At a glance, they and the story of Antarctica

In the late spring of April, the infinite spring light, many dreams of travel began to sprout again. The Fliggy Antarctic Line also came at this time with the news that the new aircraft season in 2020 will go on sale. Unlike in the past, this will be the last year of cooperation between Fliggy and The Midnight Sun charter ship of Haida Luther, which means that the myth of "less than 50,000 yuan to go to Antarctica" is likely to be the last year.

Since the launch of the Finnish Aurora Line in 2016, Fliggy's inclusive tourism has broken the boundaries between dreams and reality in the past, and the concept of travel has been completely subverted - even the most difficult to reach Antarctica has become within reach of the young generation of the 80s and 90s.

Although it has been many days since the return journey from Antarctica, several of the protagonists of the story can not hide their joy and excitement when they recall their Antarctic journey - they all participated in the Fliggy Antarctic Special Line's 2019 sailing season, and all spent an unforgettable 2019 Spring Festival on an Antarctic cruise ship.

In fact, Fliggy Antarctic Charter Boat launched in 2017, so far the two seasons of a total of 9 charter boats, has led more than 4,000 Chinese tourists to achieve the Antarctic dream, China has become the second largest source of Antarctic after the United States.

It is not difficult to find that in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, "Antarctica" has begun to be frequently mentioned by more people who love to travel, and "Antarctic travel" has changed from a distant to even almost "virtual" topic to a travel "Plan A" that is really put on the agenda. The most important thing is that they are ordinary people like you and me.

From professor to student

Antarctica is a physical and mental displacement

As a scholar engaged in youth research at the China Youth Political College, Professor Liu Weibing has a happy family of three, and he has traveled many times in the past, most of them with his family, and this trip to Antarctica is no exception.

In order to go to Antarctica, Professor Liu's family has paid a big price - the originally booked New Zealand self-driving tour was temporarily cancelled, and the ticket alone lost nearly 20,000 yuan. The reason for changing the itinerary is because the son suddenly learned that he could take the annual leave at one time, and even the Spring Festival had a rare twenty days, so the son who had long been concerned about the Fliggy Antarctic Line on the Internet immediately made a decision with his parents - to go to Antarctica instead!

In Professor Liu's view, the biggest feature of Antarctica is that it is extremely pure.

Blue glaciers, ice shelves, indisputable penguins, whales... A piece of ice that is easily fished up by sea cruises has a history of 7,000 to 10,000 years, which is longer than the history of human civilization for 5,000 years. Antarctica is such a unique and beautiful "planet" that it cannot fail to be moved. "Especially for people living in big cities, going to Antarctica once is equivalent to a physical and mental replacement."

An interesting phenomenon is that people are mostly resistant to the general tourism self-funded projects, but on Antarctic cruise ships, all self-funded experiences must be selected by the ship side to decide whether they are eligible to participate, and for those who are selected, they will feel lucky and therefore cherished.

Professor Liu got his wish to take a hike in the snowy mountains, and he used four words to describe the photos taken during the snowy mountain hikes - "extremely beautiful". It was a feeling of complete melting in nature, completely different from walking on the shore penguin trail.

As for visiting the Great Wall Station of antarctic scientific research, every Chinese tourist is excited. Although the Great Wall Station is located on the outskirts of the Antarctic Circle, there is no beautiful landscape covered with snow, but it has special significance and cannot be replaced. After the return trip, Professor Liu reviewed the Antarctic trip on his personal public account, and when mentioning the Great Wall Station, he wrote such a sentence: "The national identity emotion bursts." ”

It is hard to imagine that a university professor who has been engaged in humanities research for many years and has to give hundreds of lectures around the country every year has become a humble student for more than ten days in Antarctica - he has been fascinated by one natural and historical science lectures related to Antarctic glaciers, Antarctic creatures, human exploration of Antarctic history, etc. on the cruise ship, and he wrote in the retrospective article: "Life needs to be upgraded." No matter who you are sacred, you are a student on board. In Professor Liu's view, the cultural experience brought about by the Antarctic trip is a different kind of acquisition, which cannot be bought with any money.

Ten thousand years at a glance

Philosophical thinking standing on the pole

Mr. Fang is a chief engineer engaged in product development in Guangzhou, because of the relationship between work and family separation, this Post-60s in Jiangsu has a typical casual encounter. During the holidays, I either go back to Jiangsu to visit my family or travel around the world. Before going to Antarctica, he had traveled alone to more than forty countries, and the dashing and casual nature of this middle-aged man made many people sigh.

With the rich travel experience, Mr. Fang's places are becoming more and more niche. Before going to the South Pole, he had just finished a trip to South Africa, returned from the South Pole, then went to Tunisia, and more recently, he was gathering partners to plan a trip to the North Pole. In his view, the Antarctic journey is iconic compared to previous trips, "like climbing Mount Everest, it is a milestone challenge for the individual".

The process of signing up for an Antarctic tour is not much more complicated for Mr. Fang than going out to buy vegetables - one morning I accidentally saw a friend's Antarctic tour information, asked the price, and then made a decision and paid money within an hour.

For Mr. Fang, there is a sentence that can best accurately describe the feeling of Antarctica: a glance is 10,000 years.

In Antarctica, as far as the eye can see, there are magical natural wonders everywhere, and every frame of the picture records the evolution of tens of thousands of years, giving people a shock that cannot be described in words, "Such a shock must be immersive to feel, no matter how many photos and documentaries can not be replaced." ”

Going to Antarctica, Mr. Fang, who was originally concerned about environmental protection, has a deep understanding of human environmental protection. He said bluntly that he hopes to continue to devote himself to the cause of environmental protection in China after retirement, in his view, the concept of environmental protection and traditional Taoist thought are the same, "In the development of human society, the advantages and disadvantages coexist, in reality, most people can not see the drawbacks, ignore environmental protection, which is the most painful." ”

On the Haida Lutheran cruise ship, the ship arranged a large number of knowledge lectures, which were also the best reputation of all tourists, and the venue was almost full. In Mr. Fang's view, he has never been so thirsty for knowledge as on an Antarctic cruise ship, "This new knowledge is not only a supplement to the personal knowledge system, but also a challenge to fixed ideas." ”

What impressed him the most was a topic that a foreign expert guided everyone to think about - the earth is round, when standing on the South Pole, the concept of sunrise in the east no longer exists, and any direction you have is north, the opposite. The same is true of life, when you go to the extreme, only the opposite is left in front of you, at this time you need to reposition the way of thinking. This kind of philosophical reflection triggered by Antarctica made him feel very interesting.

Spend more than 4000 yuan camping, worth it!

Inclusive Antarctic tourism gives more young people the opportunity to realize their Antarctic dreams. According to Fliggy data, 46.5% of the tourists in the Antarctic special line are post-80s, and nearly one-third of them are post-90s.

Chen Huijie, a liaoning girl born in 1989, is such a "quasi-90s" person. Working in human resources at a bank in Shenyang, because she completed her travel dream of "walking across seven continents alone" before she was thirty years old, she was labeled "alternative" and "bold" by the people around her, after all, in the northeast, there are not too many tourists who dare to go to challenging destinations such as Africa and Antarctica.

Like many young people who work hard, because of the limited holidays, there are only one or two opportunities to travel abroad every year, and the Spring Festival is an important node for Huijie to take a vacation to punch in the dream. Before going to Antarctica, she had used her annual leave to travel to five continents, and this time, she purchased a single ticket for the Fliggy Antarctic Charter Boat and DIY South America + Antarctica on her own, marking the perfect end to the seven continents.

Previously, Hui Jie once thought that the cost of Antarctic tourism would be very high, but in fact, she used the early bird discount to buy ferry tickets and then book her own round-trip tickets, a total of more than 40,000 yuan in Antarctica + South America successfully planted the flag, which is completely affordable for her. However, she admits that price is not the most critical factor, "going to Antarctica is one of the life plans, but after seeing that the Fliggy charter boat is just at the right time and at the right price, so that the dream can be realized faster." ”

Before departure, Hui Jie had no concept of Antarctica, and when the cruise ship crossed the Drake Strait, Hui Jie was instantly shocked - she saw the first iceberg in her life at ten o'clock, and the picture was permanently engraved in her heart.

Before the trip began, Hui Jie's biggest expectation was to stay on the Antarctic continent for one night, and it was expected that that night would be worth remembering for a lifetime. On the ship, in order to increase the winning rate of the "Antarctic Night" self-funded project, she gave up the lottery opportunity for other projects, only reported this one, and finally got her wish.

The project costs more than 4,000 yuan, in exchange for the opportunity to stay in a tent on Antarctic land and sleep with penguins and Antarctic stars.

Follow the expedition team to board a stormtrooper, land and set up a tent by hand, each step is exciting, and when night falls, Hui Jie, who is curled up in a duvet and has more than forty warm babies on her body, is even more excited, that night is the only night in the entire Antarctic trip to see the stars, while seeing the beautiful sunset and sunrise. Interestingly, the penguin family saw that humans dared to spend the night here, and specially sent a few penguins to lie in front of the tent and stare at the humans to sleep, and the serious appearance of the penguins was unbearable. In the middle of the night, when the penguins' cries also disappeared, Hui Jie and her companions ushered in the real "Antarctic Night" - the silence was enough to be unforgettable.

For Hui Jie, the change brought by Antarctica is to let herself know how to find the original intention, which is a kind of return to the truth in disguise. "In that pure world, you want to keep yourself in the best state, want to do more, want to make yourself a better person. Of course, would also like to come back. Based on her preference for Antarctica, Hui Jie made it clear that she would go to Antarctica again — to go deeper into the polar circle and, if possible, to take her parents again. Text/Reporter Wang Haijin