Driving from Shanghai to Lhasa takes a week, cycling takes over a month. Xie Zhanjun ran from Shanghai to Lhasa, then continued west to Nyalam—all in just 91 days (running time). He even kept going westward to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
Xie Zhanjun on the journey
Xie Zhanjun, 34, an ordinary farmer from Fengqiu County in Xinxiang, currently works at a shoe factory in Dongguan, Guangdong. He fulfilled a dream that many only think about but never achieve.
On July 3, our reporter met Xie Zhanjun after traversing the most treacherous section of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway along National Highway 318, known as the "Tongmai Mountain Pass." Yesterday, he called to say he had finished a sharing session with Nepalese running enthusiasts and returned to China on August 10.
By the end of this year, Xie Zhanjun plans to settle down. "I'm not getting any younger—it's time to start a family, and my parents are quite anxious about it." A native of Fengcun Township in Fengqiu, Xie remains unmarried. "That’s one reason I can keep running," 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 Mountain Pass, our reporter had a conversation with Xie Zhanjun.