DeepSeek founder's long-lost Weibo account recalls being stranded in Tibet's no-man's land

A newly unearthed Weibo account that appears to belong to DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng tells a story that's a bit different from the usual AI-founder lore: a 2011 solo road trip across the Tibetan Plateau in a tiny Fiat, 200 to 400 kilometers deep into the Ali no-man's land — and a full week spent stuck there.

The account, under the handle "Programmer Prince" (程序小王子), was recently dug up by Chinese netizens. It had long followed Zhejiang University communities, programmatic trading, and quantitative investing, which lines up neatly with Liang's background as a quant-minded coder before he went on to lead one of China's hottest AI startups.

The old posts from 2011 describe the driver's journey alone through the remote highlands, with photos of chiru (Tibetan antelopes), snow eagles, and highland lakes. But the adventure took a rough turn: after getting stuck for a week, the driver eventually walked out of the uninhabited wilderness. The Fiat, however, stayed behind on the plateau.

The clincher might be in the comments. One old thread has a commenter addressing the account owner as "Liang zong" (Boss Liang). In another, a user asks whether he is "Liang Wenzai" — and the account replies: "猜中" (you guessed it).