Why don't we go get a taste too

On their last day in the Holy City, Jiang Yuxin and Mao Xiaorong treated everyone to a delicious meal of stone-pot Tibetan fragrant chicken.

In the evening, the group went singing and had a few drinks together.

At seven o'clock the next morning, Su Yang and the others said goodbye to the two girls and drove toward Gerze County, the closest county to the no-man's land...

From the Holy City, there were two routes to Gerze County. The first was to continue west, passing through Shigatse, a very famous city in the Tibetan region.

The second was to head northwest, passing Namtso, one of the three holy lakes in Tibet. It was also the second-largest lake in the region and the third-largest saltwater lake in China.

The distance of the two routes was about the same, so everyone chose the second one without hesitation.

After all, they originally planned to visit Sayram Lake in Xinjiang. Since they weren't going there anymore, they might as well drop by Namtso on the way.

They heard the scenery there was picturesque, and they could even see the Tanggula Mountains. It was a place so beautiful it could make people cry.

No sooner said than done. They drove north along the Beijing-Tibet Expressway, and two and a half hours later, they arrived at the highest point of the journey from the Holy City to Namtso: Nagenla Pass, at an altitude of 5,190 meters.

From here, they could already see the lake glistening like a blue sapphire in the distance.

Continuing on, the three cars soon arrived at the shore of Namtso.

The twelve of them opened the car doors, stepped out, and took a deep breath. The sky was azure blue, the clouds hung low, and in the distance lay the majestic, rolling Tanggula Mountains. Right before their eyes was an incredibly beautiful lake that could cleanse the soul.

Several girls walked hand in hand to the lake. Looking at the scene before them, Meng Qianyu cried, and two lines of warm tears flowed down Su Qingci's cheeks before she even realized it.

"It's so beautiful and surreal!!"

"This trip is totally worth it!!"

"This place is simply a fairyland on earth!!"

Everyone was extremely excited. Tang Ziyun cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted toward the lake.

"Hello!!! Namtso!!"

Just as she finished shouting, a gust of wind blew through the girls' hair of varying lengths. The lake reflected the soft sunlight, and occasionally, a few white birds flapped their wings and flew by.

Seeing it on video and seeing it in person with your own eyes were two completely different things.

Su Yang and the other guys followed behind. They forgot to light their cigarettes, each already captivated by the scenery before them.

[Ding! Detected that the host is feeling extremely comfortable and enjoying the moment. Rewarding five million.]

"Phew~~" Su Yang shook his head repeatedly, his mouth agape.

"How can there be such a beautiful place in the world?"

Ji Bo was dumbfounded, Liu Bo was dumbfounded, Zhang Ziming was dumbfounded, everyone was dumbfounded.

This was the most beautiful scenery they had seen since they set out.

"I feel like my soul has been purified!" Chu Qiunan looked up, spread his arms wide, and shouted.

"No, I have to leave something behind." Liu Bo turned and looked around.

Su Yang yelled, "What do you want to do? Don't mess around in a place like this!"

Meng Wenzhou also looked at Liu Bo. "Old Su is right. What do you want to leave behind? We won't allow it."

Liu Bo turned to the two of them. "No, no, no, I misspoke. I meant I want to take something with me. Ugh, forget it, I'll just taste the water from this lake, okay?"

With that, he ran toward the lake.

Su Yang smiled helplessly. "Bro, it's a saltwater lake!"

"Even if it's a bitter water lake, I'm going to take a sip! That way, it proves I've been here!"

"Haha, he has a point. Should we go get a mouthful too?" Meng Wenzhou laughed.

"Let's go."

The guys laughed and walked to the edge of the lake.

Liu Bo squatted down first, reached out, gently cupped a small handful of water, and then lowered his head to slurp it into his mouth.

"Holy crap!! Pfft, pfft, pfft, why is it so salty?"

"I told you it's a saltwater lake."

"I know it's salty, but how can it be this salty? It feels almost like seawater."

"It's not quite that bad, the salt content is different," Su Yang said as he also squatted down and cupped some lake water in his hands.

He took a small sip to experience it.

"Alright, tasting it is enough. Your turn."

The others also squatted down and scooped up water to drink.

A few meters away, the six girls stared at them wide-eyed. Tang Ziyun asked blankly, "What are they doing?"

"I have no idea. Sometimes I really can't understand the way guys behave."

"Yeah, sometimes when they're walking down the street, they'll just inexplicably jump up and shoot an imaginary basketball. It's so embarrassing."

Unable to understand, the girls stopped watching them.

Meng Qianyu took the camera off her neck. "We have to take a picture of such a dreamy place and post it on Moments."

"Absolutely!"

"Call them over."

"Handsome guys, come take a picture~" Tang Ziyun shouted.

"Okay, coming~"

Su Yang went to the car, grabbed the camera tripod, and set it up on the ground. He set a ten-second timer, pressed the shutter, and quickly ran back to the lake.

Everyone struck various poses. After waiting a few seconds, the camera clicked and captured a very memorable photo.

"Alright, let's head out!" Su Yang looked at the group and smiled.

"We're leaving already?"

"What else? No matter how beautiful a place is, just visiting it is enough. Just keep it in your heart. We have to keep moving forward!"

The girls reluctantly turned their heads to look at the holy place one last time.

Meng Wenzhou smiled. "Stop looking, we still have a long way to go. Besides, we'll be back."

"Yeah, we have to go back to the Holy City to catch a plane eventually, so we'll pass by here again," Liu Bo added with a smile.

"Alright then, let's go!"

The group got back into the cars and continued their journey. After one group left, another would arrive.

Just as Su Yang and his friends drove away, four or five SUVs pulled up, bringing over a dozen more people who would be awed by the scenery.

...

Driving northwest along the country road, the three cars soon merged onto National Highway G327.

After passing through Baingoin County, they arrived at an even vaster lake, Serling Tso, which was the largest lake in Tibet.

However, they didn't stop and continued driving toward Gerze County.

At four in the afternoon, they arrived at a vast, nearly desolate expanse of land: the Changtang National Nature Reserve.

But this wasn't the traditional no-man's land they were aiming for.

Sitting in the car, Su Yang looked out. The land on both sides of the road stretched endlessly.

When they were at Ganhaizi, he had already felt the surroundings were barren, but after arriving here, he finally understood what true desolation meant.

The three cars sped along the seemingly endless road.

Since it was called a nature reserve, there were naturally many wild animals. It was known as a paradise for wildlife.

Su Yang turned to look nearby, where a herd of Tibetan wild asses was leisurely strolling about.

He woke up the girls who were sleeping. "Panpan, Qianyu, Little Tang, look to your left~"

"Hmm? What is it?" Meng Qianyu was in the middle of a dream. Startled awake, she shuddered and sat up straight.

"Stop sleeping, look to the left, there are Tibetan wild asses."

"Really?" The girls rolled down the windows and poked their heads out. Sure enough, dozens of meters away on the barren land, a herd of Tibetan wild asses was walking by.

"Where's my camera?" Meng Qianyu shouted as she searched for it.

Su Qingci took it out of the bag on the floor and handed it to her. "Here you go."

"This is my first time seeing this kind of animal. I have to get a picture of it."

Su Yang slowed down the car to let Meng Qianyu snap a few photos. After driving a little further, they spotted an even rarer animal: the Tibetan antelope.

Compared to the herds of Tibetan wild asses, there were only a handful of Tibetan antelopes. They stood in the distance, gazing at the three cars on the road.

"Holy crap, Tibetan antelopes! Quick, quick, take a picture!" Su Yang slowed down again so Meng Qianyu could take photos.

The passengers in the two cars behind them noticed the animals as well and hurriedly pulled out their phones to snap pictures.

Once they finished photographing the Tibetan antelopes, the group hit the road again. Su Yang checked the GPS; they were still over three hundred kilometers away from Gerze County.

There was a Nyima County nearby where they could have stayed the night, but the group had no intention of stopping there. They planned to push straight through to Gerze.

"Brother Su Yang, can we pull over for a second? I need to use the restroom," Meng Qianyu said, leaning over the back of his seat.

"Me too," Tang Ziyun said, raising her hand.

"Out here?"

"Yeah, I really can't hold it anymore. It's completely desolate around here anyway, so we'll just have to go here..."

"Alright, give me a second." Su Yang steered the car to the side of the road and parked.

The two cars following them pulled over as well. Seeing Su Yang step out of his car, Meng Wenzhou stuck his head out the window and called out, "What's going on, Old Su?"

"The girls need to use the restroom."

"Oh, gotcha."

A few of the guys got out of their cars, and Meng Qianyu and Tang Ziyun hopped out as well.

Su Yang pointed to a small patch of bushes not too far ahead. "You can go over there."

"Okay." The two girls replied and quickly jogged over, while the other girls followed to keep watch for them.

The guys stood on the other side of the cars, taking the opportunity to light up cigarettes.

A few minutes later, everyone got back into the vehicles. For the next stretch of the journey, the drivers of the three cars switched out. Su Yang originally hadn't wanted to switch.

However, he couldn't win an argument against Pan Ning, so he had no choice but to let her take the wheel.

At ten past eight in the evening, chasing the sunset, the three cars finally arrived at Gerze. Situated on the Northern Tibetan Plateau with an average elevation of 4,700 meters, it was the closest county town to the no-man's land.

...