China's frontiers: Is there anything left to explore?中國的前沿：還有什麼事去探索？
Wong How Man, center, in 1984 with Kirghiz eagle hunters at the border between China's Xinjiang province and the former Soviet Union. A year later, he led an expedition to find the source of the Yangtze River that required him and his team to travel nine days on horseback.- Journalist Wong How Man has been exploring China's most remote areas since 1974
- China shares land borders with 14 countries, which Wong says are the best places for exploration
- "It's fascinating to look at the dynamics between people at borders," says Wong
(CNN) -- Exploration is challenging.
If it's too easy, then it's not real exploration.
So says Wong How Man, a Hong Konger who in 1974 began leading expeditions into what was then one of the world's most isolated countries -- China.
"It was a time when China had very few friends, so we decided to step in and help with what we could put together; funding and expertise," says Wong, founder of the China Exploration & Research Society.
In those early days China was only just opening up.
It was the tail end of the Cultural Revolution and there were a lot of restrictions.
Bureaucracy and disappointment were the order of the day.
Wong doesn't like to recount the red tape he faced because "it's like living through the pain."
A number of times when he returned to Los Angeles, where he was living at the time, he considered switching his expeditions to another part of the world.
But China always drew him back.
Remote regions open up
Today it's a very different place.
Rapid development hasn't just boosted the economy -- it's opened up vast swathes of the country.
In 1985, when Wong led an expedition to find the source of the Yangtze River, he says he and his team traveled for nine days on horseback.
They faced not only the challenge of high altitude, but snow, rain and hail.
He returned 10 years later to find the same journey took just five days.
Another decade saw times reduced even further.
"When I did it in 2005, it took just three days because the road was much closer. Now we could probably drive all the way to the source," says Wong, who began leading expeditions for National Geographic before setting up CERS.
Expeditions into western China once involved huge amounts of off-roading, but today large mining companies are on the ground and the region is crisscrossed with roads.
"Now if we get stuck, we ask for help from the miners," says Wong.
Though easy access is opening up once very remote regions, the traditional way of life is disappearing.
In 1985 Wong says he discovered a small community that trained otters to help them fish.
Twenty years later just one family still used this technique.
"Before there was this wide open field to explore," says the 65-year-old former journalist.
"When you have roads going in left and right, if you have to look really hard to explore, then maybe it's not where I want to be."
MORE: 9 places on Earth we know very little about
The next frontier
Today Wong has to look harder to find truly out of the way places he deems worthy of exploration.
He says the best remaining sites are on China's frontiers.
China shares land borders with 14 countries -- Mongolia, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
The often complex cultural and historical backgrounds of frontiers can make them especially interesting, but timing is everything when it comes to the exploring border regions.
As its relationships with its neighbors are sometimes volatile, countries fall in and out of favor.
"You always have to look at timing. What wasn't possible suddenly may become possible," says Wong.
During a visit two years ago to China's border with Vietnam, Wong said political unrest made exploration problematic.
On the Indian border, it's currently a different story.
China and India's political and trade ties are better than they've been for many years, opening it up to exploration.
Wong's top frontier pick is China's northeastern border with Russia.
While the Harbin Ice Festival might draw the crowds, he says this is the place to be in winter.
Here, the Amur River freezes so solidly that it's possible to drive over it in a four-wheel drive vehicle.
Wong went there recently to catch up with some reindeer herder friends.
"You can drive almost to the source of the Amur River, the 10th longest river in the world, and see the border troops talking to each other, people ice fishing and crossing the river even through they're not supposed to," says Wong.
The Chinese border with Laos, near the Golden Triangle, is another region ripe for exploration, particularly for those interested in hill tribes.
"It's fascinating to look at the dynamics between people at borders," says Wong.
"A lot of the time the locals are closer to the people across the border than they are to their respective governments, which are far away."
Wong says the border between China's southwestern Yunnan province and Myanmar is also ripe for exploration, as it is free from the political complications of more sensitive areas close to Tibet or Vietnam.
Still, Wong can't resist a challenge.
He recently set off on a month-long expedition to western Tibet -- a trip made easier by a new road, but complicated by red tape.
New visa regulations made it impossible for non-Chinese members of the team to join.
As always, he is prepared for further trouble and has several backup plans up his sleeve.
"Exploration has to involve some logistics, some difficulty. If you're like a sprint runner, 'Oh, I got there first and I'm home already and on the computer sharing it on Facebook,' then I don't call it exploration," says Wong.
- 記者黃效文一直在探索中國最偏遠的地區自1974年以來
- 中國共享陸地邊界與14個國家，其中黃說是探險的最佳場所
- “這是迷人的，看的人在邊境之間的動態關係，”Wong說
（CNN） -勘探是具有挑戰性的。
如果它是太容易了，那就不是真正的探索。
所以說，黃效文，一個閎空二誰在1974年開始領導探險隊進入了當時世界上最孤立的國家之一 - 中國。
“這是當時中國只有很少的朋友，所以我們決定加強在與什麼我們可以放在一起幫助;資金和專業知識，”王的創始人說，中國探險學會。
在創業初期中國才剛剛開放。
這是尾部文革，並有一個很大的限制。
官僚主義和失望是當天的秩序。
王先生不喜歡述說他所面臨因為繁文縟節“這就像生活經歷的痛苦。”
許多時候，他回到了洛杉磯，在那裡他住在當時的時候，他認為他切換到探險世界的另一部分。
但是，中國始終拉他回來。
偏遠地區打開U p
今天，它是一個非常不同的地方。
快速發展，不僅推動了經濟 - 它開闢了全國大部分地區。
1985年，當王率領一支探險隊發現長江的源頭，他說他和他的團隊走過了馬背上九天。
他們面臨著高海拔的不僅是挑戰，但雪，雨和冰雹。
他回到10年後找到相同的旅程只花了五天。
再過十年看見倍降得更低。
“當我在2005年做的，花了短短三天，因為道路是非常接近，現在我們大概可以開車一路源，”黃，誰開始領先的征戰國家地理設立CERS前說。
探險隊進入中國西部，一旦涉及巨額越野的，但今天大型礦業公司都在地面和地區縱橫交錯的道路。
“現在，如果我們遇到問題，我們要求從礦工的幫助，”黃說。
雖然輕鬆訪問是開放的一次非常偏遠的地區，生活的傳統方式正在消失。
1985年黃說，他發現了一個小社區，經過訓練的水獺來幫助他們的魚。
二十年後只有一個家庭仍然使用這種技術。
“之前有這種廣泛開放的領域探索，”65歲的前記者說。
“當你擁有的道路會在左，右，如果你要看看真的很難去探索，那麼也許這不是我想要的。”
下一個前沿領域
今天黃有看很難找到真正偏僻的地方，他認為值得探索的。
他說，其餘的最佳地點是在中國的邊境。
中國共享陸地邊界與14個國家 - 蒙古，俄羅斯，朝鮮，越南，老撾，緬甸，印度，不丹，尼泊爾，巴基斯坦，阿富汗，塔吉克斯坦，吉爾吉斯斯坦和哈薩克斯坦。
邊疆的往往是複雜的文化和歷史背景可以使他們特別有趣，但時間就是一切，當涉及到探索邊境地區。
由於其與鄰國的關係有時不穩定，國家屬於贊成進出。
“你總是必須看時機。什麼是不可能一下子可能成為可能，”黃說。
訪問兩年前到中國與越南邊境時，黃先生說，政治動盪做出的探索問題。
在中印邊境，這是目前一個不同的故事。
中國和印度的政治和貿易關係是優於他們已經很多年了，打開它來探索。
黃頂尖前沿挑的是中國與俄羅斯的東北邊境。
而哈爾濱冰雪節可能繪製的人群，他說，這是要在冬天的地方。
在這裡，阿穆爾河結冰從而穩固，它可能帶動了它的四輪驅動車。
黃去那裡最近趕上一些馴鹿牧民朋友。
“你幾乎可以開車到阿穆爾河，第10最長的河流是世界的源頭，並查看邊防部隊互相交談，人冰上釣魚和穿越甚至通過他們不應該到了河邊，”Wong說。
老撾與中國邊境，靠近金三角，是另一個成熟的區域勘探，尤其是對於那些有興趣在山地部落。
“這是迷人的，看的人在邊境之間的動態關係，”黃說。
“很多時候，當地人都更接近人越過邊界比他們各自的政府，這是很遠。”
黃先生說，中國西南雲南省和緬甸之間的邊界也是成熟的探索，因為它是免費的從近到西藏或越南更為敏感地區的政治並發症。
儘管如此，黃無法抗拒的挑戰。
他最近掀起了長達一個月的遠征西藏西部 - 一個新的道路變得更加容易跳閘，但繁瑣的複雜。
新的簽證規定，不可能為球隊的非中國成員加入。
與往常一樣，他是為了進一步麻煩的準備，有幾個備份計劃他的袖子。
“探索有涉及一些物流，有些難度。如果你像一個短跑運動員，'哦，我到了那裡第一，我家裡已經和Facebook上分享它的計算機上，”那我就不把它探索，“黃說。
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