从海岸到海岸 From Coast to Coast

The train slid out of Vancouver station at eight in the morning, and Li Lei pressed his face to the window like a child. Their journey would cross the whole of Canada: six days, five nights, and nearly five thousand kilometres to Toronto. 'This is the greatest railway trip on Earth,' Jack announced, spreading a map across the table. 'We will see everything.'

The first day took them through the Rocky Mountains, where peaks rose like white giants against a blue sky. Li Lei wrote in his journal: 'The landscape is so vast that it makes you feel both tiny and free.' They watched elk beside the tracks and waterfalls falling from impossible heights. Even the sandwiches tasted better with such a view. The dining car served warm soup, and the friends ate it while watching the snowy peaks pass by.

On the second day, the train entered the prairies — endless golden fields stretching to the horizon. Han Mei, who loved agriculture, could not stop staring. 'This is where the world's bread comes from,' she said. 'One field here is bigger than our whole village.' They passed small towns with grain elevators, and farms with red barns, each one a story.

Somewhere in the middle of the country, they encountered a once-in-a-lifetime sight: a herd of bison crossing the tracks. The train slowed to a stop, and everyone watched in silence. 'A hundred years ago, these animals nearly disappeared,' a passenger said. 'Now they are coming back.' Jack took a hundred photos, none of them good enough. For ten minutes, the world seemed to hold its breath, and not a single phone was raised.

By the fourth day, the friends had become train experts. They knew the timetable by heart, could identify every type of cloud, and had learned to nap in the most uncomfortable positions. Li Lei's journal filled with sketches and small poems. 'Travel is not about the destination,' he wrote. 'It is about the pace of the journey.' He also drew a small map of the journey, marking every stop like a treasure.

When the train finally pulled into Toronto, the friends were tired but glowing. They visited the CN Tower, tasted poutine, and walked through the historic streets of the old town. That night, Lily posted a photo of the four of them with the caption: 'Five thousand kilometres, one friendship.' Li Lei saved it immediately, knowing he would treasure it forever. The four friends promised to take this journey together again one day, perhaps all the way to the Pacific coast.