Zou Yulin is not your ordinary freelance writer and photographer -- he has made his mark in China's 5,000 years history as the first Chinese to walk around the world.
Beginning his 16-country trip from Shenzhen in China on September 4, 1998 he returned some 630 days later in June 2000 after the tour which took him on foot through South Korea, Canada, US, Britain, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Vatican, Egypt, Australia, and Singapore.
Earlier, Zou Youlin walked along the route of Long March from 1987 to 1989 totally by himself, 12,500 kilometers. From that he won the title of The Man Who Has Walked the Farthest in China. What makes him so addicted to hiking? He said that it was Edgar Snow, the American who wrote Red Star Over China, published in 1937, gave him the inspiration to start a hiking life.
I read his famous Red Star Over China when I studied journalism. Snow wrote in his book that Chairman Mao had thought of touring around the world on foot. But Chairman Mao only walked to Yan'an and lead the revolution to the success, said Zou. Just as the Chinese proverb said "Read ten thousands of books and travel ten thousands of li (1 li=500 meters)," which meant one person could only be a learned by studying and enriching his experience. Zou decided to follow the proverb.
Born in Chengdu in 1955, Zou was working in a seamless steel tubing mill by the time he was 22. Before he walked the Long March, he had never been out of Sichuan Province. "I felt sorry for myself for that. How could a man live his life in one place like the frog under a well!"
With this view, he was on his journey along the Long March in his 30s, inspired to take this as his first mission after growing up with stories of the Red Army.
"It went surprisingly smooth. I had thought I was not strong enough to finish the trip. But I only got sick, not very serious, twice from food poison," recalled Zou.
When you face him, a 168 cm (5 foot 6 inch) skinny guy, you might not believe the energy hidden in his body. The bag on his back looked too heavy for him to bear. In it he carried a national flag, sleeping bag, three garments, map, one flight light, notebook, a foolproof camera, and toilet articles. Maybe this doesn't seem too heavy a load until you consider that for person walking ten hours and 60 kilometers a day, even an extra 50 grams would add to the burden.
"I even didn't have a mobile, not to mention the GPS (Global Position System) when I began the global trip," Zou said. Unlike the Long March trek one, during which he was single, Zou missed his family very much this time, especially his five-year-old son and wife. "My wife and I got to know each other after I finished the Long March. She sent letters and later they married.
"Perhaps I missed them too much I got seriously ill before I finished one-third of the journey," Zou said.
"If it had only been hiking and sightseeing, I could not have made it," Zou told reporters. "I wanted to convey the Chinese people's wish for world peace and the wish to make friends with the outside world, to bring China to the outside to let them know what we Chinese do."
Zou's good will was rewarded by friendly people who had the same goodwill toward the Chinese. Once when Zou went over the Lake Erie region, he passed his hotel and could not find another one. So Zou pulled out his sleeping bag on a lawn. Just as he was entering the sleeping bag, his sleeping bag was illuminated by the wash of headlights from an approaching car and from which emerged two young Americans. They told him that the lawn was private property, and the owner had the right to shoot at any intruders.
Zou said he didn't know that and that he was not an intruder, but a Chinese on world tour and then he showed them his passport. The young men then brought their father to see him who invited him to stay over night at their home. Zou said no with many thanks because that would bother them too much.
The old man said to Zou: "This is my place and you can sleep here safely and soundly. But the lawn will become the paradise for small animals at night, so don't get upset when you hear them running around."
Early in the morning, Zou was awakened up by the drone of an approaching motor. The old man had left him a pack of sandwiches, peaches, tomatoes and bottles of water.
"Things like that happened quite many times during my trip," said Zou with a grateful expression. "From my experience, I could say foreign people have great interest and curiosity about China. But they only knew Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, not the common people's life."
Zou kept a diary to remember what he saw and heard about the world. Though he knew little of English, he copied down the new words he encountered on the journey and wrote his diary in Chinese on this basis. No matter how exhausted, Zou made himself write every day. Usually he wrote after a day's walk. If he could not find a place to provide a roof over his head, he had to write with flight light in his mouth. By the time he ended the trip, he had written 100,000 words.
"Now my son is eight years old, and I hope he could grow up broadminded. The world is not too big a place to travel as people might think. Go ahead, the world is at your feet," Zou said.
(CIIC translated from China Youth Daily 07/25/2001)
