Yuan Jiangle was a volunteer teacher at the Confucius Institute in Benin.
When his term ended, he made a decision- to return to China with little more than a bicycle. Here’s his story
The 27-year-old wanted to see the word and to live the story and to tell his own stories.
His 16,000 kilometre ride enabled him to pass through 16 foreign countries, a trip that took him 360 days.
“I never set a goal, I never set a destination for me. What I want is the story, so I just try my own pace, and I see something strange, and I see something interesting, so I just stop there and talk to local people, and buy the local food, and eat something I’ve never eaten before. For me that’s the meaning of traveling by bicycle.” Jiangle said.
During his journey, Jiangle would sleep on the riverside, under the bridge or anywhere he found.
Despite the sceneries he got to see, he also encountered challenges but the locals he met were open minded and willing to help.
“There was one time when I was cycling… I was going to one of the World Heritage Reserve in Burkina Faso, Tiebele, and when I was approaching there, I felt bad. I was vomiting, I felt cold, and then I realize that it might be malaria. So I called local people in the near village and he came to me and brought me to the hospital with his motorcycle.“
Jiangle explains how he wanted to give up on several occasions but kept on because he wanted to experience the beauty of the world.
He was motivated to seeing the world with his own eyes other than depending on social media. He had to take a risk.
I have watched a film named “Life Cycles.” And there’s one quotation from that – “Life is a river. There’s a beginning. There’s an end. And there’s thousands of ways in between.” He said.
