Huang Ruijie, a graduate of the Bosnia and Herzegovina campus of the World United College in Chengdu, will join the other three members who joined in stages to set off from Istanbul on an 80-day Silk Road cycling tour. We will continue to update the customs, scenery and sights along the way, and look forward to interacting with you!

Cycling test May 20, 2018 Mostar> Pocitelj

At 6 pm on November 12, 2017, as soon as I left the teaching building to finish my self-study, my body was whipped by the suffocating air. As soon as I opened the door, I felt the atmosphere was a bit wrong:

Under the dim light, six police cars lined up two rows guarding the tree-lined road, and the rotating siren projected the harsh red light into the heavy air; across the barbed wire on the window of the police car, the riot police officers watched around with alertness. . I walked towards the bedroom. At the end of the tree-lined road, the bald men were in groups of three or five, not knowing who to wait for an order.

For the first time, I felt the war was coming.

This is Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where I attended high school for two years.

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Bosnia and Herzegovina was originally one of the six members of the former Yugoslavia. It is located in the center of the European powder barrel, the Balkan Peninsula, and borders Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. Perhaps her capital, Sarajevo, is more famous than the country itself: at the beginning of the 20th century, the prelude to the First World War began here, and the 20th century ended in the longest siege in human history. The three main beliefs of BiH (Orthodox, Catholic, Islam), three races (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian Croat)

Mosque on the outskirts of the city

Because of historical, political, and cultural reasons, each other is incompatible. In the 1990s, nationalism rose on this peaceful Balkan lands, and the most direct results were the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and the Bosnian civil war with nearly 200,000 casualties (the Srebrenica massacre during the period Ethnic genocide against the Mu ethnic group). The barriers and contradictions between the races within Bosnia and Herzegovina have intensified into blood and blood.

Citizens of Sarajevo dodging snipers

Behind me, Mostar, Catholic Croatians and Islamic Bosniacs still have irreconcilable gaps: to this day, Bosniacs who have set foot in Croat territory have been attacked by Croats. Dangerous; each ethnic group has its own education system and administrative system, and has different interpretations of history, each identifying the other as the culprit; if a student is found to have a close relationship with an alien, he will even be sneered and bullied by his classmates.

Graffiti on the ruins is everywhere in the city

The article begins with a scene of the Croat civil war general Praiak poisoning and committing suicide after being convicted by the International Court of Justice in The Hague: Most young Croats in Mostar are dissatisfied with the result and want to vent their anger through violence. The school also sent e-mails in those days to warn students to travel carefully and canceled all extracurricular activities. The whole city was trembling and there were fewer cars in the city streets.

And this is not just the first time.

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one For some people, peace is the ideal of the wise, and war is the main theme of history.

In order to prepare a visa for my summer vacation, I came to the photo studio in the city, and the photographer carefully wiped the photos just washed out. When I was ready to pay, I wanted to try my own bargaining skills:

"Boss, 15km (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1km = 4rmb) is too expensive, or 10km, I am still a student and have no income."

He looked at me with sympathy and understanding in his eyes, but replied: "I also have a wife and two daughters. How can I support my family if the business is not good?"

Having said that, I did not know how to continue to bargain and accepted the price. When he put the photo in the bag, I saw the name of the photo shop on the bag: "Photo Shop Hadžić", and curiosity suddenly came up:

"Does your photo studio name Hadžić have any origin?"

He smiled heartily when he heard: "Hadžić is my last name. This shop was opened by my father in 1978, and I worked here in 1986."

Since then, he has worked in this photo studio for 32 years. I wonder if the Bosnian civil war of 92-95 sent him to exile? If so, why did he come back? I wonder if he stayed in Mostar at the most dangerous time.

Photo gallery owner Hadžić

"I was there then."

"Isn't it dangerous to stay in Mostar at that time?"

He said, "Dangerous." He pointed to the uniform on his body. "At that time more civilians died in Mostar than soldiers."

Looking at my curious glance, he continued to tell the scene at the time: "At that time Mostar was short of drinking water. Sometimes when the water tanker came to Mostar, the civilians of the Bo people rushed up, but did not. Thinking of Croat snipers on the other side of the city starting to shoot, blood and water mixed together, flowing coldly along the roadside. "

When I heard this, I could not help but sweat a lot. Brothers who were brothers and brothers in Yugoslavia during the war became your deadly enemies during the war. Seeing the wrong impression on my face, he said, "Let me show you something."

After that, he took me to the computer, opened a folder, and wrote 1994.12.

In the previous photos, I saw how the old bridge was blown up little by little. Now the old town with a lot of traffic is broken. Rubble and blood spilled on the stone road, washing this 500-year-old land.

War-torn cities

I asked him why he was sorting out these photos now, and he said that now someone wants to tamper with the history, and he wants to keep these memories so that what happened has not been repeated. I think this is not only his, but also the common aspiration of more people who have experienced that period of history.

Knowing that I was leaving Mostar soon, he washed out the wartime photos I was interested in and gave them to me, waving goodbye.

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two The sluggish economy and long future are still the pain of every wave of black people after the war.

Mostar, though small, has all his organs. To get ready for cycling, I often go to a bicycle shop called "Bicikleta Mostar" and ask my 70-year-old boss for maintenance tips. On the wall of the car shop, pictures of his usual mountain biking are affixed. Whenever he talks about bicycles, he is always in a state of energy and clean when he is repairing. Every time after the car was repaired, he would take out the broom and pinch under the cabinet, and put the particles that fell on the ground into the trash can to keep the ground clean. He has loved this store for more than ten years, and he wants to show the most neat side to customers.

After each repair, I ask him how his business has been recently. He always frowned when he heard this question:

"Oh, very bad."

"Why? Haven't you got a lot of business lately?"

"Where is it? These businesses are not enough for me to pay the rent." After that, he buried his head in his hands and frowned even more.

He went on to explain: "Before there were factories here, young people worked here. Now young people are declining every day, they are going to live abroad, and business is getting less and less."

Speaking of which, I recall that Bosnia and Herzegovina's unemployment rate is indeed alarmingly high, and its youth unemployment rate is as high as 40%. In Mostar, there are three types of stores, coffee shops, bakeries, and gambling shops. When I first arrived in Mostar, the people who were most surprised were those who were sitting in the coffee shop at school on the way to school in the morning. They were still sitting there at 4 pm. Time and the economy of this country seemed to be at this moment. Stuck in the coffee shop.

"I'll close the shop this month." He sighed long after he said it.

"Business will definitely get better," I consoled him.

He shook his head. "No, no."

I patted his shoulder and pushed his bike out of his shop.

Whenever I return to this store, similar dialogues appear again and again, making me think that this store will continue to open, closing the store may just be his words, he will persist.

It turned out that when I was about to say goodbye to him before I set off, the door was closed, and he specially repainted the wall again, making it even more empty.

Car owner who is also a cycling enthusiast

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Three "When an organization prepares to destroy books, it is against the human race."

Before I leave Mostar, I want to have a last coffee with my principal Valentina Mindoljevic and talk about her life. As the only principal in the 12 years since the establishment of the United World University Bosnia and Herzegovina campus, she and I Similarly, she is about to leave this land she loves most. Valentina was born in the coastal city of Split, Croatia. She joined the volunteer organization after the outbreak of the Yugoslav civil war in 1991. She first went to Slovenia and Croatia for humanitarian assistance, and finally came to this war-torn Ancient city.

Upon arriving in Mostar, she saw how the captive was shot and killed by soldiers on her way home, and she saw how the people replaced trust with hatred and friendliness with suspicion and doubt. And the most unbearable of all this was how education was destroyed in the war.

One day during the war, she accidentally came to a bombed school library. After she climbed up the stairs to open the door, the scenery in front of her was stunned: the air was covered with dust, the bookcase was flipped to the ground, some had been bombed by shells and some had been blistered into mud.

Seeing these scenes, she recalled: "When an organization prepares to destroy books, it is against the human race."

Since that day, she carried a bag and transferred the still available books to another slightly safer warehouse. Later, the gatekeeper of the warehouse made a special cup of Turkish coffee to thank her.

"And these books are still flowing in Mostar," she raised her eyebrows proudly, and gave a knowing smile.

And her efforts go far beyond that. Beginning that day, she also joined a non-governmental organization (NGO) serving youth in wartime and began teaching children physics and math in buildings and even ruins that survived.

UWC in MostarPrincipal Valentina

After the war, Valentina discovered that education needs more economic reconstruction than economics: not only how to learn knowledge, but how to use knowledge to spread humanity instead of dark corners that are anti-human and barbaric. After the war she continued to work as a physics teacher at the local school Gymnazija. In 2006, Valentina met the International Council of the United World College (UWC). In a coffee shop in Mostar, they decided to establish a joint three in one of the most traumatized areas in the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nation, and the world's union college where youth from all nations gather. School money is not enough to raise money; school manpower is not enough, the teacher will be the best. Facing the opposition of the local government and the doubts of the community, with the continuous preparations of her, the school officially opened in the same year.

UWCiM and Old Town Old Bridge

And she stayed in Mostar for 24 years.

Principal Valentina wrote half of her life in Mostar and dedicated half of Mostar's life to this school. She retains and spreads the most bit of humanity. As an educator who has experienced the war, she continues to change the society with her own strength.

Overlooking the Bosnian Mother River Neretva from the neighboring town of Pocitelj

"Our hope is only in alcohol."

I remember what a young Bosnia and Herzegovina once said to me. Reminiscences of the war, like the spirit Rakiya here, are piercing and deep, although you want to erase it, you can't forget it.

Mostar is actually the epitome of this country. War, race, economic downturn, outflows of the younger generation, etc. have allowed Bosnia and Herzegovina to be confused about the future in the constant pains and move forward in the embarrassed political situation of the Balkans. . However, people's relaxed and optimistic attitude towards life here has given me more inspiration, although sometimes this ease is nothing but helplessness to reality.

I'm leaving this place soon, and my mood is mixed: After living here for two years, will I come back in the future? Will the story I miss be gradually forgotten? What will happen to this city in the future? The children are still swinging in the park and chasing on the tree-lined avenue, and Hadžić is still developing photos in the photo shop; old people appear in the cafe with the newspaper on time every morning; classmates of the United World College are still in the classroom I listened intently to the lessons. It seems that students from different countries around the world have crossed the ethnic and cultural differences here and treated each other sincerely and peacefully. However, in this city of mixed races and religions, in this country, post-war reconciliation and self Healing is still progressing slowly and firmly over time.

Mostar in the sunset

The sunset of Mostar this evening is still so proud, just like her brilliant culture, heavy history and kind people, quietly ushering in another dawn after each gorgeous sunset.