After leaving Chazhou, Chen Shi'an's next stop was Shixi City.
His cycling route turned southwest, and the landscape suddenly grew unusual.
Shixi City's karst peak forests looked like jade shoots scattered casually over red earth by the Creator. At the foot of some peaks stood Yi earthen-roofed houses, their red walls forming a striking contrast with the blue-gray limestone.
This was Yunchuan Province's "geological museum." Signs for the Global Geopark stood beside the road, reminding travelers of the hundreds of millions of years of history beneath their feet.
There were no seniors he needed to visit in Shixi City. Chen Shi'an had mainly come to cycle around and experience local life.
Along the way, he encountered a group of students sketching the spectacular, unusual terrain.
Intrigued, Chen Shi'an rode over on his bicycle and struck up a casual conversation with the students and their teacher.
Their teacher was a Bai painter. He said Shixi City's beauty lay in its blend of strength and softness, combining the ruggedness of karst landforms with the gentle warmth of the red-earth plateau.
Fat Cat had no interest in art. It jumped off the bicycle and raced up to the highest stone peak, gazing out at the peculiar scenery it had never seen before.
Finally, it ran back down, found a patch of earth, dug a hole, and peed in it, marking this stop in its feline life.
Chen Shi'an wasn't as uncivilized as Fat Cat, which kept tarnishing Pure Dust Temple's reputation wherever it went. He took out his phone, found a few angles, and photographed the breathtaking scenery before him.
After a moment's thought, he opened Douyin and started his very first live broadcast of his travels.
Without any advance notification, the stream had only a handful of viewers when it began. It