Altay is too hot recently. The three words "Altay" have recently appeared in my circle of friends more than in the past 10 years combined.

Ten years ago, as a member of the 15th Chinese Youth Volunteer Postgraduate Teaching Corps, I supported teaching in Altay, northern Xinjiang.

"Did you ride a horse to work at that time?" "Live in a yurt?"... After the TV series My Altay was popular, many friends raised these questions.

Our teaching support is not in the pastoral area, nor in the scenic area, but in Altay City. It is this small border town with only one main road, "a Nang cake rolls from north to south", which has become the most beautiful place when we recall Altay.

I still remember the scene of the first lesson. Nearly half of my students are Kazakh, and they can speak Kazakh, Chinese and English. One of my students, LeBron Feng - this is the English name he gave himself. When he learned that I had taken a 6-hour flight from Tianjin to Altay, he said seriously with a face: "Tianjin is so 'remote'!"

He came from Burqin County and grew up on the Ertix River. After graduating from college, LeBron returned to Altay and became a teacher. Not long ago, I saw his circle of friends. The students he supervised have already won the information contest.

After a year in Altay, I understood his sense of belonging, confidence and pride in this land at some moments.

At that time, I taught two classes of English in senior high school. I had 17 classes every week and prepared 17 classes. In my dreams, I was rioting on the platform. In summer, our most recreational activity is walking. The Keran River in front of us will first flow into the Ertix River, then go northward, and finally rush into the Arctic Ocean. For the first time, I felt that the map of the world slowly unfolded with this river, which gave me a more specific sense of vastness than the blue sky.

Altay's heat always flashes, and cold is her background.

Every October, Altay begins to snow, and it will almost end in the next April. Every winter, it snows for several days. Buildings and road signs are only a little higher than the ground, and the whole city seems to be a little shorter.

My students told me that every child in Altay learned to ski when he could almost walk. At the age of 21, I finally stood on Altay's ski trail.

After several weeks of hard work, I challenged the intermediate level for the first time. Although I made full preparations, my legs became weak and my teeth began to tremble. At this time, I saw a tall and big man with a tight cover moving towards me. When he approached me, I found that it was the monitor of our class, who was 1 meter and 9 meters high. He usually had a cold relationship with me. I often raised my head to criticize him, and he looked like he didn't wake up.

On the snow track, he stood beside me, slightly slouching, and emphasized some technical essentials for me. Then clap hands to encourage me, "Come on, you are the best."

My slip was an "epic disaster". Because of my fast speed, the turning angle was too large, and my center of gravity was too far back, I fell out with people and the board. It didn't hurt, but I felt too humiliated.

Our monitor came to me faster than the coach. He helped me slap the snow on my body while jokingly saying, "Don't brag any more. The handbrake has been used."

At that moment, I was moved and ashamed. On the platform, we regard ourselves as teachers, teaching people the law of language. In life, we should worship students as teachers, and learn to be sincere and open-minded.

On this day, in the remote "bitter cold place", there are always young people. Many young people come here one after another.

A young geography teacher graduated from a university in Sichuan. He pulled a suitcase, took a 48 hour train from Chengdu to Urumqi, and then took a 12 hour bus to Altay. It was still cold in April. He wore a black cotton padded jacket when he tried to speak. The content of the lecture was "Disposal of Solid Wastes", because the requirement of the lecture was that where students learned, teachers should continue to speak.

The school arranged young teachers to listen to each other. I heard him tell students in his class, "Like our country, there are ice fields in the north, oceans in the south, deserts in the west, and oceans in the east. This is a big country."

He decided to stay and stay in the corner of this big country. Behind this "unexpected" decision is strong enthusiasm. He said, "It's a good choice to come here. There is no best choice in life."

For ten years, some people have gone back, and others have not. Some people want to go back, but others can't go back. Compared with the colleagues who stayed there all their lives, we volunteer teachers did too little and gained too much.

One of our group friends said that Altay was just cold. The youth there was fresh after many years. People there had to live enthusiastically to pass the time. Every day when it snowed, people who had been there would remember it.

Altay, we often think of her. If we come back again, we want to do more. (Reporter Ma Yuping)