Temporary bus to Dashan
Before May, every weekend, more than 100 buses in Beijing headed to Huairou, Mentougou, Yanqing and other mountainous areas. Most of the people on the bus were between 20 and 40 years old.
They will have to do more than 5 kilometers and more than 500 meters of climbs on gravel roads with no steps and between narrow cliffs, although some people do not exceed 3,000 steps on a weekday.
They described the activity as "extremely abusive, extremely beautiful" and "painful and happy".
These "escapers" of urban life poured out from the nooks and crannies of Beijing, arrived at a subway station in modern metal cages, and were then tucked into full-seat buses, waiting to be scattered across the vast expanse of mountains.
At 6:30, half an hour earlier than the morning rush hour, these "escapers" could be seen one after another on Line 10 of the Beijing Subway.
They wear bright jackets and heavy hiking shoes. Some people are immersed in the sleepiness of working overtime the night before, they put on Bluetooth headsets and close their eyes to make up for sleep; It takes a few cups of coffee to afford it.
The reasons for going to the mountain vary.
Some people describe a day without a signal on the mountain as "forced offline", with legitimate reasons for not answering the phone and not reading WeChat; Diapers, feel the wanton pleasure of living for oneself; some people stay away from the intrigues of the workplace, confide their hearts with strangers, and have a pure social interaction.
You don't need to prepare heavy luggage and detailed strategies, you don't need to make an appointment, you can get on any bus, and you can come to a completely different world in just two or three hours.
In order to better survive in the city, they briefly walked out of the crowd and went to the farthest part of the city to seek a calming remedy from nature.
Lonely
In the early morning of the weekend, Gongzhufen Station in the west section of Beijing Line 10, Mudanyuan Station and Beitucheng Station in the north section are all important gathering points of the hiking club. As soon as you leave the station, you can see more than a dozen buses with 50 seats. Row from one intersection to another.
There is a pancake stand at Beitucheng Station. Under the pressure of being driven out by the city officials, they often come from two blocks away to do breakfast business.
Six or seven years ago, the circle of playing outdoors was small. There were only a few buses in front of the subway station. Just pick one and get on the bus. There is a fee for getting on the bus. There is no need to register in advance, and sometimes you don’t even ask the destination. As exciting as a box.
The people who are pulled by these buses are different every week, and the ages, occupations and personalities of the people on the buses are also different.
"People in the city are usually very busy, and they don't want to compromise others with their private time." According to the observation of the team leaders, half of the people came alone. On the bus, they sat next to strangers with their own concerns. Holding the backpack cautiously, he looked out the window.
"A city is a place where millions of people live alone together." Thoreau discovered the barrenness of human spiritual life in an industrialized society as early as two centuries ago, so he turned away from the city and walked towards Walden Pond.
Thoreau's loneliness continued in Beijing, a giant city with a permanent population of more than 20 million.
People are used to eating, traveling, living in the same space with strangers, and going on a temporary trip together.
If it weren't for hiking, 27-year-old programmer Lu Yuwei rarely walked into the crowd.
She recalled that "there was always someone around" when she was in school, and after work, everyone jumped into a new circle.
For those friends from school, it is a luxury to make an appointment once a month.
The relationship between colleagues is limited to eating together at noon and chatting about gossip, and there is no intersection after get off work.
When she first started working, she chose to catch up on the precious weekends, often waking up at noon, cleaning the house in the afternoon, and seeing the sunset outside the window in the evening.
Once when her phone ran out of battery, she unknowingly rode to a highway intersection and was shouted down.
She didn't tell anyone about this. "When you're busy at work, you have a low desire to share."
She likes to do this kind of walking alone.
In a place with many acquaintances, she is afraid of embarrassment, so she always talks non-stop, throws herself out, and details her life experiences from elementary school to graduate school, "Sometimes I don't know what I say, and many of the words I say are not true. Inner thoughts.” But here, she was free to blend in with the crowd without draining her emotions.
If you don't want to answer a conversation from a stranger, just smile.
Earlier, there was a rule of "three no-asks for the outdoors" among old people: don't ask about occupation, don't ask about income, don't ask about family.
"Your identity and status are cleared the moment you walk into the mountain", Lao Outdoor will have his own exclusive nickname.
Now, in order to break the ice, some clubs ask everyone to introduce themselves on the bus.
There are cheerful people who can sing saliva songs with Bluetooth speakers, talk about cross talk and talk shows; there are also those who are dedicated to work, introduce their business scope in detail, and wait for their peers or customers to throw olive branches; there are also people who have the need to make friends and introduce themselves intentionally or unintentionally. "Single", jokingly advertised himself in the group.
Temporary groups are generally assembled the day before the event and disbanded 24 hours later, during which countless social passwords have already been sent.
If the social interaction in the car is still purposeful, from the moment they get off the car, these strangers who have nothing to do with each other will gather together because of their primitive instincts.
Different from crowded scenic spots, the mountains are high and the sky is wide and the people are sparsely populated. People will naturally have feelings of mutual dependence on the people walking in front of them.
Due to different physical strengths, a team will generally be dragged to 1 km long, and gradually divided into countless small groups.
A team leader received a lot of red envelopes during the Chinese New Year, all because he met friends and the other half during the event.
As the team moves forward, in a state of extreme physical exhaustion, people will remove their masks and disguises to reveal their truest selves.
There are many men and women in the hiking journey, and there are many divisions.
Slippery gravel roads, boulders that must be climbed, there are always moments when it is necessary to pull each other, young people can easily develop feelings through physical contact.
But the team leaders have also seen some people who are so tired that they collapse and cry, squatting on the ground and do not want to go;
A financial man in his early 40s once moved blind dates to walking.
He described himself as just a "good guy", "doesn't say anything romantic" on WeChat, and asks and answers girls, just like checking household registration.
When making an appointment in a cafe or restaurant, not only do you have to wear formal attire, but within 20 minutes, the two sides will fall into silence after explaining the usual topics.
He has participated in a blind date meeting in his unit. In order to be efficient, he set up several long tables in the business hall, with boys sitting in one row and girls sitting in a row, staring face to face, "so embarrassed that he can't speak."
Outdoors, he found that he could "wear how comfortable it is", and he could use his body language at will, and he didn't need to deliberately create topics, and even the shape of mountains and rocks could "assist".
Although he is not as physically strong as the woman, he used both hands and feet to climb to the end, and because he sweated too much, he became a "white-browed hero" and his image was "horrible", but he felt that this was the most natural blind date.
It was the first time he participated in hiking, and he was unable to walk with the woman later, but he fell in love with the freedom of hiking.
His peers all have families and children, and he is always alone on weekends, drinking and eating skewers.
What can I do with a group of people now, "At least there is a place to go, which also gives me a place to belong."
free
In the past two years, the epidemic has accelerated the popularity of hiking in the suburbs of Beijing.
Zhang Daye, the founder of "Beijing Trekkers", recalled that during the May Day holiday after the lockdown was lifted in 2020, inter-provincial and cross-border travel was restricted due to epidemic prevention and control requirements, and the number of people participating in hiking activities in the suburbs of Beijing increased by two or three times. .
He roughly estimated that there are at least one or two hundred hiking clubs in Beijing at present.
The development of hiking in Beijing has natural advantages.
Half of Beijing is mountains, and there are more than 200 peaks above 1,000 meters above sea level. The arrangement and combination of peaks with similar distances can create countless intricate routes.
Huairou, Mentougou, and Yanqing were strategic lines of defense against foreign enemies in the old days, but today they have become the floodgates for the spirit of urban residents.
39-year-old Huang Ling was originally engaged in the outbound travel industry. She enjoys a life of two points and one line between her work unit and her family, with no variables. She has fixed sales channels, simple life, and no entertainment activities. She never tries flower arrangement and painting. " thing.
The epidemic has changed everything, international routes have plummeted, and many travel agencies have closed down. She stepped into insurance sales with concerns, not only to face the income gap and social reconstruction, but also to let go of her face and glass heart.
"Many people have prejudice against insurance, and I have always had a heavy psychological burden. I have been in the industry for a year, but I am still in a very closed state." By chance last year, a friend took her to the Phoenix Tuo hike. When she walked to the top of the mountain, she felt " The whole horizon is opened."
Walking on the road, she only focused on her feet and listened to her breathing and heartbeat. At this moment, there were still dead branches and a loess road in front of her. When she turned a corner, a peach forest hit her eyes.
"Hiking has opened a new door for me." She has practiced yoga before and has been to the gym, but she feels "no fun" and "pure willpower", and the colors are monotonous and dull wherever she sees it.
Before, she often traveled with her children and checked into hotels and homestays as soon as she got off the plane.
During the hike, the scenery is fluid, and every move is purely in accordance with the body. When you are tired, you sit down to rest and drink water. When you are hungry, you eat something. There is no concept of time, and there is no schedule that must be followed.
There was a period of time when she had flatulence and had no time to treat it. After walking down the mountain, she was relieved a lot. "The state of the whole person is going up."
Her sensitivity to nature also increased, "you have to move with the seasons".
In order to enjoy the flowers, she chased after the flowering period, knowing that peach blossoms are mainly seen in March, and pear blossoms in April are a must.
In May, the grass is green and the stream is hydrated, and after that, you can lie in the green meadow and watch the rainbow.
After October, the mountains are full of colorful autumn leaves.
In winter, there are ice waterfalls, and after the snow it is like a fairyland.
Before, she seldom paid attention to the changes in the vegetation around her. The office window was closed, the curtains were drawn, and she was trapped in the reinforced concrete. Even when she looked out of the window, it was a rigid line, not the soothing and softness of the undulating mountains.
"It turns out that because I'm too busy, I think these have nothing to do with me. But this is the environment we live in, how can it have nothing to do with us?"
Two centuries ago, European cities after the Industrial Revolution faced similar difficulties.
In the face of population surge and sharp deterioration of hygiene and health environment, people began to build green belts and parks, and moved to the outskirts of the city on a large scale. Outdoor activities such as mountaineering and camping gradually became popular among the new class, who slowed down in nature and restrained expansion. desire.
In the documentary "The Meaning of Hiking", a hiker admitted that hiking has changed his spirit, "wildness heals the excessive material needs in our brains with simplicity".
Zhang Daye felt the same way.
In the wild, happiness becomes simple.
Happiness may appear when you have been driving for a long time in the rain. When the rain stops, you look up and see the turbulent sea of clouds in the mountains; it may appear after climbing, when people easily descend the mountain and walk to a cliff, where the sun sets. Soft light sprinkled on the body.
If they found a small station selling iced Coke during the trip, everyone cheered.
Zhang Daye described the feeling of eating a watermelon during a break, like the male protagonist in "The Shawshank Redemption" distributes beer to the inmates, "Even if it's just a small watermelon, it will magnify your happiness in the mountains." A team leader recalled bringing According to the team members' experience of drilling a dog hole, "No matter what your social status is, if you can't walk on the road, drilling a dog hole is a fresh and pleasant experience."
"There are always surprises in trying. Maybe the epidemic is also an opportunity to break free from an industry and enrich my life experience." Huang Ling enjoys the process of increasing the altitude a little bit, and looks back at the mountain where she once stopped every time. , she knew that this sense of accomplishment could not be taken away.
She recalled that at the beginning of 2013, when she traveled to Jungfrau, Switzerland, in the cold wind of winter, she saw a foreign father crawling with a child who was not yet full moon on his back, "This is their way of life, their life The rhythm is not disrupted by other things."
Her current goal is to pursue a balance between work and life. She will take the initiative to organize clients and colleagues to hike outdoors. The mountains have become a stage for her social interaction. "When everyone helps each other, the relationship is sublimated."
In order to be able to enter the mountains at any time, she began to practice driving.
Whether she is taking her children to barbecue by the river or taking a school trip in the park, she will add a two-hour hike, "there will be many unexpected combinations".
Her life is also getting simpler, she no longer buys useless pots and pans, and gets up every morning to play Baduanjin.
way out
"Once people realized some degree of safety and comfort, they spent a lot of time and energy developing new ways to experience the suffering they had just fled." .
At that time, camping was also popular with hiking.
In foreign countries, these outdoor activities continued to rise in popularity after World War II.
During the war, some people in Western countries chose to flee to remote areas and live under tents in order to avoid the war.
When the war is over and life returns to normal, going outdoors is not only an embellishment of modern life, but also means to cultivate vigilance to respond to environmental changes at any time.
According to the founder of a walking club in Beijing targeting middle-aged groups, their main clients include lawyers, financial practitioners, civil servants and executives of state-owned enterprises. The pressure is particularly high, going outdoors is a kind of spiritual pleasure, and it is also a release of deeper mental pressure."
Only when their bodies are on the road do they feel that life is not static.
In the group of hikers, there is a group of full-time mothers who avoid weekends and make time for activities on a certain day of the week.
They are the mainstay of the family, on call with children, husbands and elderly people, but for a few hours in the mountains, they "don't have to think about anyone."
Many of them also had highlights.
When they were young, they were white-collar workers in big companies. They wore high-heeled shoes to work in Beijing's landmark buildings, took taxis to and from get off work, and often traveled across the country on business.
After becoming mothers, they were locked at home. The first thing they did in the morning was to wash their hands and cook food for their children. They didn't even have time to look in the mirror.
After three or four years, the child's affairs "sorted out" and found that he was disheveled, out of shape, and his friends were gone.
Their enthusiasm for life was worn away by firewood, rice, oil and salt.
The mother of a third-year student recalled that there was a time when she couldn't do anything during the day and didn't want to get out of bed, and 15 hours of sleep a day was not enough.
In the middle of the night, when my husband and children were sleeping soundly, they were more energetic. They got up to watch dramas, watch small videos, and smack a moment of freedom.
Zhao Dan wants to regain this enthusiasm by walking.
Before he started hiking, all Zhao Dan's life focus was on his daughter.
She stopped working after she got married, and "being needed" is the biggest driving force in her life.
The year before last, her daughter enrolled in a foreign university. Due to the epidemic, she took online classes at home. She stayed up all night to accompany her daughter to take online classes, and her schedule was reversed.
Her daughter often broke down and cried because of the obstacles in online communication. Zhao Dan was anxious and began to be swollen and puffy.
Last year, when the epidemic situation improved, and her daughter went abroad to continue her studies, Zhao Dancai discovered that she had been away physically and mentally for too long and "couldn't find herself".
Sometimes I habitually want to ask my daughter what she wants to eat, but when she finds that she is the only one in the house, bread and ham can solve a meal.
To get out of this state, she forced herself to walk 5 kilometers around the park every day, and when she could know the route of the park with her eyes closed, she set her sights on climbing.
Before traveling with her daughter, Zhao Dan described herself as a "tool person", "I am her wallet and driver".
My daughter likes to go to the Internet celebrity spots to take pictures and punch cards. The schedule for the day is tight, and Zhao Dan strives to catch up with her daughter's rhythm.
After she participated in the walk, Zhao Dan almost never took out her mobile phone. She didn't like taking pictures and didn't care about the time. She climbed from the morning sun to the stars in the sky.
Hiking brings her both physical and spiritual satisfaction.
Once I went to the Houhe River to explore the road, the mountain was covered with snow, and as soon as I stepped on a pit, I could only let go of the road that was not easy to go, and closed my eyes, and slid down, I didn’t know where to fly. Go." When she came home from exhaustion, she threw her soaked clothes at the door, took a shower, brushed shoes, washed clothes, and lay down on the bed to relax completely the next day.
Now she climbs the mountain at least once a week, and every climb feels like a big date.
Packing the backpack for the next day is a kind of enjoyment. Down jackets, sun protection clothing, headlights, knee pads, gloves, trekking poles, dry socks, and spare food are all counted.
She can stay away from the parents who Bao Mom's friends are talking about in the cafe, casually "poor words" with people she doesn't know, and the whole person becomes young.
The standard of her consumption has also shifted from fashion to practicality. Luxury bags have been replaced by affordable mountaineering bags, and expensive custom shirts have been replaced by durable jackets.
As far as she is concerned, becoming a housewife is due to cost considerations, not having a job and raising children at home does not mean that the family status is low, "please please yourself first".
She has a friend who lives in Wuhai. After the child went to school and went abroad, she had no support. Every day, she kept her eyes from her husband for a moment, and fell into depression during the day-long quarrel with her husband.
She thinks that in a big city like Beijing, more and more full-time mothers are going outdoors, which is a good start. "The society is re-evaluating the value of housewives. Why can't we have our own time when nothing is delayed? "
return
Since Zhang Daye started walking eight years ago, Beijing's urban borders have never stopped expanding, and congestion on the highway to the suburbs has grown longer on weekends.
"Many are not on foot. Everyone runs outside, but the final form of play is different." Zhang Daye knows that the group he is targeting is mostly inexperienced "little whites". For most outdoor hiking clubs, every The most open weekly activities are primary activities, only a small number of people can advance to a higher level, "for more people, it is just leisure."
He said that what people pay attention to is not the result of "getting off the car and taking pictures", "people are now more inclined to find what they want in the process".
The team leaders found that the post-00s have "genes resistance" to traditional travel patterns.
Since the material living conditions have been greatly improved compared with the previous generation, the post-00s are more inclined to challenge themselves, and they dare to try the medium-intensity route for the first time.
On social media, hiking is more of a way of life to be sold to urban white-collar workers who are “rolled up” at work, allowing them to see a paradise of physical and mental liberation.
In January 2022, a social platform released the "Top Ten Life Trends in 2022", and "mountain life" became a hot word. Bloggers wore color-matched jackets and hiking pants, smelled wild flowers, and slapped dogs. Outdoor wildness And the sophistication of the city interweaves a new trend.
According to Zhang Daye, the "Paking Team" is a new game they developed this year. 10 groups can send one bus, with one owner and one dog in each row.
"They didn't come to play for themselves, they came to let the dogs play and socialize. The dogs are their family members."
They will choose a route with no cliffs and a small climbing height, but there are still some small dogs with short legs that spin around in place without taking two steps, and they need to be carried by their owners and carried on their backs to walk the entire distance.
Dogs’ social interaction drives people’s social interactions. When two dogs play together, owners will also exchange their dog-rearing experiences and share which restaurants in Beijing can bring dogs into.
There are also "dog slaves" who want to come and play dogs, and ask embarrassedly, "I don't have a dog, but I can walk the dog, make the dog happy, praise the dog, can you let me participate?"
But when the weekend is over, no matter why they set off, they always return to their peaceful lives.
Someone fell asleep from exhaustion on the return bus, and woke up to a familiar subway station, his sore legs and sweaty hair reminding him that city life is more comfortable.
Programmer Lu Yuwei always felt a little dazed and unreal every time she came back from the mountain.
Obviously a few hours ago, she couldn't find a modern toilet, and in a blink of an eye, she returned to the bed in the small room, back to the world of "solving bugs in dreams".
On the days when she was stuck at work, she would look through the photo albums on the subway without signal, closing her eyes and savoring the breath of the mountains and forests.
When she first participated in the walk last year, Lu Yuwei just jumped from a start-up company to a large factory.
The company once engaged in closed development for three consecutive months, without a day off, and worked overtime until the early morning every day.
Whenever she returned to her 8-square-meter bedroom late at night, she found that she hadn't said a few words a day, and she had acne on her face.
During that time, someone scolded the boss to leave. She was looking forward to holding on to the end of the year to get the year-end bonus. When she got the money, she realized that it was only one-fifth of what she expected.
She finally broke out, stayed up all night to write algorithm questions to prepare for the interview, and 2 months later jumped to a big factory.
After arriving in a new position, she can use algorithms to read users' preferences and push advertisements for them, but she can't read her own heart.
Under the established framework of Dachang, she only needs to optimize, without challenges or innovations, "I don't know who what I do will be useful to who".
She is always dealing with the black box, and she can get the desired result by adjusting the parameters a little, but she can't see the process.
This girl with crooked smiling eyes and soft voice is fierce at work. She commented that her current job is "too idle" and she has little overtime. She can see the end at a glance.
In the industrial park with many large factories, she saw the lights in the opposite building after get off work in the evening, and she felt unspeakable anxiety.
There is a lot of free time all of a sudden, "just lying down will make my heart feel empty".
In order to find new excitement, she first visited Beijing's parks, and then began to search the Internet for Beijing weekend outdoor activities, and saw many posts about hiking.
It was her first time to participate in hiking, and she climbed 1,000 meters. After climbing, her butt hurt for several days. She had to walk up and down the stairs in small steps, but she enjoyed the "fullness of self-abuse".
She is also often in conflict.
She likes life now and knows that it is this kind of blandness that gives her the opportunity to get in touch with hiking, "but I also have to plan for the future."
Some time ago, the company laid off the business lines of nearly 100 people, many of whom are young people like her.
She was afraid that she would not be able to escape the curse of "programmers will be unemployed at the age of 35". She felt that she needed to improve her competitiveness while she was young, so she studied advertising-related books and algorithm questions every day, and began to prepare for the next job change.
(Except Huang Ling, other interviewees are pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Jiao Jingxian Source: China Youth Daily