At around 6:30 p.m. on March 29, Mu Yunren, a pioneer of outdoor sports in Anhui, passed away unfortunately due to illness.
Just three days earlier, he was still planning a hiking trip along the Xin’an River for outdoor enthusiasts. Everyone in the circle called him "Old Mu." Ten years ago, Old Mu was still a literary rebel, traveling from north to south of the Huai River, to the banks of the Fei River, then studying in the capital, and eventually returning to Hefei to work at a research institute under a government agency. Beyond his diligent work, few knew that he was also an avid traveler. That year, Mu Yunren hitchhiked all the way into Tibet, enduring many twists and turns, and wrote over 100,000 words of “A Idealist’s Travel Notes on Tibet.”
At that time, outdoor sports in cities like Beijing and Shanghai were booming, but Hefei remained quiet, with only a handful of people gathering to talk about terms like “backpacks, tents, hiking, and trekking.”
In 2002, Mu Yunren found a small storefront near the north gate of Anhui University—two floors, 50 square meters—and named it “Mu Yunren’s Book Bar.” His vision was to create a small outdoor travel hub, bringing together like-minded people and cultivating fertile ground for the outdoor community in Hefei. A large cabinet propped up with a few bricks served as the bar counter, and everything else was kept simple and natural. This humble place quickly sparked a movement, nurturing Hefei’s earliest generation of outdoor enthusiasts.
“Take the road less traveled, and love the stranger,” was Mu Yunren’s motto. “Not about gear or experience, spend less money, travel farther, see more beautiful scenery…” On weekends, Mu Yunren and fellow hikers trekked through mountains and rivers, undeterred by wind or rain—from the Dabie Mountains’ Baimajian Peak and Longjing River, the ancestral lands of the descendants of Gao Yao in Huoshan, to the classic charm of the Huizhou-Hangzhou Ancient Trail and Qingliang Peak; from the rugged beauty of Shitai’s Guniujiang, to the breathtaking Huangshan West Sea Grand Canyon… They explored places few had ventured, traversed the mountains and waters of Anhui, and then expanded to surrounding provinces.
He has always been a legend in Anhui’s outdoor community.
Over nine years, from a 50-square-meter little book bar to three chain stores with tens of thousands of members, Mu Yunren never stopped moving forward. Mu Yunren and his book bar embodied a lifestyle—valuing spiritual life over material wealth, and never giving up the pursuit of poetry and ideals. He hiked to investigate polluted urban rivers for environmental causes; organized multiple low-carbon-promoting hiking events; visited disaster areas to assess conditions and call for donations; and even when venturing deep into the mountains, he made sure to bring school supplies for the children there…
