The loneliest planet
Chen Liang
China Daily
Publication Date : 01-08-2008




Medog, arguably the most remote county in China, is known for its treacherous mountain trails, avalanches, landslides, venomous snakes and a variety of blood-sucking worms and bugs. The only road into the region is inaccessible most of the year.
Yet in the midst of this rugged and untamed land--located in Nyingchi prefecture, Tibet autonomous region--a handful of innkeepers and restaurant owners have found a cozy home. Their secret to happiness is simple: providing tired visitors with clean beds and tasty meals.
Xiao Yuanhang, 28, came to Medog from Chongqing Municipality in 2000. He first worked as a porter, then a logger, before opening a small inn at a tiny service station by the Bome-Medog Road four years ago.
Today he runs a grocery and a guesthouse, the Longdu Inn across the road. The rent he pays for the two-story building, at just 10 yuan (US$1.4) per sqm per year, is far cheaper than rental rates elsewhere in China.
To spruce up the guest lodgings, Xiao bought beds, mattresses, dinner tables and chairs in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. But, actually transporting the purchases to Medog proved a challenge. "I had to wait until last August to transport them here by truck, as the road is only accessible all the way to Medog between August and October," he says. "The freight charge was so high, I had to pay 50 yuan ($7.3) for a table."
His mother, Huang Guolan, accompanied him last September. Together they now work as a team. "My son is responsible for stocking our grocery and inn with daily necessities, and for preparing meals. I clean rooms, do laundry and wash vegetables and dishes," the mother says.
Huang admits she still misses her home because of the hardships of living in the remote region. During most of the year, she explains, "you have to hire porters to transport goods here from Pai (township), or even Nyingchi. It costs a lot of money. This winter, the snowfall was so heavy that the ground was buried one meter deep. If we wanted something, we had to pay porters 60-80 yuan ($8.7-$11.6) per kilo for their transportation work."
But her son says he enjoys life in Medog. Although he is still single, he has many friends. Mostly porters, jeep drivers, and other inn and groceries owners, they gather in the lobby of his inn in most evenings to watch TV, chat and play mahjong, often late into the night.
"Most of us are from other parts of the country. We take care of each other," he says. "Though life is not easy, I'm hoping to find a wife and settle down here."
Another pair of recent settlers, a husband and a wife, opened a restaurant in Medog three years ago.
Bao Zhankun and his wife were both laid off from factories in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan province, in the 1990s. With a relative's help, the couple moved to Lhasa to open a small handicraft shop in the city's Bakhor area. Then they moved to the county town of Medog, where they opened a snack bar, and a year later a restaurant at a village 30km away from the town.
In Medog they were at last able to establish the stable life they had longed for.
Although their restaurant has only five tables and serves simple meals--usually three dishes and a soup for 20 yuan per person--it has become a favorite rest stop for local travellers.
"Here we can serve our guests with fresh vegetables and meat during most of the year, because we have rented a plot to grow vegetables and raise pigs by ourselves," Bao says.
Last year they earned about 100,000 yuan ($14,617.7), enough to support their daughter's studies at a college in Changsha. "In the busiest day, my wife cleaned more than 300 bowls and dishes for our guests," the proud husband says.
The couple says their greatest regret is living so far from their daughter. They have not seen her for more than two years. "We miss her," Bao says. "But we don't want her to travel such a long way to visit us during her holidays."
After a moment he adds: "Except this, we feel at home in Medog."
"Glasses" Zheng, a 27-year-old man from Chongqing, has not only made many friends and a small fortune, but has also won a little fame in Medog.
"Backpackers to Medog have considered my inn the best in the area," Zheng says. "If you don't want to take my word for it, look at all of those remarks left by them on the information board."
Indeed, his hostel, Sihai Inn at the Hanmi village and hidden in primitive forests, is the only one in Medog where guests can enjoy a hot shower. Zheng can also usually serve customers fresh vegetables and meat, because he has cultivated a good relationship with the local army, which has a supply base nearby, and is also a good porter himself.
"I can use their fields to grow vegetables," he says. "With 45kg goods, I can scale Mount Duoxiongla and return to Hanmi from the township of Pai (more than 50km away on the other side of Duoxiongla) within a day."
Many of his friends are soldiers stationed in the region. "Living in such an isolated, remote place, friends mean everything to me," he says. "I treat all of my friends to free meals and a stay at my place."
In exchange, his friends repay the favour. "While I'm busy," Zheng adds: "you will see some soldiers helping me clean rooms, wash vegetables--and even do the laundry."
Most of country inns in Medog are opened to visitors only when weather permits, because the area is almost inaccessible in winter and early spring.
In mid May, Peng Shangqin from Xulin, Sichuan province and his Moinba wife, Cuomu, opened their inn at Lage.
"It is a little late compared with last year," Peng, 45, says.
"Probably because of the bad influence of the March 14 turmoil happened in Lhasa, few travellers have entered Medog en route Duoxiongla this year.
"But last year, more than 700 backpackers spent a night or two at my place."
The man met his 34-year-old wife at Nyingchi, and they married 14 years ago. They have a 12-year-old boy. The family moved to Medog, Cuomu's hometown, and opened the inn several years ago.
"By working here seven or eight months a year, we can support our son to study in Nyingchi," Cuomu says in Mandarin.
"We earned more than 20,000 yuan ($2,923) last year at Lage."
Although the business is a little down, the couple says that they will hang on in it.
"Competition in every business is sharp in the outside world.
"To make a living here, all we need to do is to work hard and be nice to people."

venomous snakes and a variety of blood-sucking worms and bugs
^this stopped me from wanting to be too curious about this place

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I just can't help myself. Risk it all with me.