Tale of an Official's Return: A Snowy Land Calls Him Home

This is no ordinary travelogue, but an “unconventional” record of a pilgrimage of the spirit. It begins with an ordinary cycling trip along Route 318 through Sichuan and Tibet. But as wheels grind over stones and wind sweeps through prayer flags, the journey becomes a transformation that reaches deep into the soul. After spending half his life immersed in the bureaucracy, an official retires, sets aside his fountain pen and suit, and takes to the high-altitude road. What he sheds is more than the outward trappings of his identity. He also casts off the “survival habits” ingrained in him by a lifetime of rules. The old self, who sought to “cover every angle,” feared “falling behind,” and tied “success” to titles, is gradually scattered by the plateau winds. Gasping for air on Mount Zheduo, he lets go of the belief that “human will can conquer nature.” As he tests each bend of the Nujiang River’s seventy-two turns, he comes to understand that “going slowly isn’t retreating, it’s keeping steady.” A child’s milk candy by Lake Ranwu lets him taste that “true gain was never a trophy clutched tightly in one’s hands, but kindness that warms the heart.” At last, beneath the clear starry sky above the Potala Palace, he sees the source of “freedom”: it isn’t having no restraints, but being able to keep one’s heart steady amid worldly affairs and find one’s direction amid the turmoil. This journey measures the vastness of the earth with bicycle wheels and probes the limits of the heart with every breath. It offers no cheap comfort, only an honest, rugged yet radiant account of breaking free from within: from “official” to “traveler,” and finally to a simple person whose heart is as clear as a solitary moon. This book is a spiritual signpost left by one who has gone before, an invitation to every modern person weighed down by worldly troubles and longing to break free: the true destination is never at the ends of the earth. It lies in every present moment when we dare to face our hearts and reflect on ourselves.