Contents
Foreword ________________________________________________ VIII
Acknowledgements ________________________________________XII
Preface ___________________________________________________ XIV
PART 1 THE EARTH WON’T STAND STILL
Birthdays at a mass grave __________________________________ 003
New lives and a new zest for living __________________________ 007
Healing in time ___________________________________________ 016
Time heals most wounds ___________________________________ 020
The power of persistence ___________________________________ 027
New homes and hopes amid tombstones _____________________ 035
‘Hero Pig’ saves the day ____________________________________ 039
The rebirth of hope ________________________________________ 044
Ghostly ruins _____________________________________________ 049
Drying tears ______________________________________________ 053
Trapped in time’s shadow __________________________________ 061
‘Quake tourism’ saves survivors ____________________________ 064
Dealing with disability _____________________________________ 069
Solving survivors’ intimate problems ________________________ 075
Rehabilitation advances recovery ____________________________ 078A fairy godmother story comes true _________________________ 084
A monk who saved lives and gave life _______________________ 088
Returning to Earth after 125 hours in hell _____________________ 090
A rogue excavator’s epicenter restaurant _____________________ 093
A ‘farm home happy’ brings joy _____________________________ 097
‘More beautiful than ever’ __________________________________ 100
13 towns’ lucky number comes up ___________________________ 106
A black-and-white issue of survival __________________________ 110
Legion’s squeals are hell’s warning bells _____________________ 115
Building resistance from the ground up ______________________ 118
Sichuan stays strong _______________________________________ 121
PART 2 CLOSER TO HEAVEN
The knife， the night and the light ____________________________ 132
Illuminating the future _____________________________________ 140
A blurred moment of clarity ________________________________ 154
Far-flung but not far-fetched ________________________________ 163
Sharing an impossible smile ________________________________ 166
Facing the world without a mask ____________________________ 175
Smiling with the world ____________________________________ 184
Camping with herders _____________________________________ 193
Living like a nomad _______________________________________ 201
A good man from the badlands _____________________________ 210
Yak heads， mushrooms and bananas _________________________ 220
Beyond the big melt _______________________________________ 226
An oasis’ lessons flow beyond the desert _____________________ 231The road to prosperity _____________________________________ 237
Road warriors’ journey to the west __________________________ 248
PART 3 FROM POVERTY TO PROSPERITY
A legend comes true _______________________________________ 260
A virtual world in a real village _____________________________ 265
Escaping ‘old machete’ _____________________________________ 268
The last road in China _____________________________________ 276
Solar-powered prosperity __________________________________ 283
Livestreaming farmers cultivate prosperity ___________________ 290
Love in a leprosy village ___________________________________ 299
Emus and nomads prowl Inner Mongolia ____________________ 306
Restoring fertility for men and deserts _______________________ 311
Serious potty talk _________________________________________ 315
Expect the unexpected in Tibet ______________________________ 317
PART 4 THE YANGTZE DIARIES
A secret pact， Fool’s Seeds and a golden bull __________________ 325
Building an engine of growth _______________________________ 330
Taihu’s pearl shines anew __________________________________ 333
A shopping paradise comes true ____________________________ 339
Gut drones， livestreams and T. Rex __________________________ 343
Overcoming peak obstacles _________________________________ 349
Kiwifruit， firewater and big data ____________________________ 354
Postscript ________________________________________________ 362
內容試閱：
Foreword
‘Edgar Snow of the New Era’
Erik Nilsson has long been celebrated among distinguished
international storytellers who journey to remote and sometimes
even uninhabited front lines of China’s transformation.
His book， Closer to Heaven， swiftly won acclaim and sold briskly
following its first edition’s release in January 2021. This second
edition features fresh content that further informs and inspires
beyond the sold-out first print. It will be published in English and
Chinese like the first edition， as well as Italian for the first time to
Erik Nilsson presents his book， Closer to Heaven， as a keynote speaker of
the Global Young Leaders Dialogue in Beijing in July 2021.
VIIIenhance its reach.
The first edition and Nilsson’s story were featured by
hundreds of major media， from print to TV documentaries. At
one point， the book trended in the No 2 spot on the Chinese social
media platform Weibo.
The journalist has since enjoyed presenting at packed book
releases， speeches and lectures in many cities， where audiences
laugh， cry， cheer， vie to ask questions and form long lines to get
their copies signed.
“To be honest， I worried nobody would read it，” Nilsson says.
“Instead， it proved quite popular.”
Nilsson has donated his earnings from Closer to Heaven
for surgeries and other projects for nomadic children from the
inhospitable Qinghai-Tibet Plateau， where he founded a volunteer
initiative in 2011.
Over time， the American writer has not only chronicled but
ultimately become part of the story of China’s poverty alleviation
and development.
That’s part of the reason Closer to Heaven is featured under
China Intercontinental Press’ Marco Polo of the New Era series.
Yet Nilsson picked up another historical figure’s namesake
following the first edition’s success.
He says he’s proud to be a founding member of China Daily’s
Edgar Snow Newsroom， established in June 2021. The Newsroom
enables leading foreign journalists and experts to help the world
better understand China’s realities.
Edgar Snow is a venerated household name in China， roughly
80 years after the American became the first foreign journalist
to (clandestinely) enter Yan’an and report on what is today the
IXX
world’s oldest and largest
political party， the CPC. The
Party， which had just over 50
members when it was founded
over a century ago， today has
96 million members steering
the progress of a nation of 1.4
billion people with growing
global significance.
Snow’s seminal work，
Red Star Over China， was the
first book Nilsson read when
he arrived in China in 2005.
N i l s s o n re t r a c e d S n o w ’ s
steps in Yan’an in 2021， when
he hosted a feature-length
documentary about how the
area had transformed over the
past eight decades.
Nilsson says: “We’re
both US journalists who’ve
journeyed to places foreigners
and especially Americans had
rarely or never gone. Yet Snow faced far greater dangers. He had
to be smuggled into the region in the first place! He explored the
country and Yan’an during a time when they were hosts of several
intersecting wars.
“I’ve explored them during a time of peace， ultimately
brought about by the deprivations Snow documented as China
Nilsson stands in front of the cave
where Edgar Snow first met Mao
Zedong and took a photo of Mao
wearing Snow’s hat， which became
the most iconic image of the
chairman in history.struggled to bring about the period of security and prosperity
I’ve covered. I’ve chronicled the fruits of the desperate adversities
Snow recorded， around eight decades later， as China and Yan’an
have risen from dire deprivation — even despair. That is， to reach
the first centenary goal of achieving xiaokang， or a ‘moderately
prosperous society in all respects’， a foundational pillar of which
was eliminating extreme poverty.
“And we’ve both devoted ourselves and our writings to
recounting stories not only about China but ultimately about hope
come true. That’s perhaps where our own stories — individual and
shared， personal and published — intersect beyond time but not
space.
“One of my greatest honors from my work has been when not
only foreigners say it has made them understand China differently
but especially when Chinese say they’ve learned new things about
their own country，” he says.
“China’s poverty alleviation isn’t just a Chinese story but a
human story — a legacy of incomparable magnitude belonging to
our entire species. I don’t consider telling and contributing to this a
job or career but a life mission.
“And I intend to live well.”
Indeed， we look forward to more of Nilsson’s insightful
and compelling storytelling as he continues to explore China’s
development from the field in the days and years to come.
—The Edgar Snow Newsroom of China Daily
June 20， 2022
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