Special Forces Tourism: Breaking the Curse of Formalism with Unyielding Courage

Introduction: This article focuses on the recent hot word "special forces tourism". College students in the post-epidemic era have started a new travel mode. Some people think that check-in travel is unnecessary, while others shout that youth is priceless. The author uses a relatively objective perspective to explain this phenomenon to readers.

"Tired young people shout to lie down, trying to find a place to rest in the high-speed social machine; but at the same time, they are unwilling to let their youth pass by, struggling to rush into the distance."

"In the past, transportation was slow, and a lifetime was only enough to love one person."

"Today's high-speed rail is very fast and can travel to three cities in two days."

In today's young world, special forces travel has become one of the most popular weekend activities.

(Young people traveling like special forces)

Countless young people drag their luggage to work or class on Friday and appear at the crowded train station in the evening. After getting off the train the next morning, they head directly to the first attraction to start the 48-hour extreme training challenge.

"33-hour quick tour of Beijing, visiting 8 scenic spots in one day", "2 days and 1 night to travel in Xinjiang", "16 meals in 24 hours to eat all over Zibo". These itineraries sound incredible, but are being put into practice one by one by contemporary young people.

(Special Forces travel plans)

Faced with spring and freedom, young people explore the world with a vengeance, attempting to challenge the limits of time and physical strength at the lowest economic cost in exchange for the richest tourism and cultural experience.

The tight budget and limited vacation time have never restrained their legs, and the young figures hurriedly but happily ran to the distance. People can't help but sigh: It's great to be young!

1. Hardcore Travel: Struggling Special Forces Soldiers

The sky I see through the window always seems less transparent; the scenery I see through the phone screen always lacks a sense of freedom.

This is the meaning of travel. Wherever I look, it is my scenery. Wherever I step, it is my world. Why should I leave regrets to my eyes when my body can reach the place?

The moment I set foot, the world map gradually changed from dark to bright. Every wisp of sea breeze fluttered my hair, and every spring flower bloomed was my fragrance. When we come into contact with the world, we can feel the insignificance of all things and the vastness of the universe.

In addition to perceiving nature, for young people, hardcore offline social interactions such as special forces-style travel are also real, tangible and hard-earned.

On the green train, countless young strangers shouted, "Youth has no price, hard seats go straight to Lhasa." Perhaps they were only destined to sit in a hard seat for one night, but they hugged each other and sang loudly like old friends. This scene seemed a bit clichéd from a youth art film, but it had the magic to make people's blood boil.

The current "fast-moving" social style is often based on work benefits and needs, while pure emotions are sometimes ignored. The online world seems to be in full swing, but people have become islands of themselves, and their sense of connection with society is declining. In order to save money, the hard seats and hard sleepers have become replicas of dormitories. The "poor travel party" of similar age has turned on the social cow mode, curing the collective loneliness in the era of online social networking.

At the same time, the rough texture during the journey is a jailbreak from the dull life.

When the rampage mode is turned on, the exquisite "Amanda" in the office building also becomes a special forces of "If I were given three days". The boredom of work and study makes young people become salted fish on the chopping board.

When they ended their day-to-day routine, they began to try to break the unchanging order of life.

Indeed, traveling once meant leisure, relaxation, and a brief escape from the stereotyped life.

The popularity of a series of slow travel variety shows such as "Flowers and Youth" and "Longing for Life" caters to this audience demand. Modern people trapped in reinforced concrete will also look at their 30-square-meter cubicles and imagine themselves watching zebras in Madagascar or lighting up a small house in Yunnan when they are typing until their backs ache.

In a high-pressure life, people are increasingly eager to escape from work and take a break from the busy schedule. But taking a break comes at a price. Who would rather sleep in Haidilao late at night than enjoy the night view in a fine hotel?

(Special forces taking a break at Haidilao)

When the special forces-style tour ended, the young people who had just got off the green train started their "early eight" life without stopping. This military training-style tour may be a helpless compromise to the fast-paced life.

As Han Bingzhe said, "The exhausted and depressed performance subject is constantly consuming himself. In the battle with himself, he suffers because of himself." In the performance competition with others, we cannot relax for a moment and have to exhaust our energy to maintain the current stable state.

The young people who "can't lie down flat, and can't roll up" use a compromising resistance to briefly escape from real life, but like Cinderella, they hurriedly flee back to the starting point before the clock strikes twelve.

(Young people going to work on time)

Therefore, after this dream-like journey, we choose to use psychological hints like a boost of blood and return to our posts with radiance again.

We have transitioned from the disciplinary society of the past to the merit-based society of today. We seem to have the freedom to choose, but we have encountered a bigger cage.

When we were children traveling with our parents, did we ever complain about the tour groups that got up at 3 a.m. to watch the flag-raising ceremony? Now, we have become the group of magical young people who wait at the entrance of the square at midnight.

The tired young people clamor to lie down, trying to find a corner to live in the high-speed social machine; but at the same time, they are unwilling to see their youth slip away and struggle to rush towards the distance.

2. Special Forces Travel is a Second Best Option

There is no fixed template for travel books. When more people talk about it, people will believe it.

In the rush of special forces, travel seems to easily become a self-deceiving formalism. A quick 20-minute visit to a tourist spot may turn into a meaningless sightseeing tour if you are not careful.

On the one hand, special forces-style travel relies on using physical strength to buy time and money.

The young people of this generation are out of breath after climbing to the third floor, but they can still persist in completing the 48-hour extreme swim with all their might. One can't help but sigh at the Schrödinger's energy of young people.

(Schrödinger's physical strength)

But do we really have endless physical strength?

Corresponding to the special forces travel, there is also the once popular "lying flat travel". The main feature of "lying flat travel" is to eat takeout in a different place. It seems that you have gone out, but you are still wandering around in the guesthouse room. After a trip, you don't visit two attractions, but you sleep for several rounds.

Although there is not much improvement in physical strength, lying-flat travel has now been forced to become the "tears of the times." For today's young people, on the one hand, there is only one year left in college and increasingly heavy performance pressure, and on the other hand, there are too many unmeasured lands and unfulfilled promises.

(Lie-flat travel)

Special forces-style travel is a response by young people to their frustration with time and is a second best option.

But can the sense of reality brought by tired limbs really help us escape the emptiness of online social interaction and the repetition of daily life?

Nowadays, a hot topic on social platforms is "I want to quit my job and do manual labor", which is an attempt to use physical exertion to heal the trauma caused by mental work. Netizens have gone to KFC, Mixue Ice City and other places to do "light physical labor" and try to become a "happy" blue-collar worker from scratch.

However, after trying it, I found that high-pressure physical labor may force the tired body to stop thinking and gain a moment of peace, but it makes people feel a deeper sense of powerlessness in the real society after being exhausted.

(Douban Group)

On the other hand, is this homogenized media performance just a pilgrimage to the Internet celebrity landscape?

In the special forces-style travel videos shared by netizens, they are often accompanied by highly similar diary-style copywriting: "Watched the flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square, took pictures of the corner tower of the Forbidden City, arrived at Shichahai, ate hot pot hot pot, went to the Great Wall, and played in Universal Studios."

As netizens commented, “I didn’t travel, I just went there for a while.” After taking a group photo, they left in a hurry, as if they had neither the freedom to stroll around nor the benefits of a deep tour.

(Comments from netizens)

The same old check-in points seem to invisibly reinforce the stereotype of the city.

The proliferation of internet celebrity routes on social platforms has led countless special forces to imitate them. Sometimes, special forces would rather choose to queue up in front of the check-in point to take photos to prove that they have been there, but they will visit the ancient monuments quickly and not stay for too long.

But a closer look at these so-called "Internet celebrity routes" reveals that they are sometimes merely a "good photogenic" backdrop to satisfy the need for social sharing, but have never touched upon the city's cultural heritage.

However, despite the rough feeling of special forces-style tourism, it is difficult to conceal young people's curiosity and desire to explore the world.

What supports the non-stop plan is the careful arrangement and detailed strategy before the action. Rather than seeing the special forces travel as a spur of the moment, it is better to see it as a passionate rush.

Netizens said that the promise of youth must be fulfilled by youth, and this kind of courage to move forward with promises may be the most praiseworthy part of this battle.

(Comments from netizens)

When the 48-hour extreme challenge came to an end, the special forces gained more than just the short video footage on their phones. What really made people linger was not just the engineered smiles left at the best photo spots, but also the smiles of you and me in the crowded crowds and the songs of youth on the hard seats of the train.

"I want to buy some osmanthus flowers and put them in the wine, but it doesn't feel like the days of my youth."

The moment we set out, the main mission became regaining our youth.

For passionate young people, arrival is not the goal, departure is.

Author: Frog Diary

Source: WeChat public account "Zhizhu.com"