On the 17th, a hiking competition was held in the Gangshanyelin (also known as Gang Yulin) of Bomi County, Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet. Over 70 participants trekked through the primeval forest and crossed pristine oases, promoting low-carbon and environmental protection efforts.
The Gang Yulin is named for its location near Gang in Bomi County. When reporters arrived at one of the hiking starting points, Bakha Village in Guxiang, on the morning of the event, raindrops and dew from the night still clung to the colorful flowers, grasses, and leaves. Standing at the entrance of the village, one instantly felt as if entering a highland "natural oxygen bar."
The Gang Yulin hiking competition is one of the main events of the Bomi sub-venue of this year’s Nyingchi Grand Canyon Cultural Tourism Festival. Participants included local officials and workers, stationed military and police, as well as representatives of farmers and herders. They were divided into four groups, with two groups each starting from Gang Village and Bakha Village and trekking toward each other along a 13-kilometer route.
Li Yu, head of the sports bureau of Bomi County and an organizer of the event, told China News Service that in 2005, Gangshanyelin was ranked among the top ten "Most Beautiful Forests in China." Holding a hiking event here not only enriches the cultural life of the public but also promotes low-carbon travel and raises environmental awareness.
"This is our home," said Gongji, a Tibetan girl, pointing to a small Tibetan-style "villa" in the forest. She has lived in such a primeval forest since childhood but never thought about how special her hometown was until she attended university in the city and realized she had been "living in fortune without knowing it."
Gongji’s home is located within the Gang Yulin, which nurtures the magical Gang Yulin forest. The trees here are tall and straight, dense and sturdy, with per-hectare timber volume ranking among the highest in the world. At the entrance of Bakha Village, one of the hiking starting points, stands a poplar tree. According to local villager Renqing, this tree is over 600 years old, and countless similar towering trees are preserved throughout this primeval forest.
The Fifth Central Tibet Work Forum clearly stated that to promote leapfrog development in Tibet, greater emphasis must be placed on protecting the plateau’s ecological environment, making Tibet an important national ecological security barrier. The southeastern part of Tibet, where Nyingchi is located, has a forest coverage rate of 46.1%, making it China’s third-largest forested area.
At the sound of the starting gun, the hiking participants instantly "disappeared" into the dense primeval forest. After more than an hour of trekking, Tsering Dorje, Nyima Dorje, and Senglon Tsering successively reached the finish line. Tsering Dorje, the first-place winner from the farmers and herders group and a villager from Gang Village, said that it was his first time crossing the primeval forest near his home in the form of a hiking competition. He said he would better advocate for and protect the oasis that nurtured him.