Latest News:  

English>>Travel

Adventure of a lifetime (2)

By Mike Peters (China Daily)

15:57, May 13, 2013

The brothers documented their trip in a book,The Middle Kingdom Ride. (China Daily)

As the two adventurers set out from Ryan's Shanghai home in August 2010, they hit a long traffic jam that kept them between a standstill and a 30-kilometer-per-hour pace. Their fancy riding gear was air-vented to keep them cool traveling 80 kph, but, before long, "I felt as if I was slowly boiling to death inside a damp, uncomfortable, sealed plastic bag," Ryan writes in the book. Colin, a fit sportsman, was pasty-faced with heat stroke by lunchtime, and even now says day 1 was the toughest of the whole trip.

Sixty-five days and 18,000 km later, they had made their grand loop around China. That included extremes like visiting the third-lowest point on Earth and sleeping at the base camp of Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest in the West.

There were mudslides, suffocating heat and plunging temperatures that turned the moisture in their clothes into ice.

Everything they encountered was new to Colin, and China-veteran Ryan says the best part of the trip for him was riding along as his sibling experienced the country through fresh eyes.

"It's easy for expats to get cynical and tired and look past things that are fascinating," Ryan says. "The trip was a marvelous reminder how lucky I was, how exciting it is to be here."

The trip also re-ignited his passion for exploring China, he adds.

That passion has taken him to the western edges of the country many times since he arrived in China in 2002, and it was a special treat to introduce Colin to one of his favorite cities on Earth: Kashgar, in Xinjiang.

"My first visit there was a game-changer for me," Ryan says. "I'd never had experience with Muslim culture. Suddenly, this sheltered Canadian kid was on the border of Pakistan I was mesmerized."

When the brothers arrived at Kashgar in 2012, it was Ramadan - and the spectacle of thousands of worshippers prostrate on the ground outside Asia's largest mosque blew Colin away.

Since the ride, the brothers have written The Middle Kingdom Ride, set a Guinness World Record for the length of a motorcycle trip inside one country without doubling back, and sold the resulting TV show to an Asian broadcaster, which is airing the sixth and final episode this week. One disappointment: The series is not televised in China ("Or Canada!"), says Ryan, though he's optimistic about getting airtime later this year.

Meanwhile, the brothers have completed an India ride, which was a completely different game. "China was mostly about wide open spaces and grand solitude in many parts," Ryan says. "India was about not hitting kids or cows on the road."

While the brothers are now looking outside the Middle Kingdom for future adventures, Ryan says he's in China to stay. "My wife, and now two kids, are from Shanghai," he says. "And there's lots I still want to do here."

That includes a photography book on his beloved Kashgar and a planned TV documentary series titled Sacred Mountains, which will take Ryan to four of China's storied peaks later this year.

"That's taking me back to my roots as a photographer," he says.

【1】 【2】


We recommend:

Tough way to get to school in Hunan province

Top 10 attractive Chinese cities for foreigners 2012

31 abandoned scenic spots in the world

Hot dances of basketball babies

Glamourous elderly ladies in Qipaos

Top 20 sexiest women in the world 2013

Wow, women's underwear rugby

Dream girls of post-70 generation in China

Who is the most beautiful post-90s stars

Email|Print|Comments(Editor:DuMingming、Gao Yinan)

Related Reading

Leave your comment0 comments

  1. Name

  

Selections for you


  1. Warship open day popular with youth

  2. New Zealand's frigate revisits Shanghai

  3. Photos of the week (May 4 - May 11)

  4. Red Dress Run 2013 in Beijing

  5. Levitating
    Beijingers

  6. Shanghai to improve grassroots healthcare

  7. Photos of 19th-century Beijing to be auctioned in London

  8. Hostesses shine at National Games

  9. 8th Shenzhen Int'l Brand Underwear Fair

  10. Rain, snow may eat into grain harvest

Most Popular

Opinions

  1. Yuan appreciation nears limit: experts
  2. Renaming 'Arab Spring' cannot hide prejudice
  3. Negative forecast leads Rio Tinto to lay-off
  4. Suffer the children, suffer the country
  5. China, India have wisdom to handle sensitive issues
  6. Ending 'too big to fail' going to be hard work
  7. PwC: Environment hard for Chinese banks
  8. The Rise of the South
  9. Chance for dual face-to-face talks slim
  10. China's regional disparity offers growth potential

What’s happening in China

Levitating Beijingers

  1. No fairytale ending for amusement park
  2. Give mothers a break: report
  3. Number of left-behind children passes 60m
  4. Shanghai to improve grassroots healthcare
  5. Pizza Hut puts customers' private info at risk