Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    Lifestyle
    Home / Lifestyle / People

    Tales of the unexpected

    Travel writers explore destinations off the beaten path with fascinating stories of distant and enchanting horizons, Yang Yang reports.

    By Yang Yang | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2020-08-12 07:35
    Share
    Share - WeChat
    Liu Zichao, another successful applicant for the project, has visited the Pamir Mountains, and mixed with the local people. [Photo provided to China Daily]

    Retreading ancient steps

    For Chinese writer A Yi, one of the judges of the project, Liu and Bai are "contemporary versions of Xuanzang".

    In the seventh century, Xuanzang, a Buddhist monk who lived during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), spent 17 years traveling to India to bring original Buddhist texts and authentic interpretations back to China, contributing greatly to not only the introduction and translation of Buddhism, but communication between cultures. He recorded his travel in The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions.

    "Like Xuanzang did in India, Liu and Bai went to Central Asia and the Balkans, bringing back information and culture from those regions," he says. "Liu's work, for instance, is a successful example for Chinese travel writers and will exert a long-lasting influence."

    Central Asia and the Balkans are regions often overlooked by many tourists, which is also one reason that proposals from Bai and Liu stood out.

    "We, living in China, are conscious of life only here, or in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia, regions that mainstream tourists can reach. We think we know about the world, but the world is much larger than we imagine," Wu says.

    "For instance, we don't know much about Central Asia or the region of former Yugoslavia. By traveling, or reading other people's travelogues, we can get a more complete image of the globe, and we'll know that lives in the world are diversified. We shouldn't indulge our self-centered tendencies, which is something that can often happen in today's China, Europe and the US," Wu says.

    "The winning destinations are all difficult to reach. We want to make it difficult," he says.

    In 2010, Liu, still a journalist, was on a business trip to Horgos in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. He saw trucks in a long line waiting for customs clearance and the magnificent Tianshan Mountains from afar. In awe, Liu says, he wanted to see the world beyond the snow-capped mountains.

    He went to his first stop, Uzbekistan, in the autumn of 2011. Since 2016, he has traveled in Central Asia for his new book. In 2018, he used the funding to pay for his travels to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. His book Among the Stans: A Central Asian Journey was recently published.

    The One-Way Street special issue includes Liu's Pamir Highway and Wakhan Valley, an essay based on his one-month journey in Tajikistan, where he traveled from Dushanbe to the Kulma Pass along the Panj River.

    He says he was so excited to walk on a stretch of path that Xuanzang traveled about 1,300 years ago. "Few Chinese people have traveled to that place and written anything about it, so it became an important achievement for me," he says.

    Across the Panj River lies Afghanistan. "The river is the boundary between the two countries, but it is just a naturally-formed river. The boundary is imposed on people who actually are of the same Wakhan ethnicity, and relatives who used to visit each other, but now they have different lives, currencies and nationalities," he says.

    |<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next   >>|
    Most Popular
    Top
    BACK TO THE TOP
    English
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
     
    狠狠躁夜夜躁无码中文字幕| 日本乱中文字幕系列| 亚洲VA中文字幕无码毛片| 中文字幕无码毛片免费看| 一区二区三区无码高清视频| 亚洲AV无码一区二区乱孑伦AS| 中文亚洲AV片不卡在线观看| 精品无码国产一区二区三区AV| 中文字幕亚洲一区| 中文字幕亚洲码在线| 麻豆aⅴ精品无码一区二区| 亚洲国产中文v高清在线观看| 亚洲成在人线在线播放无码| HEYZO无码综合国产精品| 亚洲桃色AV无码| 亚洲日本va午夜中文字幕久久 | 色噜噜综合亚洲av中文无码| 国产激情无码一区二区三区| 亚洲级αV无码毛片久久精品| 无码乱码av天堂一区二区 | 久久亚洲2019中文字幕| 亚洲AV无码乱码在线观看| 精品无码av一区二区三区| 人妻无码αv中文字幕久久琪琪布| 欧美日韩中文在线视免费观看| 欧美日本道中文高清| 亚洲成av人片在线观看天堂无码| 国产AV无码专区亚洲AVJULIA | 无码少妇精品一区二区免费动态| 无码av人妻一区二区三区四区| 一本一道色欲综合网中文字幕| 暖暖免费日本在线中文| 日韩在线中文字幕| √天堂中文官网在线| 亚洲中文久久精品无码| 亚洲一区二区三区在线观看精品中文| 无码人妻少妇久久中文字幕| 日韩少妇无码一区二区三区| 在线看福利中文影院| 一本大道久久东京热无码AV| 中文字幕人妻无码专区|