From 2018 to 2021, a Suzhou man toured China by bicycle, taking in the nation’s 56 ethnic groups and getting his map stamped at 334 post offices. Now, a 30-second video clip of the stamping has gone viral, reigniting the man’s desire to complete that missing; Taiwan.
Hu Hao turned 30 years old on 30 May, 2018. That’s when he made the decision to leave his job and its annual salary of ¥400,000, to spend the next 3 years of his life on a bike riding 80,000 kilometres.
Hu recalled later, ”When I was young, because my family was poor, I was very envious when I saw other children riding bicycles, and I wanted to own one, so cycling became a childhood dream”.
All along his long journey, Hu would use a drone to take pictures of the local scenery and share them on social media, attracting over 800,000 followers.
“By riding a bicycle at a slower speed, you can better experience the customs of each place”, Hu said, adding that it was his tour of Shandong Province which impressed him most.
There, local residents he met along the way would over and over invite him to their homes. After he politely declined, they would come after him, bearing gifts of fruit and water, reminding him to quench his thirst on the road.
Hu showed reporters his map, which was specially customised before the tour. At more than 2-metres long and 1.8-metres wide, now the map is densely covered with post office stamps.
“When I first went to a post office to get it stamped, the staff was not surprised. But as there were more and more stamps, so they became very surprised, and were very careful when stamping. They were worried that the stamp would be crooked or that it may be out of position”, Hu said.
The video clip of those post-office workers stamping away has now received in excess of 350,000 likes and 48,000 comments, reports the Yangtze Evening News.
But Hu’s comment himself is one of regret. Due to COVID, his cycling trip failed to make it to Taiwan. Today running his own gym in Suzhou, he said, “I’m working hard to prepare for the next trip. Be sure to add the stamp of Taiwan!”.
