This place is still more than 1,400 kilometers away from Lhasa. Even if the journey is smooth, it will take more than 15 hours.
Fortunately, after dawn the next day, the imagined danger never appeared once. Therefore, after the horizon suddenly broadened, everyone was in a good mood. Without the inner anxiety, this journey once again became exciting.
At this time, the Jingla Highway had not yet been fully constructed, and they still took the G109 National Highway all the way.
In fact, this is also a later name, which was extended based on the provincial road. Therefore, the road condition itself is not good and is in disrepair. Potholes can be seen from time to time.
Fortunately, when we entered Amdo County, Nagqu City in the Western Region, the road conditions were obviously much better, and it was also the best section of the entire Qinghai-Tibet Highway.
This is because the number of vehicles coming here on the same road has decreased sharply, and the damage has been relatively reduced.
The altitude here is already over 5,000 meters, and it is the northern gate of the Western Region. It was now past nine o'clock in the morning, and there was still more than 450 kilometers to go. According to the current road conditions, we should be able to arrive before two o'clock in the afternoon.
With this mentality, Liu Qingshan let people get off the bus here. The conditions of the highway service station in Anduo County are still very good.
Moreover, this is the intersection of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway and the Anshi Highway. Pana Town, where the county seat is located, is located at the exit of the valley. Beyond that is the open grassland, so most vehicles entering and leaving the Western Regions will choose to stop here for repairs and supplies.
What's more important is that the Qinghai-Tibet Highway passes through the county town and continuously transports various materials into the Western Regions, so this service station is also located on site.
Also because after entering the Qinghai-Tibet Highway from this north gate, you will first pass through the famous section called
Tanggula section of "Snow Warehouse". That location is prone to hail and snowfall all year round. Once the road becomes icy, it can easily cause vehicle congestion.
Therefore, many vehicles entering the Western Region need to stop and wait for the issuance of traffic announcements ahead.
There was a blizzard one year, and the snow thickness there was more than 1.5 meters. At most, more than 600 vehicles were stranded and more than 1,300 people were trapped.
In the end, all members of the Anduo County Traffic Police Brigade were dispatched to shovel the snow shovel by shovel, and then carry sand and gravel manually to spread it on the road to clear the road, but it took two full days.
Although it is spring weather now, there is still the possibility of heavy snowfall. Fortunately, the convoy heading to the front station had already contacted the local area and received instructions to pass, but it was still necessary to prepare condolences in advance in the county town.
Because the variety of goods here is more complete than in Lhasa, naturally the price will be saved a lot. So for the next two hours in the morning, Liu Hua was mainly responsible for hiring two more trucks.
As for goods, there is a large warehouse near the service station, which has also formed a wholesale market, and you can just get local materials from there.
The truck we found was even parked in front of the warehouse. All we had to do was select the purchased materials and load them directly into the truck. It was completed in more than an hour.
Although we couldn't arrive at 2pm, it was already at least three hours ahead of schedule. The original budget was to arrive before dark.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, we officially entered Lhasa City. This world-famous city is located on the north side of the Himalayas, but its altitude is only 3,650 meters, which is far lower than the area passed by on the way here.
The weather here is sunny all year round, with little rainfall, no severe cold in winter, no scorching heat in summer, and the climate is pleasant. The sunshine time in a year is more than 3,000 hours, which is known as
The reputation of "Sunshine City". As soon as he arrived, Liu Qingshan contacted the National Television program team, but they were not near the hotel where he was staying, but near an orphanage near Lalu Bridge in Chengguan District.
The place called Quzhen Orphanage is located in Xuexin Village. It is a charitable primary school run by a Tibetan named Nyima.
Director Nyima named Quzhen Orphanage in memory of his deceased mother. Old mother Quzhen was a loving and devout Tibetan Buddhist. Under her guidance, Nyima opened this orphanage.
As early as 2001, Nima was still an English tour guide. At that time, he saw that many Tibetan children wanted to learn English, so he rented a space at the Love Kindergarten on Najin Road to start an English training class.
In less than three months, more than 90 children have come to school, and each child should be charged 25 yuan in tuition per month.
Logically speaking, the income should be good, but only more than 30 children can afford to pay tuition fees, and the others cannot pay.
why? Nima and the teacher visited students' homes and found that some families were so poor that they didn't even have quilts, let alone pay tuition.
So Nima changed his original intention and he only taught children who could not afford the tuition. Unexpectedly, the Education Bureau came forward and said that according to regulations, Nima could not open such a school in a kindergarten.
With no other choice, Nima took a dozen orphans, rented a new house, and started the long road of establishing Quzhen Orphanage.
Under the careful care of Nima and several volunteer teachers, the children in Quzhen Orphanage gradually grew up.
Slowly, Quzhen Orphanage became known to more and more people, and many homeless children were introduced here.
The orphanage mainly relies on letters of recommendation from neighborhood committees and village committees to adopt children. As there are more and more children, the expenses are increasing.
As a result, the orphanage encountered a big problem: because it was a privately run orphanage, although it asked for help from many sources, it was never recognized by government agencies and did not have a long-term and stable funding.
Soon, Nima spent all the savings he earned as a tour guide. Dozens of children need to eat, wear, and go to school. What should they do if they have no money?
Nima is an honest person and is not very good at public relations. When they really don’t have money to pay rent or eat, their teachers and children will go to the gates of several large monasteries in Lhasa to beg for alms to get some money back to tide them over.
As the days went by like this, the work at the orphanage became more and more busy. Most of Nima's energy was spent here, and she had little time to be a tour guide.
Quzhen Orphanage, which has gone through ups and downs in the past six years, currently has 62 orphans. Among them, the youngest orphan is only 3 years old and the oldest is 18 years old.
Some children have already entered society, but currently more children are still in school. There are currently 38 children in Lalu Primary School, 3 children in Qushi Kindergarten, 12 in the private Tongga Language School, and 19 I will go to school in August this year.
The district government and the Education Bureau are still very concerned about the orphanage. Children attending public schools are free of charge. However, the tuition and miscellaneous fees for each child still need to be figured out by the orphanage. Sometimes the teachers of the school where the children go to school will figure out things like school uniforms. Donate some.
Nowadays, orphanages basically no longer adopt children because the current situation of orphanages cannot support the lives of more children.
Some old ladies brought their children over and found it difficult to refuse. They could only show them the situation in the courtyard. Often the elderly could only sit in the yard and cry, and then left helplessly.
By chance, the National Television came across this situation, so a filming team was dispatched to stay here for a long time. While recording the most realistic living conditions in the orphanage, they also tried every means to help Nima seek help. .
With the attention of National Television, this orphanage has naturally been taken seriously, but there is also a reality that has to be faced, that is, the recognition of government agencies can only provide part of the financial and material help, but cannot be open to the public. A big deal.
Because the poverty situation in Tibetan areas is universal, if this opening is opened, more similar situations must be met.
Due to the plateau geography and climate effects, the entire Lhasa city's financial situation has been in an embarrassing situation of being stretched all year round. Where can more financial resources be freed up to completely change the current situation of poverty in the surrounding areas.
This is a major development and survival issue that cannot be avoided, and it is not a lack of local support. Therefore, the attitude of the national television is helpless, so trying to solve it through private methods is equivalent to helping the government, which is already in a difficult situation, to solve a major concern, but there are few large-scale business activities and manufacturing plants here. The emergence of similar large businesses is due to the cruel geographical location, which blocks many development opportunities from the plateau.
As for Quzhen Orphanage, why has it not yet received approval from the Ministry of Civil Affairs?
The reason for the "registration certificate" is that on the one hand, the country has been much stricter and more cautious in the work of converting private orphanages into regular ones in recent years.
On the other hand, Quzhen’s conditions are still far behind the hardware indicators of a regular orphanage. Even the most basic
"Having a fixed venue for activities" cannot meet the requirements. Not to mention not having its own fixed property, it doesn’t even have a basic postal address. Donations from various places have to go through
"Donkey's Nest" transfer is very inconvenient. Another reason is that the country's orphanages generally only adopt children without parents or relatives. Some of the children in Quzhenzhong have relatives such as grandmothers or uncles, and they do not meet the requirements for admission to orphanages.
Even though their grandmother may have to rely on begging for a living, or their uncle has never cared about their cold or warmth ailments.
Therefore, because she was not registered, Quzhen did not receive the government's fixed subsidies for orphans, and had to raise all the expenses herself.
Although the government has waived tuition fees for children in orphanages, the orphanages still have to bear miscellaneous book fees and other expenses.
Therefore, tuition fees, living expenses, rent, water and electricity have become the largest expenses of the orphanage, and also become the biggest problem that troubles Director Nima.
Even if National Television has sufficient social influence, specific solutions must be consistent with the actual situation of the local government.
Moreover, they face the same solution problems as the local government, but they still can't open a way. After all, they are also state-owned units.
This has led to the current dilemma of having to raise funds through the private sector. The purpose of staying here is to create an exploratory program to address the private dilemmas faced here and find more companies or individuals willing to help. .
If the problem is solved, more children in similar situations will receive educational assistance, which is a great thing that will benefit future generations.
