By Lisa Carducci

He lives in Urumqi, close to the Xinjiang University. Sun-tanned but not excessively, Wang Tienan exudes good health. There is a reason, as we will see. I arrived at his place at 11:00. In Xinjiang, people generally start to work at 9:30 or 10:00 till 14:00, and from 16:00 to 18:00 or later in the afternoon. In several houses and offices, there are two clocks: one indicates Beijing time, that of the whole country; the other, the local time, or two hours less. Meals are generally taken at 8:00, 14:00, and 21:00.

Wang Tienan and his wife [Foreign Languages Press]

In the small studio where a computer and bookshelves are installed, my eye was caught by some photographs: the great moments of Wang's alpinist life. There was also a very old climber pick with a wooden handle. Three pairs of skis – of the latest fashion – leaned against the wall; the couple and their son practice this sport. As it was the season, 10 watermelons and several Hami melons were aligned along the wall, trying to make themselves as discreet as possible.

Wang was born in November 1956 in Changchun, Jilin Province. He was one year old when his parents moved to Xinjiang. His father was a specialist in contagious animal diseases, and his mother, a nurse. They came to help Xinjiang to develop, and remained, like the majority of like people who arrived during the same period. Wang's wife, Cheng Zhanxiang, comes from a Hunan family. When her parents came to Xinjiang in 1961, serving the same cause, her mother was six months pregnant. Cheng was thus born in Xinjiang. As soon as we started to converse, I intuited that she had been born within an army family; I was right. I also had the feeling that she was a professor. In fact, she and I were both high school teachers.

When Wang Tienan completed his high school studies in 1975, it was one year before the end of the "cultural revolution." The young "intellectuals" were sent to be re-educated by the peasants, and Wang was sent to the Tianshan Mountains. He then found interest in vast spaces and mountains. In 1977, he was admitted to the faculty of physics of Normal University of Xinjiang. Once he became an engineer, he has always worked and still works with the Xinjiang University of Television. After teaching for 10 years, he now works as a controller of the Internet technology system of this establishment.

It is only in 1989 that Wang undertook his first mountain climbing expedition, a three-day excursion to the top of 3,650 m Tianshan, with a slope of 90 km. Not only the height of a peak but its slope, soft or difficult, accounts for much of the degree of difficulty and danger. Before the 1990s, Wang Tienan explored mostly deserts. To date, he has climbed several peaks of Tianshan and Kunlun mountains – places where very few have left their traces. He finds the Altay Mountains, the more northern ranges of the country, less interesting because they offer fewer challenges. The duration of the excursions varies from five days to one, two, or three months. Sometimes Wang leaves alone, sometimes with friends, and sometimes he acts as a guide. The heights of the conquered peaks reach 3,650 m, 4,480 m or 5,180 m, and the covered distance from 60 to 900 km. The groups number between five and 40 participants.

In 1998, Wang Tienan was the first Chinese person to reach the summit of the Bogda, the main peak of Tianshan Mountains, at 4,400 m. A Japanese mountaineer had accomplished the feat in 1981.

The year 1999 was special for mountaineer Wang, and one climbing excursion is worth telling in detail.

On July 3, the Mustaghata (Muztagh Ata, or father of the glaciers) team of 15 members started towards the summit of 7,546 m. On July 8, the mountaineers set up their camp at 4,300 m. Twelve days later, at 7:30 on the 20th, they reached 6,700 m. At 30oC below zero, they climbed during more than seven hours before finally reaching, at 14:40, the summit.

To date, Wang has climbed the Bogda five times. He has crossed the Taklimakan Desert, which name means "Sea of Death"; it is the third largest desert in the world after the Sahara and the Kalahari. There are some 40 m height dunes. Temperature varies from 40°C below zero in winter to 50°C in summer. Such a climate doesn't allow any life! In 1992, Wang and a team of Japanese people crossed it from west to east – 900 km – in three months.

The peaks that Wang prefers are those requiring technique; the most difficult, in fact. But the most difficult are also the most dangerous. "Two threats lie in wait for the mountaineer. First, winds of sand: at midday it is as dark as night. During an excursion with 200 camels, we undertook such a wind, which cost the lives of 130 camels." I was astonished that so many animals perished but no man. "Camels are tall," said Wang, "and cannot hide in holes; moreover, they transport the material and they are exhausted." The other threat is the fault hidden under a layer of virgin snow.

"If you fall in it, you remain there."

"What about avalanches?"

"Yes, but they are less frequent and often foreseeable," the alpinist answered. "Once, while climbing down from a peak, we met three Hong Kong people going up. We exchanged some words. But they have never come down…. There is also a Japanese man who died on the mountain; we found his body." Wang Tienan himself almost left his life behind in the mountain several times. He told of a mishap: one day he was climbing alone and stopped at an altitude of 6,800 m and chatted with two Frenchmen who were settling in for the night. He was tired and would have liked to sleep in their tent, but it was too small. He set out again, alone, in the darkness, and fell into a fault. At five meters deep, he found purchase. To avoid slipping even more, he hung on and decided to wait for the morning light before trying to hoist himself up. What he feared more was falling asleep. It would have been certain death; at -15 oC, freezing is fatal. During the eight hours, he unceasingly moved his hands and feet. At dawn, he succeeded in coming out of the fault and once the fog dissipated, he noticed that he had almost reached the goal: at 200 meters.