我常对喜欢出行的朋友说：没到过西藏就不知道中国有多美，没去过新疆就不知道中国有多大。美丽和魅力总是牵魂的。

I often say to friends fond of traveling: You won’t know how beautiful China is until you go to Tibet, and you’d have no idea of how big China is until you get to Xinjiang. Beauty and charm are always soul stirring.

青藏高原上那一列列的冰川和雪岭，在蓝天和白云的掩映下，熠熠闪耀。站在4000米左右的高原面上，即便是面对海拔七八千米的山峰，也全无想象中那般的高耸，更无需翘首仰视。推动这座广达265万平方千米的高原演绎沧海桑田故事的板块，至今还在不停地俯冲和上翘着，只是间或会来一个猛然提速或戛然停顿。那一道道的山岭和一串串的盆地就见证了高原隆起过程中的亢然凸升和安然蠕动。当横卧在这座高原上的山岭超越5000米时，中国以至世界的自然格局就被重新布置了：北上西进的海洋湿热气流被阻滞在高原的东南隅，渐生渐盛的江南鱼米之乡取代了维系数亿年的回归线荒漠；而曾经山清水秀的大西北则日渐干涸，变成了广袤的戈壁、连绵的沙漠和星星点点的绿洲；高空横行的西风气流也被一分为二，干寒和荒芜吞噬了高原曾经的碧绿……我国自然结构的“三国演义”时代就这样开场。

Rows of glaciers and snow-capped ridges on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau glisten against the blue sky and white clouds. Standing at an elevation of 4,000 meters above sea level, even the peaks of 7,000 or 8,000 meters would not appear as overwhelming as imagined. The tectonic plates that have promoted the evolution of seas changing into land in this region of 2.65 million square kilometers are still constantly in motion only once in a while picking up the pace abruptly or coming to a standstill all of a sudden. The series of ridges, ranges and basins have witnessed the dynamic rising and quiet creeping in the formation of the highlands. With many of mountain ridges lying across the plateau exceed 5,000 meters above sea level, the natural pattern of China and even the world was arranged anew: the moist and warm oceanic air current flowing northward and westward is blocked in the southeastern part of the plateau, where a landscape featuring a fertile region of fish and rice typical of the south of the Yangtze River in China gradually comes into being and replaces deserts along the regression line which had been sustained for hundreds of millions of years. Meanwhile, the great northwest that used to feature lush mountains and clear waters gradually dried up, turning into vast gobi and deserts dotted with some oases, while the air currents were lifted by the west winds, dominating the upper air which was also divided into two parts, with dry cold and bleakness devastating the green that once covered the land. The “romance of the three kingdoms” in China’s natural structure thus unfolded.