The plane arrived in Lanzhou at about 7pm. A young woman raised the window shade and looked down at the mountains and gullies that went on endlessly.
After exiting the plane, Ji Tangtang boarded the airport shuttle. From her research, the ride into the city would take another half hour.
Sitting next to her was a tanned man. When the ticket seller came to collect payment, Ji Tangtang overheard their conversation with the man, and he spoke in the local dialect.
China was a big place and people spoke a different language in every town. It was well within reason that Ji Tangtang couldn’t understand them. She turned her head to the side, about to rest a bit, when the man asked her, “Is this your bag?”
Likely because he could tell she was from out of town, he spoke to her with rough Mandarin. Ji Tangtang looked to where he pointed. It was the backpack that she’d stuffed full—60 liters full. A camping groundsheet sat on the top, and a hiking pole hung off the side.
“Mm.”
“You a backpacker?” the man asked with a laugh.
His laugh made Ji Tangtang feel a bit uncomfortable. She turned her head away and ignored him.
“Traveling by yourself?” he continued to ask.
“No.” She gave a short reply and quickly closed her eyes.
The man didn’t speak again, but Ji Tangtang could still feel his eyes on her. Such an undisguised stare would make anyone uneasy. She didn’t open her eyes, but a frown appeared on her face.
Not too long after that, the bus came to a sudden stop. The ticket seller cleared his voice and announced, “We’ve arrived downtown. Move quickly if you’re getting off.”
Ji Tangtang immediately stood up, and the man made space for her. He looked up, as if about to say something to her, but she ignored him. She grabbed her 60 liter bag and hopped off the bus.
A bearded man sitting behind them laughed. He gave the other man a pat on the back and said, “That kind’s not good for picking up.”
“For real!” the man replied without much concern. After having a laugh, he stood up and grabbed his own bag from the luggage rack.
He glanced out the window and saw Ji Tangtang getting into a green taxi.
—
The taxi pulled up to the entrance of a hotel, The Guest’s Home. Ji Tangtang paid the driver and then walked inside and up to the reception desk.
A sunny-faced young man greeted her with a smile. “Hello, Miss. Do you have a reservation?”
Ji Tangtang shook her head and pulled out her ID and three 100 yuan bills. “Single room.”
The young man accepted the money and then pushed one of the bills back to her. “Single rooms are only ¥188.”
Ji Tangtang smiled and responded, “Please book me a ticket to Xiahe for the morning.”
He seemed a bit taken aback. His eyes swept over her backpack, and then he asked, “You’re going there… for leisure?”
“Mm.”
“By yourself?” He was definitely surprised.
“Yes.” Ji Tangtang wasn’t as wary as she’d previously been.
The young man didn’t say anything to that. He lowered his head and booked her room, and then he handed over her change and room card. “Third floor, 310.”
As Ji Tangtang put her change into her wallet, the young man hesitated, but finally called out, “Ms… Ji?”
“Yes?” Ji Tangtang looked up.
“If possible, it’s best to avoid traveling there alone.” The young man seemed a bit nervous as he added, “It’s… a Tibetan region there.”
“And? Are the Tibetans unfriendly?” Ji Tangtang asked with a smile.
“That’s not it. But… We have different customs, so it’s easy for conflict to arise.”
He looked up and exchanged a glance with her. His face reddened a bit, and he quickly lowered his head again.
“Oh…” Ji Tangtang nodded. “I see.”
She didn’t mention a change in her plans as she headed up with her backpack.
The young man watched as she left, and suddenly, a hand landed on his back. “Lin, what are you looking at?”
From just his voice, he knew it was Wang, who also worked at the reception desk. Lin glanced over towards where Ji Tangtang had disappeared. “That girl’s going to Xiahe tomorrow morning. Get a ticket for an early bus.”
“By herself?” Wang asked with surprise. He couldn’t quite believe it as he asked again, “By herself?”
“Right?” Lin sighed.
“She’s courting death,” Wang scoffed. “Where’s she from?”
“Beijing.”
“Instead of staying in her nice city, she’s going to that god-forsaken place? She thinks it’s still our land and that everyone’s content with their lot…” Wang muttered a bit and then leaned into Lin. “Hey, who was that girl before? Ling Xiaowan? Did they ever find her?”
Ling Xiaowan had made a reservation at the hotel last month. She reserved a room for her third day out of Lanzhou, having planned to spend just two days in Xiahe. But when the third day of her trip came, she didn’t arrive at the hotel. On the fourth and fifth days, there was still no sign of her person, though some of her luggage had arrived. At first, no one had thought much about it. But when her family called asking about her, they found out that she’d gone missing.
Later on, they found out that Ling Xiaowan had gotten off the bus on the way to Xiahe. She’d apparently met some other backpackers on the bus, and they’d decided to book their own car and check out some scenic spots. And that was the last they’d heard of her.
Lin had been working the reception desk for three years now, and he’d seen at least four or five instances of travelers going missing. It wasn’t so rare as to be surprising, but he felt a bit of sympathy for the girls. They were all quite young, but then they vanished, just like that.
Ji Tangtang had a nice look to her. Lin thought she was quite amiable, and he didn’t want to send her into danger, however small the chance was.
Ji Tangtang walked into her room and put her card into the slot to turn on the electricity. She turned on the TV and flipped through all the channels, before finally settling on the music channel.
When her phone rang, she’d thought it was the TV at first. She was lying still on the bed, until she realized the sound continued repeating. She climbed over to grab the phone from her waist pack.
The caller ID lit up the screen: Ling Xiaowan’s family.
Ji Tangtang answered her phone and walked up to the TV to turn off the power.
On the other end of the phone, a timid voice sounded, “Ms Ji?”
“Mm. Mrs Ling, right?” The image of a haggard middle-aged woman flashed before Ji Tangtang’s eyes. “I’ve already arrived in Lanzhou, and I’ll be heading to Xiahe in the morning.”
“Then… Thank you for your help, Ms Ji.”
“Don’t mention it.”
The woman seemed a bit embarrassed and unsure of what else to say, so Ji Tangtang spoke up, “If there’s nothing else, then goodbye. We’ll be in touch again.”
She set down her phone. No longer interested in resting, Ji Tangtang opened her backpack and pulled out her laptop. She signed onto the hotel’s internet and typed a URL into the address bar.
The hotel internet was a bit slow. Ji Tangtang crossed her arms and rested them on the back of the chair. She watched as the webpage loaded. It was a forum post made by Ling Xiaowan’s university classmate, calling for help in finding the girl. The post revealed the following: Ling Xiaowan was 19 years old and a third-year student at Beifang University of Agriculture. She was a senior member of the school’s backpacking club, and several days prior, she had traveled to Gannan by herself, after which, contact with her was lost.
A picture of Ling Xiaowan was included in the post. She was very pretty, in a delicate way. Her hair was done in two braids and tied with candy-colored beads. It was rare for girls to put their hair in braids like that nowadays. Whether you want to admit it or not, it’s often seen as tacky. But it didn’t look tacky on Ling Xiaowan; rather, it looked quite cute.
Ji Tangtang sighed and extended her hand. She ran two fingers over Ling Xiaowan’s face on the screen, and she couldn’t help asking aloud, “Where are you?”
Of course, the girl couldn’t answer her. A pair of bright and clear eyes stared back at Ji Tangtang, happy and cheerful.
She’d received more details on the incident from Ling Xiaowan’s family, provided by the Lanzhou police after their search: Ling Xiaowan was on a bus from Lanzhou to Xiahe. Partway through the journey, she and some backpackers she’d befriended got off the bus and made their way to Ganai in Luqu, where they checked into a youth hostel.
Ganai is a Tibetan settlement with less than 100 residents. It was originally just another ordinary little town, but then a foreign backpacker traveled through the area. Astounded by the surroundings, they returned home and wrote a travel blog about their time there. They posted this onto a popular travel forum, and then the little town became famous—of course, this was only among foreign backpackers and some adventurous people in China. For most travelers in China though, the attractiveness of this place fell very short when compared to the long-famed cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an.
Twenty minutes west of Ganai was the Gasamo Canyon. Most backpackers chose to hike through the canyon for a few hours and then return. In addition to canyon exploration, there were wetlands 30 kilometers away which gave a beautiful view of the Tibetan area.
Ling Xiaowan went missing while exploring the canyon. Theirs was a group of six. They walked a bit and took a break. Because Ganai was more than 3,000 meters above sea level, Ling Xiaoyan suffered from slight altitude sickness, and she took a longer rest than everyone else. The group continued ahead, expecting her to follow. When they didn’t see her, they decided to wait for her at the entrance to the canyon, but she didn’t show up. That’s when the group started to panic. They backtracked into the canyon, searching for her, but they couldn’t find her.
Gasamo Canyon…
Ji Tangtang whispered the name quietly. Then she typed into her Google search bar, ‘Gasamo Canyon’. Then a space, and then she added, ‘disappearance’.
And indeed, a bunch of entries popped up.
Ji Tangtang skimmed through them. Most of them didn’t have substantive content, but there was one blog that caught her attention.
“We headed out for Gasamo Canyon early in the morning. We’d prepared a lot of dry food, and just as we were heading out, Ah Kun, the owner of the hotel next door, called to us, ‘Be sure to head home early. If you get lost inside, no one will be able to find you!’ Haha! Did he think we were three-year-old kids?”
Ji Tangtang clicked onto the blog’s home page. The newest post was from 2006, which was several years ago. The blog looked abandoned, though there weren’t many posts anyway. Aside from the Gasamo Canyon entry, the other posts were about emotional troubles.
She pulled a notepad and pen out from her waist pack. On the first page, she wrote ‘Gasamo Canyon, Ah Kun’.
After a moment, she underlined the name ‘Ah Kun’. She drew an arrow to the name and added a label, ‘Hotel owner’.
And then, she added a question mark to the end of the label.
—
The plane arrived in Lanzhou at about 7pm. A young woman raised the window shade and looked down at the mountains and gullies that went on endlessly.
After exiting the plane, Ji Tangtang boarded the airport shuttle. From her research, the ride into the city would take another half hour.
Sitting next to her was a tanned man. When the ticket seller came to collect payment, Ji Tangtang overheard their conversation with the man, and he spoke in the local dialect.
China was a big place and people spoke a different language in every town. It was well within reason that Ji Tangtang couldn’t understand them. She turned her head to the side, about to rest a bit, when the man asked her, “Is this your bag?”
Likely because he could tell she was from out of town, he spoke to her with rough Mandarin. Ji Tangtang looked to where he pointed. It was the backpack that she’d stuffed full—60 liters full. A camping groundsheet sat on the top, and a hiking pole hung off the side.
“Mm.”
“You a backpacker?” the man asked with a laugh.
His laugh made Ji Tangtang feel a bit uncomfortable. She turned her head away and ignored him.
“Traveling by yourself?” he continued to ask.
“No.” She gave a short reply and quickly closed her eyes.
The man didn’t speak again, but Ji Tangtang could still feel his eyes on her. Such an undisguised stare would make anyone uneasy. She didn’t open her eyes, but a frown appeared on her face.
Not too long after that, the bus came to a sudden stop. The ticket seller cleared his voice and announced, “We’ve arrived downtown. Move quickly if you’re getting off.”
Ji Tangtang immediately stood up, and the man made space for her. He looked up, as if about to say something to her, but she ignored him. She grabbed her 60 liter bag and hopped off the bus.
A bearded man sitting behind them laughed. He gave the other man a pat on the back and said, “That kind’s not good for picking up.”
“For real!” the man replied without much concern. After having a laugh, he stood up and grabbed his own bag from the luggage rack.
He glanced out the window and saw Ji Tangtang getting into a green taxi.
—
The taxi pulled up to the entrance of a hotel, The Guest’s Home. Ji Tangtang paid the driver and then walked inside and up to the reception desk.
A sunny-faced young man greeted her with a smile. “Hello, Miss. Do you have a reservation?”
Ji Tangtang shook her head and pulled out her ID and three 100 yuan bills. “Single room.”
The young man accepted the money and then pushed one of the bills back to her. “Single rooms are only ¥188.”
Ji Tangtang smiled and responded, “Please book me a ticket to Xiahe for the morning.”
He seemed a bit taken aback. His eyes swept over her backpack, and then he asked, “You’re going there… for leisure?”
“Mm.”
“By yourself?” He was definitely surprised.
“Yes.” Ji Tangtang wasn’t as wary as she’d previously been.
The young man didn’t say anything to that. He lowered his head and booked her room, and then he handed over her change and room card. “Third floor, 310.”
As Ji Tangtang put her change into her wallet, the young man hesitated, but finally called out, “Ms… Ji?”
“Yes?” Ji Tangtang looked up.
“If possible, it’s best to avoid traveling there alone.” The young man seemed a bit nervous as he added, “It’s… a Tibetan region there.”
“And? Are the Tibetans unfriendly?” Ji Tangtang asked with a smile.
“That’s not it. But… We have different customs, so it’s easy for conflict to arise.”
He looked up and exchanged a glance with her. His face reddened a bit, and he quickly lowered his head again.
“Oh…” Ji Tangtang nodded. “I see.”
She didn’t mention a change in her plans as she headed up with her backpack.
The young man watched as she left, and suddenly, a hand landed on his back. “Lin, what are you looking at?”
From just his voice, he knew it was Wang, who also worked at the reception desk. Lin glanced over towards where Ji Tangtang had disappeared. “That girl’s going to Xiahe tomorrow morning. Get a ticket for an early bus.”
“By herself?” Wang asked with surprise. He couldn’t quite believe it as he asked again, “By herself?”
“Right?” Lin sighed.
“She’s courting death,” Wang scoffed. “Where’s she from?”
“Beijing.”
“Instead of staying in her nice city, she’s going to that god-forsaken place? She thinks it’s still our land and that everyone’s content with their lot…” Wang muttered a bit and then leaned into Lin. “Hey, who was that girl before? Ling Xiaowan? Did they ever find her?”
Ling Xiaowan had made a reservation at the hotel last month. She reserved a room for her third day out of Lanzhou, having planned to spend just two days in Xiahe. But when the third day of her trip came, she didn’t arrive at the hotel. On the fourth and fifth days, there was still no sign of her person, though some of her luggage had arrived. At first, no one had thought much about it. But when her family called asking about her, they found out that she’d gone missing.
Later on, they found out that Ling Xiaowan had gotten off the bus on the way to Xiahe. She’d apparently met some other backpackers on the bus, and they’d decided to book their own car and check out some scenic spots. And that was the last they’d heard of her.
Lin had been working the reception desk for three years now, and he’d seen at least four or five instances of travelers going missing. It wasn’t so rare as to be surprising, but he felt a bit of sympathy for the girls. They were all quite young, but then they vanished, just like that.
Ji Tangtang had a nice look to her. Lin thought she was quite amiable, and he didn’t want to send her into danger, however small the chance was.
Ji Tangtang walked into her room and put her card into the slot to turn on the electricity. She turned on the TV and flipped through all the channels, before finally settling on the music channel.
When her phone rang, she’d thought it was the TV at first. She was lying still on the bed, until she realized the sound continued repeating. She climbed over to grab the phone from her waist pack.
The caller ID lit up the screen: Ling Xiaowan’s family.
Ji Tangtang answered her phone and walked up to the TV to turn off the power.
On the other end of the phone, a timid voice sounded, “Ms Ji?”
“Mm. Mrs Ling, right?” The image of a haggard middle-aged woman flashed before Ji Tangtang’s eyes. “I’ve already arrived in Lanzhou, and I’ll be heading to Xiahe in the morning.”
“Then… Thank you for your help, Ms Ji.”
“Don’t mention it.”
The woman seemed a bit embarrassed and unsure of what else to say, so Ji Tangtang spoke up, “If there’s nothing else, then goodbye. We’ll be in touch again.”
She set down her phone. No longer interested in resting, Ji Tangtang opened her backpack and pulled out her laptop. She signed onto the hotel’s internet and typed a URL into the address bar.
The hotel internet was a bit slow. Ji Tangtang crossed her arms and rested them on the back of the chair. She watched as the webpage loaded. It was a forum post made by Ling Xiaowan’s university classmate, calling for help in finding the girl. The post revealed the following: Ling Xiaowan was 19 years old and a third-year student at Beifang University of Agriculture. She was a senior member of the school’s backpacking club, and several days prior, she had traveled to Gannan by herself, after which, contact with her was lost.
A picture of Ling Xiaowan was included in the post. She was very pretty, in a delicate way. Her hair was done in two braids and tied with candy-colored beads. It was rare for girls to put their hair in braids like that nowadays. Whether you want to admit it or not, it’s often seen as tacky. But it didn’t look tacky on Ling Xiaowan; rather, it looked quite cute.
Ji Tangtang sighed and extended her hand. She ran two fingers over Ling Xiaowan’s face on the screen, and she couldn’t help asking aloud, “Where are you?”
Of course, the girl couldn’t answer her. A pair of bright and clear eyes stared back at Ji Tangtang, happy and cheerful.
She’d received more details on the incident from Ling Xiaowan’s family, provided by the Lanzhou police after their search: Ling Xiaowan was on a bus from Lanzhou to Xiahe. Partway through the journey, she and some backpackers she’d befriended got off the bus and made their way to Ganai in Luqu, where they checked into a youth hostel.
Ganai is a Tibetan settlement with less than 100 residents. It was originally just another ordinary little town, but then a foreign backpacker traveled through the area. Astounded by the surroundings, they returned home and wrote a travel blog about their time there. They posted this onto a popular travel forum, and then the little town became famous—of course, this was only among foreign backpackers and some adventurous people in China. For most travelers in China though, the attractiveness of this place fell very short when compared to the long-famed cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an.
Twenty minutes west of Ganai was the Gasamo Canyon. Most backpackers chose to hike through the canyon for a few hours and then return. In addition to canyon exploration, there were wetlands 30 kilometers away which gave a beautiful view of the Tibetan area.
Ling Xiaowan went missing while exploring the canyon. Theirs was a group of six. They walked a bit and took a break. Because Ganai was more than 3,000 meters above sea level, Ling Xiaoyan suffered from slight altitude sickness, and she took a longer rest than everyone else. The group continued ahead, expecting her to follow. When they didn’t see her, they decided to wait for her at the entrance to the canyon, but she didn’t show up. That’s when the group started to panic. They backtracked into the canyon, searching for her, but they couldn’t find her.
Gasamo Canyon…
Ji Tangtang whispered the name quietly. Then she typed into her Google search bar, ‘Gasamo Canyon’. Then a space, and then she added, ‘disappearance’.
And indeed, a bunch of entries popped up.
Ji Tangtang skimmed through them. Most of them didn’t have substantive content, but there was one blog that caught her attention.
“We headed out for Gasamo Canyon early in the morning. We’d prepared a lot of dry food, and just as we were heading out, Ah Kun, the owner of the hotel next door, called to us, ‘Be sure to head home early. If you get lost inside, no one will be able to find you!’ Haha! Did he think we were three-year-old kids?”
Ji Tangtang clicked onto the blog’s home page. The newest post was from 2006, which was several years ago. The blog looked abandoned, though there weren’t many posts anyway. Aside from the Gasamo Canyon entry, the other posts were about emotional troubles.
She pulled a notepad and pen out from her waist pack. On the first page, she wrote ‘Gasamo Canyon, Ah Kun’.
After a moment, she underlined the name ‘Ah Kun’. She drew an arrow to the name and added a label, ‘Hotel owner’.
And then, she added a question mark to the end of the label.
—
