To help foster children break through their limits, Pingtung Family Service Center organized an 18-kid bike ride from Dapeng Bay to Hengchun during summer vacation. After the activity, they invited Jiang Xiu-zhen, the first Chinese woman to complete the Seven Summits on all seven continents, to share her life story and inspire the children to never give up on their dreams. The kids gained a lot from her talk.
Jiang specially brought her Mount Everest climbing gear to get closer to the children, who were eager to try it out. Fifteen-year-old Wei put on a snowsuit that can withstand minus 20 degrees Celsius and called out in less than three minutes that it was too heavy and hot. Fourteen-year-old Cheng struggled to put on a pair of five-kilogram snow boots and took ten minutes to finally get them on. These experiences helped them better understand the difficulty of reaching the world’s highest peaks.
Jiang said she grew up in poverty. At the age of 15, she had to work part-time while studying, with both parents working away from home. For over a year in elementary school, she had to bike her mother to catch the train. This experience built up her endurance. She also had to carry her younger siblings on her back from a young age, which developed her strength for carrying heavy loads while mountain climbing.
She also joked that because her parents were very busy and she cried a lot, her personal record was crying for 12 hours straight — which made her realize she had strong lung capacity that could handle the extremely thin air on Mount Everest. The children laughed a lot at this, and she added, “Heroes don’t care about their origins; what matters is the environment that challenges you during your growth.”
She encouraged everyone that every person has unlimited potential. Before a dream comes knocking, don’t limit your own abilities — be brave enough to try and do your best. After the session, she donated her speaker’s fee as a fund to help the children bravely pursue their dreams.