It takes a week to drive from Shanghai to Lhasa and over a month by bike. Xie Zhanjun ran all the way from Shanghai to Lhasa, then continued west to Nyalam — and he did it in just 91 days (of running time). Even more impressively, he kept going westward to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
Xie Zhanjun along the way
Xie Zhanjun, 34, is an ordinary farmer from Fengqiu County in Xinxiang. He currently works at a shoe factory in Dongguan, Guangdong. He has fulfilled a dream that many only think about but never achieve.
On July 3, our reporter met Xie Zhanjun after traversing the most dangerous section of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway on National Route 318 — the Tongmai Precipice. Yesterday, he called to say he had finished a meet-and-greet session with Nepalese running enthusiasts and returned to China on August 10.
Xie Zhanjun plans to settle down by the end of this year. “I’m not getting any younger, it’s time to start a family. My parents are quite anxious about it too.” Xie Zhanjun, who hails from Fengcun Township in Fengqiu County, remains unmarried. “That’s one of the reasons I can run,” he said with a laugh. “If I were married with a family, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it.”
After running through the Tongmai Precipice, our reporter had a conversation with Xie Zhanjun.