Hundreds of local people joined a charity run at Shanghai's
Century Park on Saturday, which rounded up the China leg of a
Japanese doctor's international journey.
Hiroshi Nishida, a 65-year-old pediatrician at Tokyo Women's
Medical University, started his "Silk Road" running project from
Rome in February 2004 to support the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Shanghai run was joined by nearly 1,000 primary and
secondary school students, who put on colorful T-shirts to run
around Century Park.
About 20 pediatricians from China and Japan also showed their
support for Nishida's charity project by offering free
consultations in the park.
Dating from the ancient Han Dynasty (about 139BC), the Silk Road
is one of the oldest and most important trade routes connecting
China and Europe.
Nishida planned to run the length of the route to his home town
of Nara in Japan within four years.
Since 2005, Nishida started running from Kashi, Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region, across the nation. He has run through 29 Chinese
cities, covering more than 7,100 kilometers before arriving in
Shanghai. More than 4,000 supporters have joined him along his
route, according to the project sponsor, Aprica Childcare Institute
Japan.
Along his journey, Nishida has given 23 lectures on child health
and gave free medical services to 285 sick children and more than
5,000 people, said the institute.
Nishida said his main inspiration for the run was to bring
happiness to all the world's children. "As the Silk Road was used
to promote understanding between Eastern and Western people, it is
also my dream to make people understand each other."
(Shanghai Daily November 5, 2007)