clearly.
Met the old Week of "Card Friends"
Honking greetings is a unique way for truck drivers to greet each other, and it sounds much gentler than usual honking the horn. Lao Zhou is a "net red" on Kuaishou, because he speaks humorously and helps people with righteousness and love, and he has gained a large number of fans. Drivers recognize him by the license plate number, they often call each other by the model of the truck plus the license plate number, and Lao Zhou calls "Ji B Auman Old Man" on the fast hand, and the reputation is well-known.
He was recognized many times along the way, frequently received the courtesy of honking the whistle, and I also enjoyed a "star treatment" by the way.
Still on the way
With safety guaranteed, they will also play a game of overtaking, you pass me honking once, I will catch up with you on the next uphill, a kind of romance that belongs to truck drivers. At first, I didn't think so, thinking that this was just a tacit understanding of my peers, but when I also experienced the boredom of road life myself, I suddenly realized that these sounds were a rare pleasure in their road and even their entire running careers.
Some people say that truck drivers are crippled social people, eating and drinking Lasa, most of their lives are on trucks, the other world is locked out of the car door, clearly divided, and the social circle is closed between card friends. Lao Zhou occasionally went home to rest for two days, but he was too lazy to go out to meet people, "if you want to smoke, ask your wife to go out to buy."
Before leaving, his wife shaved Lao Zhou's head
Only the card friends understand each other that these whistles, or the light of the mobile phone screen during the night break, are the only thing they rely on in the vast and lonely road network. Critical moments, even life-saving straws.
At the end of last year, kuaishou's popular "Hui Ge Hui Sister-in-law" died of high anti-hypoxia on the Qinghai-Tibet Line, and two foreign drivers rushed to the crash site and helped the couple deliver the goods to the destination free of charge. Truck drivers across the country donated money to care for two orphans who had lost their parents.
Reports of the couple of drivers killed
Lao Zhou's truck was greatly plastered with the word "righteousness", which was the best in the world, and the word righteousness was the head. There are accidents and dangers, and the one who rushes to the front is Kayou.
And the frequency of danger in this industry is even higher than I thought, "the brother who just called ten minutes ago, and then hit the past person is gone, the friend in reality."
Old Zhou's car
According to statistics, the annual mortality rate of truck drivers is as high as five percent, and one in every seven drivers has experienced a car accident, and the Qinghai-Tibet Line is even more dangerous. Nowadays, the freight continues to fall, in addition to running abroad, the freight into Tibet is the highest, "rich and noble insurance seeks", but this rich is just enough for the old week to pay off the monthly car loan, to solve the family to build a house expenditure.
Accidents encountered on the road
Old Zhou generally does not listen to music while driving, he should always pay attention to whether there is a noise behind the car to prevent problems with the goods. But I was bored, asked him what songs he liked to listen to, and answered: Ascetic. I opened the player: I was going to go from south to north, I was going to go from white to black, and I wanted people to see me and not know who I was. If you see that I am a little tired, please pour me a bowl of water, and if you are already in love with me, please kiss me on the mouth.
Rock and sunset pairing, we continue west.
Sunset on the road
Service areas, gas stations, wilderness ridges, emergency parking belts, late-night road cafeterias, thought it would be an off-the-beaten-track road, but it was far busier than I thought, stretching for thousands of kilometers, lively and lonely.
Six
Old Zhou generally ate two meals a day, and after going to the Qinghai-Tibet line, it was one meal a day. Instant noodles are tired of eating, and I want to vomit when I smell it. He usually eats a self-service of 35 yuan a person in the service area, and the driver is most afraid of not having enough to eat, and this money cannot be saved. The meals around eleven o'clock in the morning are the best, the dishes are incomplete in the morning, and the scraps are cold and hot in the evening. His favorite Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway Chibi service area, dishes can be placed tens of meters in one go, generous.
Old week of eating in the service area
For two or three years, his food was still good, that's because his wife followed the car, and recently the family built a house, and she temporarily ended her sister-in-law career. Sister-in-law has a series of quick food strategies, carrying a simple gas stove and pressure cooker, they wrap dumplings, spread pancakes, and stew pig's trotters in the car.
Long-distance trucks are generally "husband and wife cars", men in their forties begin to have problems with their physical functions, women are worried about accidents on the road, they start to follow the car, "but this is not worth advocating, in case of an accident, a home is gone." There are also couples with children in sports cars, newborn children who have lived in trucks for a long time and cannot walk for several years.
"Sister-in-law" met on the road
We stopped to rest in a service area, and I wandered around doing "fieldwork." The drivers were cooking here, washing, spending the night, and I talked to a sister-in-law, and she was a little nervous about the child, "I feel a little sorry for the child, well, thank you", and hurriedly closed the car door. Through the car window, I couldn't be sure if she was crying or holding back tears, only to see "Wishing you prosperity" posted on the car door.
Her husband has been running for twenty years, she has been following the car for four years, her three children are in school, one is in college, and all of them need money.
evening
It has reached the northwest. The sky was light purple and pink, and the night dragged on for a long time before falling long. Old Zhou has been driving for more than ten hours today, and it is time to take a break. There were a hundred or so trucks parked in the huge parking lot, like a huge complex, and the washed drivers and sisters-in-law came out of the toilet and walked back to the driving building carrying the hot water bottle, just like when I took a shower and went back to the dormitory. On the road, they live a grouped and temporary life.
Seven
Golmud was my last chance to consider whether to keep up with the Qinghai-Tibet Line.
Buy oxygen tanks, painkillers, plateau lighters, glucose water, such a big battle, the atmosphere of "on the road" is emphasized again. I asked myself several times if I was ready, and finally decided that there was a beginning and an end.
Complementary drugs
Golmud is located in the central and western part of Qinghai, is the transportation hub of the western region, the only way from the interior to Tibet xinjiang, the past great front line of aid to Tibet. Sixty percent of the city's population is out-of-town, and their occupations revolve around trucks and drivers. In order to prevent severe altitude sickness, drivers often have to rest here overnight. Parking plus accommodation, a hundred bucks a night, the only time we stayed in the hotel and my only chance to take a shower. We hadn't showered in five days, I washed three times and the tap water was salty.
The journey to Qinghai-Tibet, strictly speaking, begins with leaving Golmud. Squinting for a while to wake up, breathing difficult, headaches, I was very provoked, after the Kunlun Mountain began to inhale oxygen, just one day after the inhalation of a tank of oxygen. Lao Zhou himself does not take oxygen, but he will always prepare, if there are card friends on the road who need him can also support.
Oxygen inhale me
I started getting serious again after seeing two car accidents. The front tire of one car was hit and flew, and the second car accident was a rear-end collision between two trucks, and the license plate number should be two cars traveling together. The rear cab was badly damaged and the co-pilot was completely destroyed – I took a cool breath and sneaked up on the sleeping bunk at the back and sat down.
The front of the car that was smashed
Along the way, I tried to maintain a moderate frequency of conversations with Lao Zhou, hoping that he would both maintain his spirit and not be distracted, but the truth is that no matter how cautious and careful we are, we can never predict how the car will drive left and right.
Qinghai-Tibet Highway was built in 1950, is the busiest transportation line into Tibet, along the way is not dangerous, but due to the plateau permafrost and transportation pressure, the road surface is full of potholes, the road conditions are extremely poor, we can only drive to twenty miles, the slower the speed of the car, the more uneasy I am. The new asphalt is covered layer by layer, and a series of shocking scars are strung together.
A rollover accident passing by
Driving further back, I saw several trucks overturned on the side of the road, and the buildings collapsed one after another, "There is nothing wrong with overturning, at most there are many broken heads and blood flowing", old Zhou Yun is light and breezy.
Eight
There are many unexpected people on this road, which is very much in line with the routine of "road movies".
The "heavy truck four ladies" and "heavy truck five ladies" have been pulling coal in Ordos for ten years. They are northeasterners, a family of five sisters, the only eldest brother died in a car accident, the female baby was raised as a boy, "other people's girls are spoiled, we are also envious, but go home can only work, holiday with the car." My father also drove a truck, and my sisters laughed at themselves for coming from a truck family, and they touched a big truck as a teenager. In order to earn money, they contracted an inter-county bus, became a famous female driver in ten villages and eight shops, and later went to Dalian to drive a bus, and there were three women in the factory, who were deeply respected by the elders.
Four and five
Hearing that Inner Mongolia pulled coal to make money, they did not hesitate to come, earning more in one month than the previous year. But this is a life-selling job, and it is very "buried", in addition to pulling goods, they also have to climb several stories high coal trucks to unload their own goods, "people who are afraid of heights can't do it." In order to prevent the rear-end collision from causing damage to the vehicle, she chose to drive into the ditch, and finally overturned the car due to overweight, and fractured the tail vertebrae.
But she only rested for a year. The husband of the fourth lady once wanted to do business, borrowed hundreds of thousands from her mother's family, and had no return, let alone the ability to repay. The two divorced, leaving four men with more than half a million debts and a son.
Four ladies and sons
"Men are as capable as women, and Dad taught us from an early age that we are the most beautiful on our own." I would rather let my body suffer than let my face get hot, and now my father is dead, but we remember this sentence. It is trust that others lend us money, and we cannot owe it to others. Now, her debt has been paid in half.
Restaurants at an altitude of 5,000 meters
There is also a mother and son who opened a restaurant at an altitude of five thousand meters, and after her mother was laid off many years ago, she did business in the whole country, and I heard that there were more drivers on the Qinghai-Tibet Line and fewer restaurants, and they came to Wudaoliang from thousands of miles away - "After five beams, I didn't see my father and mother, I passed the Beacon Volcano, and my breath was dying" - the jargon of the Qinghai-Tibet Line driver.
However, after a few years, he still could not fully adapt to the highland life, "sleeping at night and often waking up, too guilty." Hearing that this area is going to be greened and demolished, and the restaurants along the line are about to close, they plan to go to Lhasa to find some work. How will the driver eat later? I don't know.
Restaurant owner
Tian Jie and his wife's car broke down in the middle of the road, and the old Tuesday did not say anything to help them contact the repair team at a fair price. They come from Heihe, contracted grain stations a few years ago, and their families are well-off, but in recent years, business is not good, their savings have been depleted, and they have begun to run transportation. The son works in Mianyang, Sichuan, once the couple went to Chengdu to unload the goods, wanted to stop by to see the son, helpless son is at the construction site can not open the body, "I cry can't do it."
Sister Tian and her husband
In fact, it should be called Aunt Tian, I was born in the same year as her son. They ran lhasa for three years, every time they came to see the Potala Palace, once the unloading point was only one kilometer away from the Potala Palace, in order to save money or did not go, unloading the goods to run, "a ticket of 270 yuan, how much can we earn a day?" Just watch TV, how good it is. ”
Nine
Today, the number of truck drivers in China exceeds 30 million, and they take on 76% of the country's logistics freight, which is a huge group that has been neglected for a long time, and I want to record the road life of truck drivers, which is why I found Lao Zhou.
The old Zhou people have followed the trend of the times to choose "new new industries" and have made profits to change their lives, but they cannot prevent the industry from rising and replacing. We can regret that he does not have a cliff to make another way to make a living, we can also regret that he is still led by life, and it can be understood that each line has its own difficulties and sadness, which is nothing more than a profession and choice.
But when I sat on this big truck, after eight days of heart pounding and physical and mental torture, I felt that it was difficult to summarize simply, and I could only sigh with my friends - this is life, life is not long live.
The journey is coming to an end, and it is difficult to measure how deeply I have learned about lao Zhou's choices and experiences, and to what extent I have experienced and recorded the lives of thousands of truck drivers.
Lhasa arrived. "Tibet is developing, it's now the second year, and I've done my part," a city that's completely under construction, trucks cramming every corner.
Arrived in Lhasa
Three large plastic barrels, hook machines, steel bars, this trip to the old week pulled more than thirty tons, and finally reached twenty-eight thousand, when I told my friends about this income level, they were a little shocked - this income is good.
He loves to run the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai regions, but from Tianjin to Hangzhou 1300 kilometers, the freight is 4000 yuan, just enough to spend. To make money, you have to go to the Qinghai-Tibet Line.
Old Week who received money
Lao Zhou did not know whether the material transportation of the Qinghai-Tibet Line would always be so frequent, and whether the freight rate of the line would always remain at a high level, but "the others would not dry, only driving", he had to keep on the road.
A few days ago, I looked at his Kuaishou homepage, and another card friend died unexpectedly.
Ten
After arriving in Lhasa, I felt that I didn't know Lao Zhou yet and wanted to have an "in-depth chat" with him. I decided to interview him on the big bucket of the truck. When the goods were unloaded, this was his empty home, the place where the "dream began".
Lao Zhou was interviewed on the hanging bucket
At first, I was a little impatient, Lao Zhou was a little nervous, and I was uncomfortable. He was a very qualified interviewee who terrified me because I knew too well what I "wanted to hear." Later, without talking about truck life at all, I tried to return to the most essential question: why, how to do it, and what the result was.
Because the industry makes money, so into the industry, the industry is more and more sluggish but "difficult to ride the tiger"; in order to live a better life, in order to repay the car loan, more desperate to run the car, youth dedicated to the highway, this road can not turn back. The psychological clues are basically complete, and I can still connect these logical chains, and I asked: Are you raising him in a way that is far away from the child? He replied: Of course.
Finally I asked a question, but his response made me redefine this trip to Lhasa. "It's all for the family, for the sake of the children, have you ever thought about living for yourself?"
He paused for tens of seconds and took a deep breath. Obviously, no one had ever asked him this question, nor had he thought about it himself.
Spitting out a puff of smoke, he shook his head firmly, "No. "Family happiness is my greatest success. Hopefully my next generation will have a little easier, a little easier. ”
Probably the mental journey of my father's generation.
Old Zhou and the truck drivers
For so many years, he and his son spent the longest time together, last year he deliberately pulled his son to run a trip to the Qinghai-Tibet Line, the plateau has a bad appetite, he asked his son what he wanted to eat, "Red willow branch barbecue, eight dollars a string, not a joke, but the son in me dare to order!" It was worth the money, and my son was well fed! ”
Old Zhou and son
My son is introverted and rarely communicates with him, I asked him, have you thought about making up for it? The question was cruel, and he shook his head, unable to make up for it.
Eleven
I had planned to return to Tianjin with Lao Zhou, but my body was really overwhelmed, and I answered his prophecy and "returned by plane." After arriving home, I received a WeChat message from Sister Tian.
The couple and Lao Zhou met in Lhasa, decided to have a luxurious time with Lao Zhou, and found someone to pull the car back to Golmud, and a car cost 1,800. They took the Qinghai-Tibet Railway back to Golmud, picked up the car and loaded the goods and then went home.
Tian Jie and his wife are in front of the Potala Palace
Before leaving, they finally went to Potala, did not go in, and took a few photos in the square.
Old Zhou in front of the Potala Palace
I also went for a walk before I went home. I don't have a special complex, but since I'm here, I still want to go and see it. Teacher Tsetan Dolma's "Beautiful Tibet, Lovely Hometown" resounded throughout the square, and pilgrims from all over the world were taking pictures, prostrating their heads, and looking up silently. As night fell, the fountain water column rose high, and finally, we all arrived at that Lhasa in a special way.
Producer: Pei Tianyi
Video Director/Text: Zheng Yitong
WeChat editors: Zhang Xinjie, Batam
Coordinator: Jiang Hanqi