On January 31, 2014 (Chinese New Year's Day), Lin Liyi, her daughter, and their guide reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro (left is the daughter, right is the mother).
With her hair in a ponytail and a youthful face, who would have thought that the young girl in the reporter’s photo had just conquered Africa’s highest peak—Mount Kilimanjaro, standing at 5,895 meters—on this Chinese New Year’s Day. Prior to this, the girl born in 1998, Lin Ziyi, had already summited Qinghai’s Kunlun Mountain Yuzhu Peak and Xinjiang’s Muztagh Ata.
On February 26, out of curiosity, the reporter walked into the gates of Yueqing High School. It was the fourth period activity class in the afternoon, and many students were staying in their classrooms doing homework, but Lin Ziyi was nowhere to be seen. Upon asking, it turned out she had rushed to the volleyball court as soon as class ended. On the court, ten players were battling fiercely, hitting the ball with intensity. Looking closer, only Ziyi was a girl among the players. But she held her own—quick on her feet, running back and forth, playing continuously for an hour without a break, while several boys were already starting to struggle from exhaustion.
Lin Ziyi’s good physical condition isn’t innate. Her mother, Lin Yuquan, a teacher at Yueqing High School, told the reporter that Ziyi often got sick as a child, so starting from kindergarten, every winter and summer vacation, she would take her child traveling to build up her health and broaden her horizons. Places like Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Hainan, Guangxi, and Sichuan all left their footprints. When Lin Ziyi turned 10, her mom took her to Tibet, and the little girl surprisingly didn’t suffer from altitude sickness. Three years later, she climbed Qinghai’s Kunlun Mountain Yuzhu Peak at an altitude of 6,178 meters, and last summer, the mother-daughter duo summited Xinjiang’s Muztagh Ata at 7,500 meters.
Before this climb up Kilimanjaro, the mother and daughter didn’t do any specific warm-up training because Ziyi often hiked local mountains with her mom on weekends. On January 26, Lin Yuquan set off with her daughter. During the final 200-plus meters to the summit, temperatures dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius, accompanied by howling snowstorms. Both mother and daughter suffered severe altitude sickness. Lin Yuquan was exhausted and drowsy, but the determined Ziyi kept her mother’s spirits up, even telling her stories as they climbed. Together, step by step, they finally made it to the top.
Although Lin Ziyi is still a high school student, she appears very composed. Unlike her female classmates, she doesn’t like shopping, chasing celebrities, or taking selfies. She calls herself a “tomboy.” Aside from mountaineering and volleyball, she is especially fond of books and comics, enjoys listening to music and playing the piano, and has recently started learning the guitar. It’s worth mentioning that despite spending considerable time on these hobbies, her academic performance remains excellent. In the final semester exam of her first year of high school during the Wenzhou citywide joint examination, she ranked first in total score across the whole school.
Travel far and wide, read extensively. This young “tomboy” will undoubtedly face even greater mountains in her future.