In the millennium, Yu Qiuyu followed Phoenix Satellite TV, took an off-road vehicle, and from September 27, 1999, drove for more than ten hours a day, starting from Greece, and inspected more than a dozen countries such as Greece, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. After that, the group returned from Nepal to Tibet, passed through Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and finally returned to Beijing, and arrived at the ancient Great Wall on February 5, 2000, a total of 131 days.
This route covers the birthplace of the world's five major civilizations, namely ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon, ancient India, and ancient China, and passes through the birthplace of several major religions in the world, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism, from the Olympic Games to the Great Wall.
According to this trip, Phoenix Satellite TV produced a large-scale TV program, the documentary "Millennium Journey", which is the largest transnational interview operation in the history of Chinese media, hosted by Wu Xiaoli, Chen Luyu, Li Hui, Xu Gehui, Meng Guangmei, Zeng Jingyi and others, Yu Qiuyu as a guest host, participated in the dialogue throughout the process, and served as a commentator.
In the Egypt station of the documentary "Millennium Journey", Yu Qiuyu and the staff passed through customs at Cairo Airport
With the documentary "Millennium Journey", the book "Journey of Civilization" was born, in which Yu Qiuyu vividly presents the history and current situation of these civilizations in front of readers through dialogue, observation and reflection. It not only documents the relics of these ancient civilizations, but also delves deeper into the history and culture behind them.
This book can be regarded as a travelogue, and we can feel the thrilling itinerary and the line of life and death between the lines.
In this process, Yu Qiuyu wrote a diary every day and sent it back to China through satellite. After the journey was completed, the diary was collected and published "A Thousand Years of Sighs". First published in May 2000, pictured above is the 2002 edition. I've read the first edition, and it's quite different from this one. Yu Qiuyu himself also mentioned this in the reprint notes. In another book, "Walkers Without Borders", he said, "Many of the articles of "A Thousand Years of Sighs" were rushed out when their lives were hanging by a thread."
During the journey, Yu Qiuyu has been sorting out the development of various civilizations. Through the book "A Sigh for a Thousand Years", Yu Qiuyu recorded the rise and fall of Islamic civilization, the civilization of the two rivers, the Arab civilization, the Indian civilization, the ancient Egyptian civilization, the Hebrew civilization and other civilizations, and discussed the fundamental reasons for the decline of various ancient civilizations.
Yu Qiuyu's "A Sigh for a Thousand Years" only writes about Nepal, and the contents of Tibetan holy places and various cultural cities in China can only be seen in the book "Journey of Civilization".
This journey is not only an in-depth exploration of world history and culture, but also a vivid experience of the diversity of human civilization. Through the publication of the documentary "Millennium Journey", the book "Journey of Civilization" and the diary essay collection "A Thousand Years of Sighs", Yu Qiuyu successfully shared what she saw and felt during this journey with a wide range of readers and audiences.
At the end of this trip, Yu Qiuyu cooperated with Phoenix Satellite TV again, set off again, inspected 96 cities in Europe, and collected his diary to form "Walkers Without Borders".
The theme song written by Yu Qiuyu in "Civilization Journey".
Yu Qiuyu wrote a theme song for this journey. The lyrics are included in "The Journey of Civilization" and "A Thousand Years of Sigh", but there are slight differences between the two versions.