可可西里的传说：他在“生命禁区”死里逃生，还建了一幢红房子 | 30 Years in the Forbidden Zone

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=j0567zyywno&width=500&height=375&auto=0

Hoh Xil, which means “beautiful girl” inTibetan, is a plateau between the Kunlun and Tanggula mountain ranges with anaverage altitude of 5,000 meters. However, Hoh Xil’s beauty is marred bythe harsh climate and extreme natural conditions, turning it into a “forbiddenzone for humans.” Even Tibetans, who have already adapted to plateau life,seldom set foot in this desolate region.

可可西里，藏语意为“美丽的少女”，是昆仑山脉和唐古拉山脉之间的巨大高原，平均海拔5000米以上。这里气候严酷，自然条件恶劣，被称为“生命的禁区”，就连适应高原生活的藏族朋友，也极少涉足这片荒凉的大地。

For a long time, people barely knew anything about Hoh Xil. Only stories about its infertility and horrendous environment circulated. In scientific circles, many aspects of the place still remain a mystery, with few people every getting close to it. 

在很长时间里，人们对可可西里几乎一无所知，甚至流传着那里“寸草不生”、“有进无出”的可怕传闻。可可西里到底是什么样子？由于那里环境太恶劣、不适合人类生存，所以在许多自然科学领域，它是一片神秘的空白。

However, there is one man who dares tolive in this barren plateau. Former explorer and photographer Xin Yang hasalways worked in places with an altitude of 4,500 meters. His grey beardand long hair have become his signature style and his natural protection fromblizzards and ultraviolet rays.

然而这片荒凉的高原上，却生活着一位可可西里的守护者，他曾是一名探险家和摄影师，如今他已成为一名环境保护志愿者，他叫杨欣。杨欣常年在海拔4500多米的高原工作。灰白的大胡子和一头长发是他的标志，也是他在恶劣的工作环境下抵抗高原紫外线及风雪的“装备”。

He gradually became aware of the fragility of nature and man's responsibilities. A rafting expedition in Tiger Leaping Gorge linked his fate to this mysterious and ancient water vein.

在数年的探险经历中，杨欣见证并记录了长江源头及沿岸的生态危机：冰川消融、草场退化、野生动物被大量盗杀。他渐渐意识到自然的脆弱和人类的责任。1986年的虎跳峡漂流探险活动，让杨欣的命运从此和长江——这条神秘又古老的水脉紧紧地联系在了一起。

In 1986, Yang joined the China Yangtze River expedition rafting team. The 6,300-kilometer journey lasted for 175 days and 11 lives were lost. 

1986年，杨欣参加了长江科考漂流探险队。团队历时175天，漂流6300公里，以11名同伴的生命为代价，完成了历史上第一次长江漂流。

It was the first rafting expedition on the Yangtze in history. As a survivor, this young man chose to stay in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region. Since then, Yang gradually became an environmentalist and began to engage in the ecological protection of Hoh Xil and the Yangtze River.

幸存下来的杨欣，这个西南小城走出来的年轻人，选择留在长江的发源地——青藏高原。从那以后，杨欣开始从一个探险家和一个摄影师，转变为一个环保主义者，来从事可可西里的生态保护工作。

In the 30 years of Yang’s environmental career, he has witnessed the destruction of ecotypes around the source of the Yangtze River and Hoh Xil. Yang and other environmentalists overlapped aeromaps and remote sensing maps and came to the conclusion that the biggest glacier in the source of Yangtze River had shrunk at least 4 kilometers in 40 years.

在长江源和可可西里从事环保的30年里，杨欣亲眼见证了长江生态环境遭遇的破坏。他和其他环保主义者借用航空地图和遥感地图，在昆仑山口进行重叠，计算出长江源头最大的冰川，在近40年间退缩了至少4千米。

“Glaciers are crucial for local people and the environment, as they are like the blood of the plateau. Melted ice from the glaciers feeds local grassland and forest, then creates the conditions for human beings to live and thrive. There would be a huge environmental change if we lose the glaciers and people who live nearby may become ecological refugees someday,” Yang said.

“冰川对于高原的本地居民和高原的生态环境都至关重要。因为冰川是高原的血液，冰川的融水孕育了当地的草原和森林，才使这儿有了人类生存和居住的条件。当我们失去了冰川，这里的生态环境就会发生巨大的变化。生活在冰川底下的人，兴许也会变成生态的难民。”杨欣说。

To protect the local aquatic ecological environment and solve the problem of waste pollution, Yang built the Yangtze River Headwaters Ecological Conservation Station on Ulan Moron, the second nongovernmental natural conservation station in China. The red building located on the plateau was built by manual workers without any help from heavy machinery. 

于是，为了保护当地的水生态环境，解决垃圾污染问题，杨欣在长江正源沱沱河，建立了中国民间第二个自然保护站——长江源水生态保护站。这座海拔4500米的高原上的红房子，没有重型机械的辅助，完全依靠人工修建完成。

“Environmental protection is like a ray. Once started, it never ends. So does my job. A journalist used to tell me: you must be strong in taking the Yangtze River. I will protect it, I will protect Hoh Xil and I will protect Tibetan antelopes,” Yang said.

杨欣说：“环境保护本身就是条射线，只有起点没有终点。我走的这条路也是如此。以前有位记者送给我一句话：以长江为背景，你不敢不刚强。我要保护长江源的生态环境，我要保护可可西里，我要保护这里的藏羚羊。”

Yang traveled along the Yangtze River as an explorer but stayed on as an environmentalist.  

以探险家的身份走过了长江的每一个角落，却以一个环保主义者的角色留了下来。杨欣的眼睛隐藏在一头长发和一脸络腮胡子中间，因为纯美自然的洗涤，而变得更加明净清澈。

“The glaciers live long and the river runs through the ages” said Chinese National Geography magazine. Without the help of people like Yang and the Green River Organization, it's perhaps hard to believe that these "immortals" may also vanish someday. 

国家地理杂志这样写道：“冰川永在，江河万古。我们一直是这样相信的。如果没有杨欣和绿色江河组织的大声疾呼，恐怕很少有人意识到，这些看上去永恒的事物，有一天可能无影无踪。”

Cameraman: Li Ming

Film editor: Wu Yupei, Li Enpeng

Story written by: Zhai Menglu

English editor: Gavin Neale Blackburn

 

往期链接