A man from our neck of the woods in eastern China has made a gruelling bike trek of over 2,000 kilometres, all in the name of a summer school holiday with a difference and an unsurpassable life experience for his 6-year-old son.
On 6 June, Zhu Hong, 50, a native of Taizhou in our very own Jiangsu Province, began his preparations. He was about to embark on a bike ride that would take him and his son, Zhu Jiaoyu, from the Sichuan capital of Chengdu all the way to Lhasa in Tibet.
Those preparations needed to be thorough. On the list, clothing for all four seasons for the two of them. And for little Zhu, a rather-adorable special trailer in which to ride out the journey.
Once on the way, moral was kept up thanks to passing motorists. Some cheered the two on, while others donated some supplies and food.
In an interview for MyTaizhou.net, Zhu Hong spoke fondly of the sights they had been lucky enough to see along the way; alpine cattle, glaciers and snow-capped mountains, as well as the spectacular architecture of the Potala Palace.
But he also confided in some of the less appealing aspects of their marathon journey, specifically altitude sickness and its accompanying headaches and diarrhea.
Once in Lhasa, the two had travelled 2,160 kilometres over 22 days and had experienced every imaginable kind of extreme weather.
Much of their journey had been along the G318 highway that is China’s longest national highway at 5,476 kilometres. It links Shanghai to Zhangmu which lies on the China-Nepal border.
The road is also part of the Asian Highway 42 (AH42) between Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province here in China, and Barhi of Jharkhand in India.
