An extreme journey that changes your attitude towards life

After returning from the North Pole, all the people who knew about my trip had the same reaction, which fully met the two psychological conditions for the journalism industry to survive: one is curiosity - "Did you go to the North Pole?"; the other is the desire for knowledge - "How is the North Pole?" The successive questions, coupled with the unique eyes and expressions of each person, were so vivid that I couldn't bear to be perfunctory, so I answered: "Spectacular, it is indeed spectacular."

In fact, this answer made everyone, including myself, dissatisfied. The North Pole, a geographical pole of the earth for thousands of years, a psychological pole of the earth for thousands of years, as one of the only hundreds of people who set foot there every year, the impact and excitement I received, how can it be summed up in just a few bland words?

From a turbulent continent with 1.4 billion people to the North Pole, you can imagine the gap. This is such a calm sea. Looking around, besides the sun that never sets and the blue sky, there is white ice... It is not completely accurate to say that it is white. There are many large ice blocks, which have turned green because they are frozen solid.

When there is no wind, sound is a terrifying existence here. I walked far away alone on the ice. Because I was wrapped in three layers of hats, the crunching sound of my footsteps in the snow sounded very strange, as if someone was following me. I knew that there could be no one else here, so what could it be? What else could it be? Thinking about the behemoth that can stand up to three meters tall and run at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour, the image ambassador of the Arctic, I couldn't help but feel creepy, so I kept looking back subconsciously. At the Russian Banyo Base Camp preparing to fly to the North Pole, if you carefully observe everyone who is walking alone, they will have the habit of "walking a few steps and looking back". At this time, you will find that you are not alone.

Okay, let's start telling my trip to the Arctic in chronological order.

Bumped by the North Pole

One day at the end of March 2014, when I was reporting to Yu Jingzhong, deputy director of the program department of the financial channel and the chief director of the documentary "North Pole, North Pole!", about the documentary, I was suddenly given the task of leading a team to the North Pole.

I thought it was a joke. Because there had never been such a motion before, and I had never thought about going to the North Pole or the South Pole. This is not a "luxury" because I have never "hoped". When it comes to exploration, I am absolutely a layman. I admire those explorers, but I have never had even a slight idea of becoming one of them. This idea, like those poles, is very far away from me. I prefer to sit at a quiet desk and read some useless books. But even so, when the opportunity of "going to the North Pole" was placed in front of me, it was like I had never dreamed of getting rich but suddenly had 1 million US dollars falling on my head. I would not refuse and would not not cherish it. So after I asked several times and got the answer that I was allowed to go, I began to temporarily move my eyes away from the historical fog of the Republic of China and look at the elusive Arctic, which seems to be on another planet.

We went to the Arctic this time with the help of the world-renowned explorer Oslan. Mr. Berg Oslan is known as the most successful polar explorer of our time. Since 1990, he has continuously set milestones in polar exploration: the first time a human being reached the North Pole alone without support, the first time a human being crossed the Antarctic continent alone without support, the first time a human being reached the North Pole in the long winter night, etc. In recent years, Mr. Oslan has devoted himself to the protection of the polar environment, trying to arouse public attention to the polar environment. Because of his love for the polar regions, Oslan even chose the Arctic as the venue for his wedding in April 2012.

Because more and more people were exploring the Arctic, Russian explorer Dr. Bayarsky established the North Pole Expedition Base Camp at 89 degrees north latitude in 1993. This is also the only expedition camp in the world located at this latitude. Mr. Oslan naturally had a lot of contacts with this base camp. When he learned that we were going to the Arctic, he immediately contacted the base camp for us. Because the base camp only exists for about a month each year, after April 20, the ice in the Arctic Ocean begins to melt and the base camp will be evacuated. So, we have to confirm and sign up quickly. Although time is tight, with the help of Mr. Oslan, we finally made the trip as scheduled.

Oslan was introduced to me by another polar enthusiast, Ms. Mei Yuanmei, who was once the cultural counselor of the Norwegian Embassy in China. Later, I found that there are many like-minded people on the issue of the Arctic; and we also found an interesting phenomenon that all people who care about the environment and the Arctic are becoming more and more similar in character, more poetic and loving, and more compassionate. Teacher Mei speaks fluent Chinese, but it seems that the process of learning Chinese has obviously not affected her way of thinking. She is so childlike. In the process of accompanying us for the interview, she was creative and made herself and everyone else laugh. The interview process, which was originally very tiring, seemed to become relaxed because it was full of countless surprises.

Even some of the interviewees, including our own people, were often inspired by Teacher Mei and had a lot of fun with her.

In the process of getting to know her, I found that Teacher Mei was the bridge between China and the Arctic. With her, we could go directly to the Arctic. During our filming, she was more thoughtful than we were. The help she gave us was beyond the scope of gratitude.

Picture in Picture

Finally, all the formalities were completed step by step in the chaos, and it was time to set off. On April 8, 2014, at 14:50, Scandinavian Airlines flight SK0996 departed from Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital Airport. After a 9-hour and 40-minute flight, we arrived in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, at 18:30 local time. Then we transferred and took the 20:35 Scandinavian Airlines SK1472 flight to Oslo, the capital of Norway. We arrived one hour and 10 minutes later and checked into a hotel near the airport. The next morning, we set off again, taking the 10:15 flight. After a four-hour and 40-minute flight, we arrived at Longyearbyen, the northernmost city in the world, located in the Norwegian Svalbard Islands.

Longyearbyen is located at 78бу13бу north latitude, and here, it is already a school of Arctic scenery. I was exhausted from the flight, but when the plane was about to land, I saw from the air that "the white land was so clean", and the shock was like the cold wind when I got off the plane.

The feeling that seemed unreal before fell to the ground with me: I arrived at the North Pole. When I was picking up my luggage, the polar bear on the conveyor belt further strengthened this impression.

Although, this is just the warm-up for our trip to the Arctic (actually it should be "pre-cooling"). On that day, the temperature in Longyearbyen was minus 12 degrees; the temperature in Beijing was 22 degrees above zero; the temperature at the North Pole was minus 35 degrees.

The exotic scenery that we have seen on TV, books and newspapers is unfolding before us one by one.

The houses in Longyearbyen are covered with ice and snow all year round, and the red, blue and yellow colors are all very bright. Later, when we were in Greenland, we felt that the style of the houses there was similar to that here, but the colors were not as gorgeous as here. I took a photo of the church at the northernmost end of the world, and I was shocked by the colors in it. Whether it was red, blue or white, they were all so clear and bright. We often praise a city for its beauty, saying that it is like "in a painting". Is this the scene?

I admire nature. This nature has two meanings, one is nature, and the other is the word opposite to "artificial". Look at developed countries, the beauty is all natural. In the process of struggling for survival, the people of Longyearbyen have found their own rules of survival and the colors they should have. In contrast, our city has traces of carving that are comparable to the work of gods. But donбпt you think that they have nothing to do with our souls or even conflict with them?

Photographer Xiao Zhu has been thinking about buying a pair of fleece pants, and I want to buy a pair of shoes. I always feel that the insulation effect of the pair of shoes I brought is very questionable. I thought it would be difficult to buy something here, but in fact, as long as it is within the working hours, there is everything. The market is developed, the economy is developed, and there is no corner forgotten by civilization. The only supermarket here has an area of 1,000 square meters, and the sign at the door is still the glorious image of the polar bear.

Fully armed

After buying clothes and walking to a hotel, the personnel of the Banyo base camp need to make a pre-departure mobilization. After arriving, we were mainly asked about equipment, especially clothes to wear. As a result, both the clothes that Xiao Zhu and his friends brought and the shoes I just bought were rejected. "If you wear such shoes, your feet will be frozen off." We were shocked. In the end, we still put on the pants and shoes borrowed from the base camp.

That pair of shoes left a deep impression on me. It was knee-length and divided into three layers. The outermost layer was leather, then a layer of felt, and then a layer of wool. Wear two layers of socks inside, the outer layer of wool socks, also knee-length, and a pair of thick cotton socks inside. This set of equipment allowed me to safely spend 24 hours at the North Pole.

This trip to the North Pole gave me a new understanding and deep experience of temperature. If you have not been to an extremely cold area, I dare say that all your confidence in temperature is blind. Some people like to talk about the coldness of our Northeast. I have to tell him as a person who has experienced it that it is completely different. Even if the temperature is minus 35 degrees, the feeling in the Arctic Circle with a clear sky and ice underfoot is very different from that in our hot Northeast. This principle seems easy to understand, so I won't explain it.

Seeds will always sprout

After the mobilization meeting, I went to take pictures of the Global Seed Vault. This seed vault has a special mark in my reading experience. I have forgotten when I saw an article introducing this seed vault. At that time, I thought, there is actually such a place called the Noah's Ark of mankind. Alas, I don't know if I will have the chance to see it in this life. As fate would have it, the opportunity came, and so quickly.

It is not easy to enter the seed vault. We were able to get in by hitchhiking under the active contact of Teacher Mei and happened to catch up with the Indians who came to deliver seeds. Baidu Encyclopedia has a detailed introduction to this seed bank, which is recorded as follows:

In a cave in the Svalbard Islands of Norway, about 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole, there is a "Doomsday Seed Bank": about 100 million seeds of crops from all over the world are stored in a cellar at minus 18 degrees Celsius.

This seed bank is the safest gene storage bank in the world, and its security is comparable to that of the US National Gold Storage Vault, and it can even withstand earthquakes and nuclear weapons.

Seeds of crops such as wheat and potatoes will be hidden in two secret chambers dug deep in the mountains, with the walls of the caves coated with cement. Each storage room has an area of 375 square meters, and plastic boxes will be placed on rows of metal racks. Each box contains about 400 samples, all in polyethylene bags, and each sample has about 500 sets of seeds, sealed in waterproof aluminum foil to prevent the refrigeration system from failing when the power is off. The storage temperature of the seeds will be kept at minus 18 degrees Celsius.

The project is expected to cost $3 million. The British magazine "New Scientist" reported that the cellar will be built in the sandstone mountain area of Spitzbergen, Norway, 1,000 kilometers away from the North Pole. Behind the 1-meter-thick concrete wall, there are two airlocks and high-security bulletproof doors to protect the seed bank.

It will store all the known crop seeds in the world. The purpose is to ensure that when the earth encounters disasters such as nuclear war, natural disasters or climate change, the surviving humans can re-sow seeds to ensure the diversity of world crops. This granary was built in the safety model of Fort Knox, the gold storage site in the United States, at a cost of 3 million US dollars, and will be used to store 2 million different crop seeds. The construction cost of the cellar is borne entirely by the Norwegian government. Norway only owns the ownership of the cellar, and the ownership of the seeds still belongs to the storage countries.

The height of the "granary" is a carefully considered "safe height", about 130 meters above sea level. Even if the Greenland ice sheet melts and the sea level is estimated to rise by 7 meters, it will not threaten the "granary".

Notes on the Big City

Longyearbyen has 2,000 people and a total of six taxis in the city. A city of 2,000 people is not even a town here, but a village. We are not villagers of this village, so in the village, transportation is basically walking. Walking on the road, looking at the watch, it is 11 o'clock at night, but the night is very special, like the dawn here.

It seems that all kinds of colors are available here, except green. Longyearbyen people will probably never invent the word "greenery". A large number of Japanese and Korean cars are traveling on the road. The road is very narrow and even cannot be recognized after being covered with snow, not to mention the yellow line in the middle. I didn't even know if it was there; it is also very slippery. Several children skated on the ice directly on the ground wearing ordinary shoes. But the cars are all driving very fast. If Longyearbyen people drive on normal roads, they can probably fly. Another major means of transportation is snowmobiles. Although they look a bit bulky, they can reach a speed of 90 kilometers per hour. Our photographer Xiao Zhu took a snowmobile to the top of the mountain after returning from the Arctic to take a full view of Longyearbyen.

Many people came to Longyearbyen just to ski and drive snowmobiles. A string of snowmobiles roared and slid on the snow, and the scene was quite spectacular.

Everyone in Longyearbyen was very enthusiastic. When they came to meet, they were full of smiles from a long distance. If it weren't for the sincerity in the smile that made you dare not think too much, you would really think that he had something to ask of you, but in fact, he came just to say hello to you.

I was exhausted when I walked to the hotel that day. I only did one thing, which was to sign the life and death agreement with the Banyo Base Camp. Before coming here, I was still murmuring about this agreement in my heart. When I arrived in this environment, I suddenly found that everything was fine and life and death were not worth mentioning. Then I went to bed without washing and fell asleep in about 30 seconds. This is the fastest time I fell asleep abroad in recent years. I am no longer young. Now when I go abroad at night, I often feel more energetic. I look at the dark sky outside and sigh constantly. I wish I could write down my feelings immediately, thinking that the philosophical thinking of mankind will rise to a higher level from the next day. But after the sun rises, people become listless, and philosophical thinking quickly declines to a life experience worse than death. When this experience is repeated and I feel that there is no hope of reversing it, it changes in one fell swoop in the world's northernmost city.

Base Camp, a "latitude" away

I woke up at five o'clock the next morning and took a shower first, because I heard that I couldn't take a shower after arriving at the Barneo Base Camp. Then I packed up and set off. According to yesterday's notice, I flew to the Barneo Base Camp at ten o'clock. I entered the airport and found that it was a small plane. I counted and there were 13 passengers on board. The seats in the back half of the plane were all laid flat, and everyone's luggage and supplies for the Barneo Base Camp were placed.

After a two-and-a-half-hour flight, I arrived at the Barneo Base Camp. Here, at 89 degrees north latitude, one degree of latitude away from the North Pole, 110 kilometers.

Our small team went all the way north, from Beijing (39бу56буN) to Copenhagen (55бу43буN) to Oslo (59бу56буN) to Longyearbyen (78бу13буN) to Barneo Base Camp (89буN), constantly experiencing changes in time and space, and changes in weather. When we arrived at Barneo Base Camp, the first feeling was that it was empty; then it was cold, really cold; then the sun was really fun, we stayed here for 24 hours, and it just circled along the horizon (no, it should be the sea level).

After returning from the Arctic, a question I was often asked was: "Did you see polar bears?" I answered no, and the other party would always be a little disappointed. I was disappointed if I didn't see it, but if I had seen it, I would have been desperate. I didn't plan to compete with the polar bear, which stands three meters tall and can run at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour. I might be smarter than it (not necessarily), but it didn't compete with me in this regard. The staff at the base camp thought the same as I did. As soon as we got off the plane, they warned us not to act alone, otherwise the life and death agreement signed last night would really take effect.

Another obvious feeling at the base camp was that gender was blurred. We were settled in tent No. 7. That night I found that there were a total of six people living there, four men and two women.

As for the toilet, the men's was a small open-air one with an inverted gasoline barrel greeting you to properly control the flow direction, and only the big ones could enter the house; of course, women could only enter the house. The men's and women's toilets were 50 meters apart and facing each other. In this place where hands exposed outside for two minutes can get frostbitten, it is estimated that few people are interested in another place and are willing to spend some time to observe.

The base camp is built on a 1.5-meter-thick ice sheet, and under the ice sheet is the Arctic Ocean, which is 4,380 meters deep. It is a scientific research base, and Russian and American scientists have also built several temporary laboratories here. One of the small laboratories, which is only about three square meters, has a 50-centimeter square hole to detect changes in water quality at different depths. Standing next to it, I was always worried that I would accidentally slip down. If that happened, how would I climb out? This question troubled me for a long time.

Later I found that I was thinking too much. If I slipped down, I would freeze to death within a minute. The consequences are very sci-fi: 400,000 years later, the Arctic dried up, and scientists were surprised to find a human fossil at the bottom of the valley 4,380 meters deep.

Cold, cold that penetrates into the bone marrow. After staying outside for five minutes, I felt that my hands were not my own, and quickly returned to the tent that served as a public lounge. The tent is warm, and the heating is generated by burning gasoline - is this a Russian feature? - and then the blower is used to blow into the tent, and the temperature is kept at 18 or 19 degrees. When you enter, you will sweat immediately, and when you leave, you will feel cold again. This cycle repeats over and over again, and you are constantly tempering yourself in ice and fire.

When you come to this place, you can't bear to stay in the tent. After coming out, the breath you exhale quickly turns into frost and hangs on the brim of your hat. The foreigners who like to grow big beards also have icicles on their eyebrows and beards. Our reporter Xiao Xue has also become a white-haired beauty. Seeing them talking and laughing with icicles on their faces, I suddenly have confidence in the endurance of human beings.

In particular, all the people are so optimistic. All the people seem to have become children when they come here, their eyes are clear, their thoughts are simple, and their bodies seem to have been reborn. In this kind of weather, an old man, an American scientist, did not wear a coat, accepted our interview and led us to see several places in the open air for more than 20 minutes, which made me admire him. Guess his age? --76 years old.

Did you guess it right?

When did we go to the North Pole when we arrived at the base camp? We were notified to wait, as long as the weather is suitable, anytime. It doesn't feel like taking a helicopter to the North Pole, but like going on a spring outing by car. At around 8 pm, a Czech uncle Marek who was sleeping in my clinic - Marek is also a great explorer. He has been to the North Pole 7 times. The first 6 times were on foot, but the last time the sled hit the ice and bounced up, hitting his knee hard, resulting in a comminuted fracture of the knee. Now he walks with a limp, but his love for the North Pole has not changed at all, but he can only go there by helicopter like us. He has a very good relationship with Oslan. He played guitar at Oslan's wedding. After arriving here, he had been waiting in line for us to take pictures of him. Finally, he played a song "Moscow Suburbs Evening" for us. I guess we know that Chinese people have an unusual feeling for this song.

He has been acting as our guardian angel since we arrived at the North Pole. He always called us first when eating, sleeping, and setting off. If he didn't see us, he would look for us everywhere. You won't get lost in the tiny place of the base camp, but you will be left behind. The two Norwegian guys who set off with us from Longyearbyen were waiting in the public rest tent. As a result, no one called them, so they were left behind. The seats for the remaining few days were full, so they can only wait until next year to go to the North Pole.

The end

I was shooting in a tent outside the base camp. The old man came over and said that we were done and would set off in 30 minutes. We hurriedly prepared. Later, someone asked me, were you excited when you arrived at the North Pole? To be honest, we were busy with one shoot after another, one flight after another. Later, we counted that we had flown 13 times in half a month, including two long-distance flights of about nine hours. Every day, every shoot and every departure, I just wanted to avoid any mistakes. Excited? All drowned in the tight schedule.

On the helicopter, there were only nine passengers and three crew members. The helicopter was flying very low, and the magnificent scenery on the ground (or should I say on the water) was in full view. The mountains and plains (suddenly I found that many Chinese words are not applicable, or inaccurate) were all covered with ice, and only the criss-crossing ditches and streams, like the ridges just turned over in the fields, made the ice cover not look too monotonous.

The helicopter stopped twice on the way to pick up people, and once it also transported three assault boats, which were the explorers who walked in the Arctic and were preparing to return.

The helicopter moved forward slowly and finally stopped slowly at a place. We didn't take off again, and just when I was wondering why, the expedition leader announced that we could disembark, because we had reached the North Pole.

This is the North Pole.

Compared to the base camp, the landscape didn't seem to have changed much. But it was colder, the ice was harder, and the sun was more dazzling. Except for the dozen or so people traveling with us and a helicopter, the world was terribly quiet. This was still close to the polar day. If we came here during the polar night, it would be creepy to think about it.

I wanted to take more photos, but unfortunately, in addition to my hands not being able to control me, my camera and mobile phone were also not being able to control me. As soon as I took out the camera, it showed that it was out of battery, even though it was fully charged before I came here; the mobile phone froze as soon as I raised it. It was all because of the cold. These photos were all taken in a race against time.

For convenience, our cameraman Xiao Zhu took off his gloves and operated the machine with his bare hands for three to five minutes. As soon as he finished shooting, the captain and the Czech uncle came over and rubbed Xiao Zhu's hands constantly, fearing that his hands would be frozen, and expressed high appreciation and incomprehension for his brave behavior.

Where is the North Pole? Following the locator, 89°59′56′′, 57′′, 58′′, 59′′... This is the North Pole!

We still have to appear at the North Pole, and the base camp notified us that we can stay here for a maximum of 45 minutes, so we got busy here without time to sigh. In the end, for us, the helicopter stayed for 15 more minutes.

There was no special commemorative ceremony. The captain just poured the purple wine that had been prepared in a disposable plastic cup and clinked glasses with each other to show congratulations. Looking at the color and the sweet taste, I thought it was a drink at first. It was steaming hot, and it was undoubtedly a good drink in this icy and snowy place. So I drank two cups, and my whole body suddenly became hot. But soon my head was spinning, and I once again realized how powerful the Russians were.

The North Pole is worth staying for a long time, but it is not advisable to stay for a long time. There are a lot of people waiting on the plane, so we have to go.

There was actually another project on the way back. A Russian couple who came from Longyearbyen on the same plane with us and stayed in the same tent were said to be wealthy. The man looked like a polar bear, and his arms were as thick as my thighs. At the base camp, I actually saw him walking around in a fall coat, a pair of slippers, and no socks. His wife was always listless, and later I learned that it was because she did not approve of her husband's trip. Because her husband wanted to swim at the North Pole!

The helicopter flew for about ten minutes on the return trip, and the guy began to take off his clothes, and there was cheering on the plane.

The helicopter slowly came to a stop at a place with a ditch. The guy wearing only a pair of swimming trunks tied a rope around his waist, slid down tentatively, and then climbed up quickly. It turned out that this swim was just symbolic. I thought he was going to swim in it for half an hour. At this moment, I saw that his hands and feet were already very clumsy when he climbed up, and the water on his head immediately froze, and his head was covered with ice. Everyone hurriedly wiped his body, put a blanket on him, and immediately helped him onto the helicopter. The first thing this guy did after coming up was to take out the wine flask on his body and drink a big sip comfortably.

I donбпt know if the other older guy had a plan or was inspired by the Russian brother. Under the jeers of the crowd, he also took off all his clothes, jumped down more swiftly, and jumped up more swiftly. These two people made the atmosphere in the helicopter burst out from silence and reached a climax in an instant. We returned to the base camp with laughter all the way.

The trip to the North Pole started with seriousness and fear, and ended with naked swimming and carnival of the gods. This seems to be in line with the true face of life. Then, we continued to shoot at the base camp until we were suddenly notified to leave for Longyearbyen in 15 minutes. It took about a whole day in the base camp.

Our bodies also left some memories. The most common one was broken fingernails, which all three of us had; frostbite on the hands, which all three of us had, to varying degrees; the photographer Xiao Zhu had frostbite on the tip of his nose, but he didn't know it. He felt itchy when taking a shower at night, and a piece of skin fell off when he wiped it with his hand. Greenland--Green Island?

Then, we continued to shoot in Longyearbyen; then, we went to Greenland to shoot, which had a different flavor from Longyearbyen. The story of Greenland will be told later, and I would like to commemorate it with a few photos.

Not the end, but the starting point

At that time, and even after returning, I kept thinking that we went to the Arctic because we needed to shoot a documentary, so what about Oslan and the others? Teacher Mei has traveled a lot, but that day she still told us with envy that she had not yet been to the North Pole and Greenland. In addition to protecting the Arctic and the environment, what else is she pursuing? Why do people of different skin colors, backgrounds, and personalities seem to have returned to their childhood after coming to the Arctic, with their wit and sincerity suddenly withdrawn? Looking back, why do we want to shoot this documentary about the Arctic that may be out of reach for many Chinese people? In addition to various scientific explanations, I think there may be another point, that is, people's exploration of unknown areas and the challenge of their own limits. It is this point that is driving the progress of human society and our own improvement and perfection. This is the call of the vast world to mankind, and it is also an impulse from the origin of human life.

So, we are not making a documentary, we are taking the pulse of human civilization and the ocean and land under our feet. Every pulse here affects our destiny and the future of all mankind.

In 1924, when British mountaineer George Mallory answered the question "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest" from the New York Times, his answer became a famous saying that inspired countless later generations - "Because the mountain is there". Similarly, why do humans continue to make great efforts to choose to hike to the Arctic, swim in the Arctic, run marathons in the Arctic, hold weddings in the Arctic, etc. when the scientific and technological means are already complete - because I am here and the Arctic is there...

(The author Dong Yingchun is the producer of "Economic Information Network" on CCTV Finance Channel. This article was written in May 2014. The large-scale documentary "Arctic, Arctic!" will be broadcast on CCTV Finance Channel on April 22. Please pay attention!)

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