As everyone knows, most mountain ranges in China run east to west, with the exception of the Hengduan Mountain Range, which is the only north-to-south mountain system in the country.
Strictly speaking, the Hengduan Mountain Range is not just one mountain range, but rather a conglomeration of seven major mountain ranges and over 200 glaciers.
Along the way, you can see several wrecked cars lying by the roadside, some recently involved in accidents and others seemingly abandoned long enough to have rusted over.
To be honest, seeing these scenes along the way is quite frightening.
Li Younan understood that especially tourists from some eastern coastal areas, after reading some introductions to Highway 318 with dreams of poetry and distant lands, set out impulsively.
The most outrageous are those groups of college students, with little driving experience, pooling money to rent an orange Tank 300, with a song playing: "Nothing can stop my yearning for freedom..."
And then they just take off.
Without having been to such places or driven such roads, it’s impossible to understand directly how perilous these roads are when driving on them.
When you truly arrive at a place like this, without the right mental composure, a moment’s panic can easily turn you into the wreck on the roadside...
Li Younan thought, fortunately, Liu Li was asleep, or seeing these scenes might have terrified her.
As he was thinking about this, Li Younan inadvertently glanced back at Liu Li, and his eyelid twitched—because he realized that at some point, Liu Li had woken up, her head leaning against the window, her gaze sweeping back and forth over the accident scenes, even glancing down over the cliffs.
"There’s no need to be afraid, don’t worry, my driving skills are good."
"Mm, I’m not afraid."
"You’re not afraid? Looks like you really trust me."
"Not at all, I’m just quite fearless myself."
Before long, the car arrived at the Jinsha River Bridge, a spot well worth a commemorative visit because crossing this bridge marks the official entry into Tibet.
Liu Li and Li Younan stopped by the bridge, got out, and took photos.
Liu Li excitedly sent a video to her brother, "Bro, look, we’ve reached the Jinsha River Bridge. Once we cross here, we’ll be leaving Sichuan."
Once they set off again, they were officially entering Tibet.
The stretch from the Jinsha River Bridge to Mangkang County was nearly the most difficult part of the entire 318 Highway.
Li Younan was extremely focused, driving with full attention.
He had watched a documentary before, which showed that this section of the road often had parts that would deteriorate, and many areas would become incredibly muddy after rain.
Additionally, on one side were steep cliffs with occasional falling rocks and occasional landslides on the road; on the other side was the ever-flowing Jinsha River.
But, to be fair, this section of the road had been transformed from a bad road into a smooth one.
It’s undeniable that China truly lives up to its reputation as a construction powerhouse, building such a national highway in a place like this, overcoming countless hardships and difficulties.
However, stretches of the gravel road still exist, with occasional landslides having occurred at some recent time, visible here and there.
Li Younan concentrated on his driving, with only one thought in mind: to get through this stretch safely.
Liu Li was also awake, continuously helping Li Younan keep an eye on the road ahead.
In such places, taking off a drone was even inconvenient due to too many obstacles.
Of course, you could also see many interesting sights along this road, mainly from the people on it.
Throughout the journey, Li Younan and Liu Li saw many people cycling into Tibet, on motorcycles, bicycles, and even Tibetans who were constantly prostrating themselves in devotion... The most outrageous was seeing a guy skating with a big backpack walking along the road.
Previously, Li Younan even saw videos of people entering Tibet by tractor, pushing carts into Tibet, or even huskies pulling carts into Tibet...
It is said that Highway 318 does not indulge the idle. On this road, you can never predict what bizarre modes of transportation you might encounter.
So, there’s no point in asking which transportation tool can conquer Highway 318. If you’re willing, you could even enter 318 on stilts.
During a rest at a small parking area, Li Younan met a young man traveling on foot and chatted for a bit.
The man was crossing from Mangkang, without filming videos or doing social media, very politely asking Li Younan if he could spare him some cookies and water.
He looked dusty and unkempt, but his eyes were genuinely clear.
Out of curiosity, Li Younan asked him, "Why don’t you film some videos? I’m sure a lot of people would love to see them."
The other person laughed, shook his head, and said, "You wouldn’t understand us. If we were doing this for money, we wouldn’t have chosen this... It’s way easier to do manual labor."
"Have you been walking the entire way?"
"Yes, I’ve been out for over two months now."
"Where do you sleep?"
"You see, I have a tent in my backpack."
"There are quite a few wild animals along the way... I mean, including predators like wolves and Tibetan Bears."
"Hahaha, in our circle, many people don’t care about life and death. If I die on the road someday, that would be my destiny."
To be honest, after the exchange, Li Younan was somewhat moved internally.
After the brief conversation, Li Younan needed to hit the road again. He gave all the cookies he had in the RV to the man without asking his name—they were just passing travelers on this road.
Back in the car, Li Younan told Liu Li about the hiker.
Liu Li pondered for a while, then as the car started again, she couldn’t help but lower the car window, glancing back at the traveler.
"On this journey, you really encounter people and things that you would never come across in everyday life."
She leaned back in her seat, thought for a while, and suddenly said to Li Younan, "Li Younan, I think I should be getting better."
Li Younan was slightly stunned, nodding, "Mm."
At that moment, Li Younan felt a bit of a literary vibe, but when you’ve chosen to come to 318 and encounter such people and events, if you can’t even get a hint of that literary atmosphere, then wouldn’t it have been a wasted trip?
After passing through the canyon section, the view finally opened up.
In the next stretch, until reaching Mangkang, the vegetation visibly increased.
After crossing the Zongbala Mountain at an altitude of 4,150 meters, the scenery on both sides of the road became gentle grasslands, with some shrubs growing in patches on the grass.
Next came a long downhill section, with smooth hills and increasingly dense vegetation, forests merging into sheets, gradually covering the entire mountain.
Upon reaching Mangkang, Li Younan and his companion rested for a while in the county town and replenished some supplies before continuing on their journey.
However, to be honest, although the scenery from Batang to Mangkang can also be described as desolate and magnificent, they encountered this kind of scenery so often that they experienced some aesthetic fatigue.
The two drove on to Rumei Town, where there’s a Mangkang 318 Love Station specially prepared for tourists driving the 318.
Besides parking and refilling water, it also offers a reasonably-priced supermarket, restaurant, and a shared kitchen for cooking.
It must be said that just entering Tibetan region, they already felt the warm hospitality.
There were quite a few lingering tourists at the camp, and Li Younan, feeling tired from driving, didn’t interact with others.
After parking the car, he didn’t even want to get out, and together with Liu Li, they made a simple dinner in the car and planned to rest.
In the evening, Liu Li was editing videos in the work area, processing today’s footage.
Many of the footage now was shot by Liu Li, which had the advantage of capturing videos of Li Younan in third person.
Previously, his videos mostly appeared in first person, and there’s quite a difference between third person and first person.
As Liu Li put it: "Don’t you think your looks are an advantage?"
Li Younan agreed it made sense.
While Liu Li edited videos, Li Younan reclined on the sofa bed and dozed off, unknowingly falling asleep.
When he awoke again, it was already dark outside, and Liu Li had finished processing the video footage for the day, lazily stretching and gently massaging her tired shoulders and back, before standing up to move around a bit.
Li Younan patted the sofa bed cushion, saying: "Take a break."
Liu Li nodded; to be honest, sitting on Li Younan’s sofa bed was indeed quite comfortable.
As soon as she sat down, Li Younan asked while browsing videos: "How’s the footage today?"
"Honestly, I don’t think it’s very impressive."
"It doesn’t matter, segment by segment, there’ll always be something interesting to share later."
"Mm."
"Editing videos is exhausting, right?"
"It’s okay, used to be like this at home too, once I sit down it’s for a long while, my brother sometimes massages my shoulders a bit."
Li Younan silently watched the girl before him.
Actually, if not for this journey, Li Younan’s understanding of her would only be limited to the level of "a girl with agoraphobia".
Previously, he would confidently dump his video footage for her to edit without ever considering if it was difficult.
There are reasons, of course, as this girl had never mentioned it.
When working at the company, there was a publicity department, often passing by their office, you could hear all sorts of complaints about work, leadership, various editing demands.
No matter what kind of video feeling he wanted, Liu Li had never complained on that front.
Human nature is often ungrateful; when receiving abundant contributions from others, one often forgets how hard they come by.
If not for this period of interaction, he might subconsciously feel that Liu Li was like an impersonal and efficient editing machine, handing her videos would quickly result in high-quality polished videos.
Not true.
This girl also learned and honed her skills bit by bit.
She too worried when some part never reached the desired result, becoming frustrated and pulling her hair.
She would also watch tutorial videos for unfamiliar skills, exploring slowly, finally applying them to her own videos.
Most times... she endured the long, lonely nights.
These were things she never spoke of.
While Liu Li lightly rubbed her shoulders, she felt the sofa beside her gently vibrate, and her body suddenly tensed—because Li Younan had subtly moved closer and sat beside her.
Liu Li wanted to move to the side, but there was no room, her mood grew tense all at once, frowning slightly, looking at Li Younan with a puzzled expression: "Why are you squeezing over here?"
Li Younan shook his head, saying: "You gave me a massage that day..."
"Ah, that..."
"As a return, let me massage you."
In the quiet setting, the girl widened her eyes, hesitant to look at the handsome boy’s face beside her.
She pursed her lips, then pouted slightly, turning back to glare at Li Younan: "What are you talking about? That--that’s not proper."
Li Younan hesitated, feeling impulsive yet not wanting Liu Li to misunderstand anything.
This time, it was truly just a pure massage.
Just then, the girl lowered her head again, speaking earnestly: "You drove all day, theoretically it’s you who’s more tired, yet you want to massage me... that—that’s not right."
As she said this, her gaze wandered elsewhere.
After a second of silent tension, she felt warm large hands gently settle on her shoulders.
The girl felt a current of electricity passing through her body; she stiffened all over, while Li Younan’s voice softly echoed in her ears: "Who said driving is tiring?"

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