#2: [02-Feb-06]

21-Dec-2003 --

English

我开始玩GPS有1年多时间了，我经常去的一个中国著名的网上汽车论坛里，有很多朋友有GPS，我们经常一起出游，讨论GPS的问题。一次偶然在一位朋友做的GPS网页里发现了Confluence Project的介绍，觉得很有趣，但是一直没有时间去真正寻找一个点。最近终于有空和几位网友一起去找到了N41E118。

2003年12月21日，星期日，一大早，我和网友金戈铁马，INC和黑猫（都是网名）夫妇四个人驾驶两辆富康车从北京出发，我们一共带了5个GPS，其中有两个是网友哈巴雪山借给我们的，我们也想借此机会对比一下各种GPS的性能。我们行驶200多公里后到达河北省承德市，承德市是中国著名的旅游城市，号称避暑胜地，这里有中国古代皇帝的行宫，中国古代的皇帝在夏天会到这里来避暑。我们在承德一个饭馆吃了早午饭后，继续驾车向N41E118方向行驶，一直开到一个小村里，无法再向前开为止。我们看到这时GPS指示距N41E118还有2.5km左右，我们以为步行很快就能到达该点，但是实际上我们发现到途中有座山挡住了我们，于是我们很艰难的从没有路而且有积雪的山坡上爬上了山顶，这是距N41E118还有1.5公里左右，但是从山上向N41E118看去，前方还有一个很深的山谷，过了山谷还有一座山。已经精疲力竭的我们在山顶都有点泄气了，金戈铁马建议我们走一个“U”字形，在山上绕开山谷，这样我们又离N41E118近了一步，我们走到另一座山上时，发现到N41E118还有一个山谷，山谷里有一个村子，叫“蛤蟆石”村，这个村子有条小路通向村子外的大路，看来我们事先在地图上没有发现这个村子，不然我们就可以开车直接到这里了，不用爬第一座大山了。穿过蛤蟆石村，离N41E118已经很近了，不过我们还要再穿过一片松树林爬上一座山，到达山顶后GPS显示距N41E118就剩30米了，但是我们都没有力气马上去找了，我们在山顶休息了一会儿后，终于在这座山阳坡的一颗松树旁边找到了N41E118。

回家的路我们肯定没有力气再按原路回去了，而且蛤蟆石村有路出去，于是我们下山到蛤蟆石村，沿着村里的小路向外走去，走了大概快一个小时，我们终于碰到了一辆从承德市开到这里来的TAXI，TAXI到村里送了客人以后，回来载上我们四人，我们按GPS指示让司机开车出村到大路上，然后再到我们放车的那个小村子，实际上出租车行驶的轨迹，就是绕着我们爬的第一座大山转了半圈，到我们放车的地方。我们大概6点左右出发，开车回到北京是晚上9点左右，中途在北京密云县吃的晚饭。

这次出行我们都很高兴找到了N41E118，虽然我们一开始不知道蛤蟆石这个村子，绕了远路，但是我们都很高兴我们能够战胜高山的阻挡，翻过两座大山后找到了N41E118，这使我们的身体接受了锻炼，对于我们这些平日坐在办公室的人来说，还是很有好处的。

我们回来后，在我们的汽车论坛上发表了寻找N41E118的照片和简单介绍，大家都很感兴趣，这个周末就有一拨人带着GPS要去找N41E116了。

English

21-Dec-2003 -- I have been playing with my GPS for more than a year now. I am a frequent visitor to a famous Chinese Internet forum on cars and accessories. It is there that I have met a lot of friends who are using GPS's. We, as a group, go out often and love to discuss all sorts of things related to GPS. Once I came across an article on Confluence Project from a friend's web site, it sparked my interest. However, due to time constraint, I had not been able to go hunting for a spot until very recently. I finally had some free time to travel with a few of my Internet friends, and together, we found N41E118.

We started our journey at the dawn of December 21, 2003, Sunday. Our group has four people: GoldenAxeIronHorse, husband-and-wife duo INC and BlackCat (all web names), and I. We drove two Fukang cars away from Beijing, bringing with us five GPS's, of which two were borrowed from HabaSnowyMountain, an internet friend. We were planning to test and compare their performances. After more than 200km of driving, we arrived at Chengde, a city in Hebei province. Chengde is one of the tourists' magnets in China. It has the reputation of a summer resort. The city's famed palace once served as the getaway home for ancient emperors, who dreaded at the intense summer heat in Beijing. After having a brunch at a local restaurant, we continued driving towards the direction of N41E118, until a small village showed up, and there was no road leading to our destination. The GPS's showed that we were about 2.5km away from N41E118. We thought we could reach it quickly by foot; however, we learned later on that there was a mountain on our way. We had to hike up on the trailless, snow covered mountainside. Huffing and puffing, finally we reached the top. Now our destination was just approximately 1.5km away. However, watching from where we were to the direction of N41E118, there was still a deep valley to pass, and after that, another mountain. Exhausted as we were, it was very attempting to just give up. GoldenAxeIronHorse suggested that we should make a U-shaped route on the mountaintops to avoid the valley all together. It turned out to be a good idea as we approached N41E118 one step closer. When we stood on another mountain, we found out that there was another valley that led to N41E118, and a village named Hamashi (meaning toad rock) was inside the valley. A small road connected the village to an outside bigger road. Had we found the village on the map earlier, we could have driven to this valley right away, and we wouldn’t have had to pass the mountain that we just climbed. When we passed Hamashi, N41E118 was already very close to us, but we had to go through a pine forest and climb another mountain. By the time we reached the mountaintop, we were too tired to search for our target immediately, although the GPS showed we were mere 30m away from N41E118. After a little rest, we finally found N41E118. It was beside a pine tree on the sunny side of the mountain.

On our way back, we were so spent that we definitely couldn't take the same route that we came from. Since there was a way out of Hamashi, we went down the mountain to the village and along the road we walked away. After almost an hour, we finally saw a taxi from Chengde. But first the cab had to finish its journey to the village, and on its way back it took us four. Using the GPS, we navigated the driver to get us to the village where we parked our cars. It turned out that the cab actually made a half circle around the first mountain we had climbed earlier that day. We started the day at around 6 a.m., after having our dinner at Miyun county of Being, we returned to Beijing at about 9 p.m.

We are very glad that we have found N41E118. Although in the beginning we didn't know Hamashi village, therefore made an unnecessary detour, we are still very proud that we overcame the obstacle of mountains, and find N41E118 after climbing two of them. For us so called "office chair potatoes," it is obviously very beneficial to have chance like this to work out a little.

After we came back, we have put pictures and a summary of our trip on the Internet car forum. A lot of people are very interested. This weekend, a bunch of them are going to use GPS to hunt for N41E116.

(Translation by Weilan P.)