National Highway 318 is hailed as China's most beautiful scenic highway, and cycling into Tibet via this route is the dream of many biking enthusiasts. However, a netizen recently posted photos of heavy traffic congestion on National Highway 318, sparking more online mockery of the "new four clichés": opening a coffee shop in the city, quitting your job to go to Tibet, running a guesthouse in Lijiang, and cycling National Highway 318... If cycling 318 is cliché, what about skating it? In just 20 days, a 20-year-old completed the entire Sichuan-Tibet route solo on a skateboard. Li Yingjie, a young man from Hunan at Central South University of Forestry and Technology, etched his youth into the 2,142-kilometer journey.
"Skating across the country is the youth I want."
"Skateboarding is my favorite sport, and skating across the country is the youth I want." Over 20 days, he conquered several mountains over 4,000 meters in elevation, faced torrential rain, floods, landslides, sandstorms, and mudflows, and finally arrived on the afternoon of July 30 at Bomi County in the Nyingchi region of Tibet—the closest stop to the final destination, Lhasa.
"I really wanted to go out and explore. I heard that the Sichuan-Tibet Highway is China’s 'most beautiful scenic road,' so I chose Lhasa as the endpoint of this leg." During last year’s holiday, Li Yingjie skated from Zhuzhou to Xiamen and then from Yunnan back to Hengyang. But he wasn’t entirely confident about this trip to Tibet. “The climate, potential dangers, and altitude sickness are all unpredictable—I just had to push forward,” he said.
Traversing the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, known as a "natural danger zone," the endless high mountains and uphill-downhill stretches left him completely drained each day, but the scenery along the way provided some comfort. “When entering Ya’an and approaching the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the plateau’s beauty gradually came into view—especially the crystal-clear skies and the simple, ethnic-style houses. But my first reaction was nosebleeds, plus dizziness and nausea. No choice—I was hit with altitude sickness.” Throughout the journey, Li Yingjie documented his path on Weibo.
"The never-ending uphills and downhills nearly killed me."
"@BigBigBigBigFoot: I wanna know how you guys got over Erlang Mountain—it was brutal. Miles of uphill to the top, then a 4km tunnel, then miles of downhill." This Weibo post from Li Yingjie was filled with frustration. “I had to expend huge amounts of energy to get up the slopes. I never knew what terrain lay ahead, and since I can't brake suddenly on a skateboard, I could only slowly roll downhill to control my speed a bit and stay safe.”
He arrived in Kangding after 1 a.m. and found a basic hostel for a short, restless sleep. The steamed buns served by the owner were cold, and there was no hot water for a proper shower. This wasn’t a one-time experience during his trip. “These months are the peak season for cyclists on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, so accommodations along the way are pretty tight. I try to find hostels or small guesthouses, and if there are no beds available, I’ll ask to stay with local families nearby.”
Not long after leaving Kangding, Li Yingjie met a convoy from the Suomahua Public Welfare Education Assistance Organization, who were delivering school supplies to children in the remote mountainous areas of the plateau. Seeing that he was traveling solo, they gave him a two-hour ride—this was the only part of the Sichuan-Tibet journey where he didn’t skate or walk.
"Hiking up to the 2,000-meter-high Jueba Mountain summit was truly thrilling."
"The most exciting thing I did in Markam was bypassing the mountain road—halfway up, I just climbed straight up a 70-degree slope. It scared the hell out of me, and I got scratched by thorns everywhere." Standing atop Jueba Mountain at 3,940 meters, Li Yingjie looked down at the 30-kilometer mountain road and felt a sudden wave of fear: the nearly 2,000-meter elevation change made Jueba Mountain one of the hardest and most time-consuming climbs on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway.
"You can’t imagine—the road just extends along the edge of cliffs, with no guardrails or signs. Many sections were literally carved out of the mountain. At first, climbing went smoothly, but near the top, there were lots of bushes and thorny plants, and the soil was loose. I had to press my body against the slope, hold the skateboard in one hand, dig my other hand into the earth, and climb upward bit by bit like a rock climber to reach the summit."
July and August on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway are in the rainy season, also the peak period for natural disasters like landslides. On the way to Nyingchi, Li Yingjie passed through the 14-kilometer-long "Death Road" section known as Tongmai, where falling rocks and landslides are common.
"Every Tibetan I met along the way would stop what they were doing to say 'Tashi Delek' to me. I’m really grateful for their simple warmth, and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve experienced on this road."
With plans to complete both the Sichuan-Tibet and Qinghai-Tibet highways on a skateboard and reach Yunnan before the end of September, this dark-skinned young man from Loudi has already begun the next leg of his journey. He is currently on the Nagqu section of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway.