September 13, 2024 to September 14, 2024
T-3 & 2: 伏家 → 北京 （双语）
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I am superbly unimpressed by the baijiu distillery. So unimpressed in fact that I'm kind of glad that, on account of three cases 2,500km away, they pulled the "because of the worsening Covid situation" card when I biked past three years ago and wouldn't let me in for a visit.
Don't get me wrong, with the exception of gibberish-level English signage, the facilities are absolutely top notch in a "someone who actually studied museum design was consulted on this project" sort of way. It's just that, separate from the total lack of any indication that they get more than 1 or 2 tourists at a time, the end product they are trying to produce is one that—shocking price tag notwithstanding—is the kind of vile "umami flavor" sorghum based liquor that is part of why baijiu persists in not gaining popularity outside China.
我对这家白酒厂实在是没什么好感，实际上是非常无感，以至于我还挺庆幸三年前我骑车经过这里时，就因为远在2500公里之外的三起病例，他们打出了“由于新冠疫情形势加剧”的理由不让我进去参观。
别误会我的意思，除了那些不知所云的英文标识外，这里的设施绝对是一流的，感觉是在这个项目上咨询过真正学过博物馆设计的专业人士。只是，撇开完全看不出他们一次接待超过一两名游客这一点不谈，他们试图生产出来的最终产品——先不说那令人咋舌的价格——是一种难喝的、带有“鲜味”的高粱酒，这也是白酒在国外一直没能流行起来的部分原因。
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Being a former State Owned Enterprise of the "successful at embracing capitalism" sort, the company then has another site for us to visit afterwards, and, other than it being an hour drive away¹ on the expressway, I'm absolutely in love.
Similar to the distillery which they own in that the mine is an active worksite to which a museum—mostly empty of signs that visitors have ever visited—has been clumsily appended, a great deal more effort has been put into layman level exhibits, while also managing to include a wealth of information of the sort that you'd have to be a proper geek to actually find interesting.
作为一家曾经属于那种“成功拥抱资本主义”的国有企业，之后这家公司还有另一个地方供我们参观，而且，除了它有一小时的高速公路车程才外¹，我简直爱死它了。
和他们旗下的那家酒厂类似，这是一个正在作业的矿区，旁边生硬地附设了一座博物馆——馆内大多没有游客到访过的迹象。他们在展品布置上花了更多心思，同时也设法涵盖了大量的信息，不过得是十足的发烧友才会真觉得这些信息有意思。
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Did we need to follow a docent through their massive warehouse of core samples from across the region? No.
Was it kind of cool that we were able to? Yes.
Cooler still was the 5D movie theater (rumble seats, 3d glasses, and the sadly unused option for smellovision) where we got to watch a cartoon version of a Very Proud Employee introduce us to all the safety and environmental features that make this mine an absolute leader in both categories. With background details ranging from safety posters and newspaper racks to the 20 extra pounds one of the heavy equipment operators was carrying around his waist, it was also obvious that actual people and places from inside the mine had been 3D modelled and cartoonified.
我们有必要跟着一名讲解员穿过他们那存放着地区各地岩芯样本的巨大仓库吗？没必要。
我们那样做，是不是还挺酷的？是的。
更酷的是那个5D电影院（有敞篷座椅、3D眼镜，还有很可惜没启用的气味模拟功能选项），在那里我们观看了一部卡通版的宣传片，一位非常自豪的员工在片中向我们介绍了这座矿洞在安全和环保方面的所有特色，使其在这两方面都堪称绝对的佼佼者。从安全海报、报刊架，到一位重型设备操作员腰间多出的十几斤赘肉等背景细节可以看出，矿洞内部真实的人物和场景显然都经过了3D建模并制作成了卡通形象。
The rest of the day was spent traipsing to and from the kind of places I like to bike and that no one really wants to visit but which the local propaganda departments would like to promote anyways².
Up at 7:30 for breakfast and a drive to some Han Dynasty inscriptions that were mostly notable for the pleasant cliffside boardwalk to go and not be able to actually see much of anything behind the protective glass wall³ that had been installed a meter in front of them.
那天剩下的时间都花在了往返于我喜欢骑车去的地方，除了我以外这些地方没有什么人真的想去参观，但当地宣传部门怎么样都想推广一下²。
7点30分起床吃早餐，然后坐车去看一些汉代的摩崖石刻，这些石刻最值得一提的是通往那里的美妙崖边小道，不过在石刻前方一米处安装了保护玻璃墙³，透过玻璃墙其实也看不太清后面的内容。
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This was followed by lunch and a drive to a Local Key Agricultural Products and Rural Revitalization Display Center (where I dutifully purchased a bottle of persimmon wine to give as a gift to a Beijing friend), a dull as dishwater memorial temple on the site of Du Fu's Thatched Cottage, and the airport for our flights to Beijing.
之后我们吃了午饭，然后驾驶去了一个当地特色农产品及乡村振兴展示中心（我在那里尽责地买了一瓶柿子酒，当作礼物送给一位北京的朋友），接着去了杜甫草堂旧址上一座乏味至极的纪念庙宇，最后前往机场搭乘飞往北京的航班。
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¹ Biggest downside of junkets is the amount of time you spent being transferred from one place to the next.
¹ 媒体之旅最大的弊端就是要花大量时间从一个地方辗转到另一个地方。
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² They might not end up included in any of our reports, but our presence will surely end up included in their reports.
³ I understand the logic for keeping people's grubby hands off of something 2,100 years old, and the glass was reasonably clean, but you still couldn't see anything.
² 这些地方可能最终不会出现在我们的任何报告中，但我们的到访肯定会被写进他们的报告里。
³ 我理解要防止人们的脏手触碰有2100年历史的东西的逻辑，而且那块玻璃也还算干净，但你还是什么都看不见。
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