Preparing for the Eighth Desert Challenge: Southwest University MBA Boya Team’s Jinji Lake Training Run

On February 24, the first round of the Southwest University Yasha Challenge, which was held simultaneously in Chongqing, Suzhou, and Chengdu, officially kicked off at 9 a.m. Suzhou has favored us this morning. Without the endless rain in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai for a month, the heavy fog in the early morning indicates that today will be a warm and sunny day.

The students came to the gathering place - Suzhou Jinji Lake one after another from their homes. The Jinji Lake Trail will start the first stop of the desert journey. After the warm-up preparations are completed, of course it is essential to take a photo and check in as a souvenir.

At 9:30, the rally call was about to sound. We had video calls with our brothers and sisters from Southwest University who were thousands of miles away from us, encouraging each other and hoping that we would all achieve good results. 3, 2, 1, let’s go! The 21-kilometer journey officially begins!

Although running along the charming Jinji Lake in Suzhou is tiring, it is also a great visual enjoyment. Along the way, the students cheered each other on and advanced together, because we are a team. In the future journey to the desert, we will also travel all the way to the Gobi Desert and appreciate the desert sand like snow and the Yanshan Mountain moon like a hook.

Passing Suzhou’s landmark Gate of the Orient, popularly nicknamed ‘the long johns’, everyone stopped to take commemorative photos.

21KM has been completed. We don’t care how hard or how far the journey is. What we care about is that you are always by our side, my teammates.

The desert has been a place where soldiers have made great achievements since ancient times. As the ancient poem says, "Since ancient times, there have been many battles, and the origin of the armored soldiers is that they drove thousands of miles and defeated the two tribes in one fell swoop. With swords coming from the desert, songs filled the imperial capital. To send messages to the generals in the world, one must establish a martial name." Looking forward to the end of April, we will set off from the misty Jiangnan and come to the fortress of Jiangnan. We will march from the desert with swords, rebuke Fang Qiu, and join hands with the people of Xida to advance together.total Build dreams.