The car broke down repeatedly during the journey, which made the driver very busy, but I had more opportunities to collect specimens.

Editor’s Note:

Scientific expedition travel notes refer to articles or books written by researchers or explorers who go to a certain area for scientific investigation or exploration and record what they see, hear and feel. This article was published on the China Science Popularization Expo website in September 2013 by Wu Yuhu, a researcher at the Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is still thrilling and exciting to read today, and it feels like you are actually there.

Part 1

"Fengdu City" on the Gobi Desert

On July 29, we left Qiemo and arrived in Ruoqiang County along the road on the edge of the desert.

The whole journey was basically a detour along the pebble-covered riverbed and between sand ridges and sand pits. It was common for the car to get dry and get stuck, and even breaking the steel plate was not uncommon.

This area was once home to a large area of ​​primeval forests of Populus euphratica. Populus euphratica is an ancient and precious tree that can be called a living fossil. It is drought-resistant and sand -resistant. Its leaflets are slender like willow leaves when young, and become wide and round when they grow up, and are dense and block out the sun. It has a well-developed root system and a deep taproot, which can make good use of groundwater. It has extremely strong vitality in desert Gobi areas and is an excellent tree species for sand fixation and soil conservation in cold and arid areas . At present, it is only distributed in deserts and arid areas in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai in China. There are many large trees with a breast diameter that require several people to hug, and they are all over hundreds of years old.

Many of the original poplar trees along the way died due to drought. What caught the eye were the thick trunks that were dead but not falling or fallen but not decaying, leaning or lying among the sand dunes, like an ancient battlefield with corpses everywhere. These pieces of poplar remains, with branches slanting out, pointing up to the blue sky or looking down at the desert, seemed to be wailing to the sky and humming to the desert, telling the story of their life journey and tragic and desolate fate.

There are many strange shapes among them. Some have ferocious faces, just like the impermanence and yakshas in the Yama Palace; some have bared fangs and claws, like various strange birds and beasts or coiled dragons and lying horses; they just lack the vitality they should have.

There are also countless sand dunes formed by wind erosion scattered in the dead poplar forest, just like a wasteland of graves. As long as the wind blows, sand and rocks will fly, the scenery is hazy, and the sand hills are vague. In addition, the wind blows through the tree trunks, and the whistling sound is everywhere, giving people a feeling of being in a "ghost cave". No wonder everyone here will be nervous and look around, as if there are millions of demons and monsters hiding here, ready to rush out of the cave at any time.

Occasionally, there are a few clumps of strange willow trees hiding in the low places of sandbags, peeking out from time to time with the wind. If you walk through them alone, you will definitely feel guilty and suspicious. Even if a small animal suddenly jumps out, you will inevitably be scared to death.

This is simply a "Fengdu City" full of evil spirits. This is the true portrayal of many primitive poplar forests on the edge of the Sea of ​​Death - the Taklimakan Desert.

Driving through this desolate and miserable "Fengdu City", facing the harshness and ruthlessness of nature, as botanists, we can't help but feel heavy-hearted. This was originally a lush forest, but how could it become so miserable now? There are so many topics to be studied and so many lessons to be learned. More importantly, there are many similar forests that are now facing the possibility of destruction and urgently need human protection and rescue.

Ruoqiang County is over 1,000 meters above sea level. Like other counties along the way, it is surrounded by desert Gobi, but it is more desolate than other counties. Not far to the northeast is the mysterious Lop Nur, where Mr. Peng Jiamu disappeared. We will repair here and then drive to the Altun Mountain Nature Reserve for investigation.

Part 2

Sandstorm

Speaking of the sandstorms in Ruoqiang County, they really opened our eyes. The county is located on the southeastern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, and is often visited by storms and sandstorms from the heart of the desert. Sometimes the sandstorms are columns of yellow dust, which are swirling higher and higher, and spinning faster and faster. Wherever they go, sand and rocks are flying, and people and animals are afraid to avoid them; sometimes they are overwhelming and sweeping away, often causing loss of life and property.

Although we didn't stay here for long, we still encountered it ourselves. Who could have been more lucky?

The weather was fine, but suddenly it changed. It was a big sandstorm, with strong winds carrying yellow sand all over the sky. We could clearly tell where the wind of the sandstorm was, and the clear sky was constantly being swallowed up. In an instant, the whole sky was covered with yellow sand. The world was just like the beginning of the universe, a chaos. The visibility around was less than 30 meters , and it was really dark, making the daylight suddenly look like dusk. Later, it was like night again, and you couldn't do anything without turning on the lights in the room.

We panicked and closed all the doors and windows, no one dared to go out, we all quietly looked at the sky outside the window which was getting darker and darker, feeling as if a disaster was about to happen or the end of the world was approaching.

Yellow sand and dust can penetrate any hole. Although there was no wind in the room, dust kept coming in. After a while, a thick layer of fine dust covered everything, including our bodies, and even our mouths and noses .

The officers and soldiers who received us were obviously used to it. They just sat quietly under the lights, busy with their own things. They were not as surprised as we were, and there was no sign of the fear that had once flashed through our hearts.

A young soldier told me that this kind of sandstorm is very destructive. Some local people's straw huts and houses are often swept away or destroyed. Some livestock that are not driven back to the pens in time are often harmed by this. Sometimes, even people who cannot escape in time are blown into the pond by the wind and suffer. As the record left by Master Xuanzang when he passed through the Western Regions on his way to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures: "The road is dangerous and the cold wind is terrible. There are many storms and disasters, and pedestrians are crushed"; "The storm is fierce, sand and stones are flying, and those who encounter it will die, and it is difficult to survive."

At this moment, I thought of those professional teams who had just set out and were marching in the desert Gobi. How would they withstand and feel this sudden attack?

Later, it was said that one of them first saw from the car window that the dust was rolling in the sky from behind. There was no place to take shelter in the vast Gobi Desert. They all wanted to drive away, but the road conditions in the Gobi Desert were really bad. The car couldn't run at all. Moreover, the simple roads were winding and winding, which was no match for the storm and dust. Soon the convoy was caught up.

Everywhere the wind blew, sand and rocks flew everywhere, and the sky became dark. In the "ocean" of rolling yellow dust, their entire army was "annihilated".

There was no road ahead, and no tracks behind. More than a dozen cars, big and small, were forced to stay in several places, isolated from each other and dared not move. Everyone was huddled in their own cars, covering their heads with their coats and other things, helplessly letting the raging sandstorm shake and hit the car bodies like a demon in the flying sand and rocks, and the cars could be shaken over and blown away at any time.

At this time, all the worries and fears were unnecessary, and the only thing to think about was to leave it to fate. Thinking this way, they were not so nervous. After more than an hour, the sandstorm passed, but the wind and sand did not stop, and the temperature dropped sharply. Fortunately, the visibility had greatly improved, so they regrouped and set off again.

Part 3

Night in Mangya Town

On August 4, we left Ruoqiang and headed for the Altun Mountains. Since the road was blocked by landslides, we realized after we set out that the road we had to take was almost entirely Gobi Desert, and we had to take a detour of nearly 100 kilometers. Along the way, our internal organs were almost shaken out, and the drivers were even more sore and tired. The car broke down many times, and we had to replace the steel plates that were broken due to the shaking, inspect the transmission shaft that fell due to the shock, and the burned engine and the tires that were thinned due to severe wear and tear and softened by high temperature expansion and finally exploded. In the end, even the iron frame of the jeep's seat cushion was broken by the shaking, so we had to temporarily tie it with wire to continue our journey.

Under such road conditions, even the best and most solid cars would inevitably break down, so you can imagine how much shock our flesh and blood are enduring. However, I do think that through training on this road, our drivers will hopefully win gold medals in world-class car rallies.

The car broke down repeatedly during the journey, which made the driver very busy and Deputy Captain Wu very anxious, but I had more opportunities to collect specimens. We were busy like this for most of the night, and finally arrived at Mangya Town in Qinghai Province at 3 am.

There is the largest asbestos mine in my country. The mine road is full of twists and turns, and it is a maze for us. In the dark night, our car turned around several times and returned to the original place, and the three cars lost contact with each other. Finally, we knocked on the door of a private hotel. It was nearly 5 o'clock in the morning when we found the other two cars that were lost and finished our second meal after more than ten hours.

Author: Wu Yuhu

This article only represents the author's views and does not represent the position of China Science Expo

This article was first published in China Science Expo (kepubolan)