[Toho Shimpo] An accident occurred in China in which four people were wrecked and died while "driving" in a hot desert area. More than a dozen Sichuan youths born in the 1990s planned to drive across the Taklamakan Desert in western China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, police said. Splitting into several vehicles, they left Dunhuang, Gansu Province, on July 22 and entered the Lop Nor Wild Camel National Nature Reserve in neighboring Ruoqiang, Xinjiang. Of these, one self-driving vehicle with four people in it disappeared on the 26th. After being contacted by the police, they conducted a search and found the car and the bodies of three people on the 27th. The remaining one was also found dead on the 29th, 20 to 30 kilometers from the exit of the nature reserve. The dozen members said they barely knew each other. A member of the Chinese Expeditionary Society who participated in the search said the car was stuck in the sand. The air conditioner worked and there was enough fuel, but there was no drinking water. The three died 7-8 kilometers from the car. Local television footage showed the car wrecked in an area where the desert stretched to the horizon. A member said, "If I had stayed in my car, I could still have survived." Lop Nor is located in the northeastern part of the Taklimakan Desert and is known as the site of the once-existing salt lake "Wandering Lake". Lop Nor Wild Camel National Nature Reserve reaches a maximum surface temperature of 70 degrees during the day and 40 degrees at night in the summer. The public survey team that investigates the ruins in the protected area has also stopped its activities from July to August. "Due to the extreme heat in midsummer, there is a risk that the car's engine will break down and the chain will stop working," said Hu Xingjun, the leader of the survey team. Liang, a driver who has participated many times in the Paris-Dakar Rally that traverses the Sahara Desert in Africa. Yuxiang said, "You can't run in the desert unless you lower the tire pressure. Ordinary people don't even know that." The Nature Reserve Authority has repeatedly stated that "all individuals and groups are prohibited from tourism and exploration. Malicious acts will be subject to criminal liability," but tragedy has occurred. In the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, a 35-year-old travel blogger died in the same July while heading to Bogota Peak, which is 5,445 meters above sea level. In recent years, there have been a series of accidents in China involving people who are "adventurous". In August 2021, a 22-year-old woman entered an uninhabited mountainous area in Qinghai Province and died in an accident. In February 2022, two of the five people who climbed Mount Kailash, a sacred Buddhist site in the Tibet Autonomous Region, died. In the same month, a poet in his twenties died trying to traverse a dangerous mountainous terrain. The travel blogger who died on the Bogota peak has cycled to 30 countries around the world, so not all victims are "amateurs." Still, after a series of shipwrecks, there are voices on the Internet saying, ``We shouldn't risk our lives for adventurous activities.'' (c) Toho Shimpo/AFPBB News * "Toho Shimpo" is a Chinese-language newspaper first published in Japan in 1995. Region), two of the five who climbed Mount Kailash, a sacred Buddhist site, have died. In the same month, a poet in his twenties died trying to traverse a dangerous mountainous terrain. The travel blogger who died on the Bogota peak has cycled to 30 countries around the world, so not all victims are "amateurs." Still, after a series of shipwrecks, there are voices on the Internet saying, ``We shouldn't risk our lives for adventurous activities.'' (c) Toho Shimpo/AFPBB News * "Toho Shimpo" is a Chinese-language newspaper first published in Japan in 1995. Region), two of the five who climbed Mount Kailash, a sacred Buddhist site, have died. In the same month, a poet in his twenties died trying to traverse a dangerous mountainous terrain. The travel blogger who died on the Bogota peak has cycled to 30 countries around the world, so not all victims are "amateurs." Still, after a series of shipwrecks, there are voices on the Internet saying, ``We shouldn't risk our lives for adventurous activities.'' (c) Toho Shimpo/AFPBB News * "Toho Shimpo" is a Chinese-language newspaper first published in Japan in 1995.
