It was in a commonweal activity when I knew a college student association called the Pioneers Outdoor Club and some members, such as Haijun, Hongkai, and Qiuqiu. Then in July three boys in the club set off on a hike from Chongqing to Inner Mongolia. I took the responsibility for posting on Tianya Forum for them. I could see magnificent landscape photos weekly renewed in their qzone, and receive their text message daily: “We set out at 7 AM, past a valley by midday, and camped by river side about 9 PM;” “A teammate left for domestic urgency and another fellow hurt his foot. Yet we’ll go on…” My heart rose and sank along with them and I prayed for them. The summer vacation fleeing quickly, at the 53th day the two guys announced their arrival at Hohhot. I wound up my serialized post on Tianya, too.

In September, the Pioneers launched a movie festival with our Student Aiding Volunteer Association and other local academies, to raise money for rural children. Those days Hongkai rushed around selling the tickets and communicated with me on phone each midnight. Some said the cinema was mean to donate only 2 yuan from every 20-yuan ticket; some even suspected there was a secret deal between the cinema and the Pioneers. It was hard for me to distrust Hongkai’s ardent smile and hard work. I encouraged him, “Rumours also accompany our SAVA. No trial, no chance to explore a new long-run charity way for China. As long as you Pioneers stick to the public welfare, we’ll stick with you!”

On the movie festival day, it was pouring. Hongkai said in the qq group, “Remember the Pioneers’ first recruit? Raining and the classroom crammed with zealous schoolmates. Today we should be more courageous, with SAVA friends to come support us. Our slogan: No fear and no stop for Pioneers!” By the afternoon the sky cleared up; the festival turned out a success, over 200 tickets sold. Haijun took me home, and from him I knew more about the club:

In the summer of 2011, Haijun and other two boys hiked to Tibet, covering 60 days and 2400 km. After return, Haijun, the captain Zhang Shanfeng, Hongkai, and some other schoolfellows founded the club.

“We just didn’t want to spend the college years as some fellows, dreaming away on the dorm beds or playing away in computer games…Since impossible to change the academic atmosphere, we’d travel out to learn from Nature. Besides, we run small business in the campus, to cover our tuition as well as travel cost. It’s common for us to get criticized in the headmaster office, in the charge of organizing ‘illegal’ activity. The college is too coward to take any reform or see student innovations. Last winter vacation our employment champion in Shanghai, which earned 2000 RMB to help poor students in the college, was praised by newspapers, so the teachers no longer crash us.” Haijun said, with a peaceful smile.

Last week, Haijun and the two boys who had returned from Hohhot came over to cook supper with me. Xiaoguo and Xiaoliu described the magnificent Great Wall on the border between Shanxi Province and Inner Monglia, while they also sighed: “Though with a sign ‘protecting the relics’, a modern road trampled over a beacon-tower. The Great Wall from Qin Dynasty can hardly survive this century.”

During his hike to Tibet, Haijun got more impressed on human hospitability than natural beauty. The three boys lodged at least ten times in Tibetan homes; despite language obstacles, they communicated well with the locals by gestures. A Tibetan passer-by on a horse, with a cotton coat on his shoulders, even asked kindly whether the youngsters felt cold.

“Hike is more than sightseeing; it’s to converse with nature, with different people and culture, and, last but not least, with true ourselves.” Haijun told me. On their faces I did see more vigor and less cavil than on those faces shut up in “Ivory Tower”.

They took an early farewell, to try a recruit in the new campus district. Under the club's strict physical and psychological selections and the college pressures, it’s harder and harder to recruit new members. Seeing off the three young figures in the dark night, I pondered: How should one spend his youth time? Perhaps not wise, still we’re brave; perhaps no success, yet our life has bloomed to the full.

Start from Whanzhou, Chongqing:

Hike to Inner Mongolia: