大学生千里骑行记
爱思英语编者按:在过去的这个夏天里,大学生们选择了各自的方式来度过漫长假期。为了收获一个非凡的暑假,来自广东的七名大学生踏上了一段别开生面的冒险之旅! Team’s noble adventure They call themselves “The Soul Knights” and come from different universities in Guangdong province. During their summer vacation, the team, consisting of five male and two female students, cycled more than 3,000 kilometers from Guangzhou to Beijing. It took them 30 days to complete the journey. The Soul Knights have a noble cause, which is to promote civilized travel by taking photos of graffiti left by tourists. “When we heard that a Chinese tourist had scribbled his name on an Egyptian temple, it made us think a lot. We wanted to use photos to remind everyone how important it is to protect historic relics,” says Zhang Zhihao, 22, the team’s captain, who is a junior majoring in business administration at Guangdong University of Finance & Economics (GUFE). On their trip, the team had a clear division of duty. Students majoring in medicine provided medical care, students majoring in finance were in charge of accounting and logistics, and students majoring in journalism updated the team’s micro blog. Tough trip Using mobile GPS navigation, the team followed the No 107 State Highway. On the way they passed through many cities experiencing heat waves with temperatures well above 40 degrees. “We rode about 20 kilometers per hour. We got up at 6 am, departed at 7:30 am, and rested at noon to cool down. Sometimes we borrowed sheets of cardboard from restaurants and slept under some trees. Sometimes it was so hot that I poured cold water over my head,” says Zheng Haoguang, 21, the team’s leader and a classmate of Zhang. The team’s goal was to cycle 100 kilometers a day, but sometimes they had to continue riding in the night before reaching a safe place to sleep. “When we cycled from Chenzhou to Hengshan, Hunan province, we covered 200 kilometers in one day. One stretch of the road was unlit, so we had to cycle in the dark. I sang the song Beyond to encourage my teammates,” says Zheng. The two women always cycled in the middle of the team, and the men took care of them. “We started training a long time before the trip. Cycling more than 100 kilometers every day is tough, but we persevered to the end,” says Chen Mingjian, 22, a junior majoring in journalism at GUFE. Successful exhibition After cycling for nearly one month, the team finally arrived in Beijing, their destination. But it wasn’t the end of their journey yet. The team set up a small exhibition on the Great Wall of China, one of the country’s most visited attractions, to show everyone the photos they had taken of graffiti in various places – on brick walls, on bamboo, on antiques, even on pillars in ancient temples. To their delight, many visitors showed their support for the young team’s project by signing their names on the banner they had prepared. Zhang really cherishes this experience. “Cycling is what we love. Walking is too slow and driving too fast. Cycling is a great way of enjoying the landscape, but it’s also challenging. University students don’t encounter enough difficulties and obstacles anymore. This kind of trip strengthens your will and makes you more confident in facing life,” says Zhang. “Plus, sending a message to the public about taking care of the country’s cultural heritage is a very rewarding feeling.” |