A wandering life with no fixed abode, a show of travel with a death list

Travel is living life day by day

    After work, cooking dinner, hanging out with friends, bickering with your boyfriend, or just staying home binge-watching shows and shopping—this is probably how most single girls live their lives. But MANTIS, a young woman who likes to call herself the "Sole Ruler" online, a self-proclaimed loud thinker who posts her spontaneous thoughts as official statements, treats travel as her daily life.

Ding Hong (pen name: MANTIS) Occupation: Illustrator, writer, game art designer  Hobbies: Comics, novels, movies, music, etc.

    Listening to MANTIS tell her own story is like opening a fantasy novel—you need to be ready to embrace a whole new set of "values, views, and beliefs."

    The death of her grandmother made the world MANTIS saw begin to look different. She started accepting life, death, good, evil, pain, and joy without discrimination, stopped quibbling over the tiny bits of despair and sadness in daily life, and began searching for a way to make her own life precious again. From then on, she began living a life that some might see as absurdly free-spirited, while others might view as wisely unconventional.

    In late spring 2008, she left Shanghai, where she had struggled for six years, abandoned almost all the physical possessions she had accumulated over those six years of settlement, keeping only a backpack weighing less than 15kg, and began a life where she would sleep wherever she happened to be each night. Time flew by, and now it’s 2014. In the meantime, moving and stopping, she has visited many countries—France, Italy, Vatican City, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines... Looking back, she realized she hadn’t rented an apartment for over five years. Her entire belongings during that period were limited to her backpack, which never weighed more than 15kg. "In the days when I didn’t rent a place, I always lived a life where I’d sleep wherever I was each night. Travel and life have become inseparable concepts for me." Even during breaks from travel, when she returned to work, she didn’t rent a stable place to live. Instead, she kept her backpack under her workstation and slept on the company meeting table at night.

    During her travels, MANTIS met all kinds of people, each with their own past. She became increasingly convinced that birds of a feather flock together—those who share similar values and end up traveling with her all have one thing in common: they’re all more and more absurd, more and more wildly imaginative, and all follow their hearts. "Many of them have gone much further than I have on this path of life. When they come into my life, they don’t need to use words, patience, or tolerance to connect with me—we can achieve a spiritual understanding."

    Traveling through Italy with a "death list"

    After six years of a relationship came to an end, MANTIS, hit hard by the blow, entertained thoughts of suicide. She wrote a bucket list and arranged the items from easiest to hardest, then set off with it.

    Her maiden voyage to Europe began on Valentine’s Day 2009. Over 14 days, she entered from Germany and traveled to Italy... "I laughed and danced with warm, kind strangers at the Venice Carnival, celebrated my birthday in Florence, met an incredibly caring 'granny' in Rome, woke up surrounded by birds on the steps of St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, and finally arrived at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, where I kissed the tombstone of Oscar Wilde—the handsome man whose grave I had long admired and which is said to be the sexiest tombstone in the world." The snow-covered city of Munich in the sunset left first-time traveler MANTIS so awestruck she forgot to take pictures. "It felt like paradise from a fairy tale book." When she looked down at Venice from the plane, she said her cells came alive.

    The parade at the Venice Carnival featured locals in elaborate masks and costumes, reveling joyfully. Shops and houses along the route were beautifully decorated, and even the alleys looked like scenes from a movie. Friendly Italians, seeing this shy Eastern woman wanting to take photos but hesitating, actually pulled her into the parade. "Just before I pressed the shutter, a ‘King’ over sixty knelt beside me and kissed the back of my hand." Several uncles played jazz on the street, pedestrians stopped to dance happily, and an elderly lady upstairs leaned out of her window to enjoy the scene. It was truly an enchanting night. "In this place teeming with tourists, some locals can even speak Chinese to introduce their goods. They’re warm and polite without being intimidating—even if it’s obvious you’re not buying anything, shop owners won’t begrudge a friendly smile. Seagulls near the docks are friendly too—you just toss some biscuit crumbs in the air and they’ll catch them midair." Just hearing MANTIS’s descriptions is enough to captivate anyone.

    In Venice, "my originally empty heart began to be painted with new colors by the vibrant scenery. My hollow body was embraced by all this splendor around me, and I even felt, once again, the existence of my humble, small, fragile, yet still breathing self. When I finally arrived in Venice, a dream destination I reached through my own efforts, I suddenly felt I might still be of some use—I’m not completely useless." Spurred on by her death plan, MANTIS fulfilled her first wish, and those things she had never dared imagine before seemed, in practice, not as out of reach as she had thought. "Whether a person feels lonely or not depends mostly on the sense of security they give themselves through inner strength, not on being accompanied by someone else. There are so many people surrounded by others every day who still feel lonely and empty because their hearts are hollow."

    "The moment I got off the train, I knew I had arrived in Rome." Every street and building in this ancient city felt so Roman—there were magnificent palaces and statues in classical Roman style everywhere, horse-drawn carriages ran on the streets, and even private residences matched the Roman aesthetic, with classical designs on windows, porches, and even mailboxes. You could feel the glory of Italian Renaissance art, as well as the locals’ pride and protection of their culture. "Even the beggars here are artists," she said, calling them a sight in Rome themselves—they dressed up in all kinds of amusing costumes or pretended to be statues by the railings. "So lifelike ! Drop a coin in their money box, and the still statue will move just a little to acknowledge you."

    In the peaceful countryside of Italy, there were very few people, even fewer tourists. "While walking along an old path, the locals we passed would greet us kindly, and even patrolling police officers would say welcome to us." The trees and flowers remained green even in winter in the south, and there were aloe plants taller than humans by the roadside. There were many cats that weren’t afraid of people at all—if you called out, they’d run straight toward you and act affectionately. The mountain villa was full of springs, and the sound of flowing water could be heard everywhere. Lying on the sofa in the villa room and looking up, you’d see the ceiling was also inlaid with oil paintings.

    "Sleeping overnight at the Rome airport was my first time ever sleeping at an airport. In the following years of travel, I also became a frequent airport sleeper." In fact, many veteran backpackers occupy spots to sleep overnight—only inexperienced newcomers have no idea what gear is needed or where the best places to sleep are.

Painful memories from the South Side of Everest

    Another trip MANTIS remembers vividly is her journey to the South Side of Mount Everest. At the suggestion of her younger sister, MANTIS decided to climb Everest. After pulling crazy overtime and finishing a month’s workload ahead of schedule, she earned 20 days of paid leave. With gear sponsored by friends from all over, she headed to Nepal. "My sister and I still decided not to tell our parents." To avoid worrying them, one said she was going to Tibet for fun, the other claimed to be on a business trip to Zhengzhou.