Liu Chunli: Planning to cycle around China's borders once again

      Liu Chunli, a 56-year-old cycling enthusiast whose online name is “Phoenix,” has cycled through all 34 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in just five years. Now, she plans to cycle around China’s borders once more.

  Liu Chunli retired in April 2007. Back in 2005, before her retirement, she underwent surgery for breast cancer. During her recovery, she happened to see an activity organized by the city’s elderly sports association cycling team and felt it suited her, so she joined. Soon after, the team organized a trip to five cities in East China, and she went along by bike. That first long-distance ride was a tough test of her willpower, but fortunately, her body held up. She gritted her teeth and persevered, cycling over 3,000 kilometers before taking a train home.

  After returning, she found this kind of retired life very fulfilling, so she made a “five-year plan”: to cycle through all 34 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China within five years (by 2012). She embroidered a map of China on white cloth, marking the major locations, and stamped it with postmarks at each destination.

  On February 26, 2008, she and several companions set off from Tangshan. After three months and 6,850 kilometers, they entered Tibet. By the time they reached Kunming, Liu Chunli already felt unwell, but she wanted to challenge herself. In the end, only she and one other companion remained out of the original five. When passing the Mila Pass, which exceeds 5,000 meters in altitude, she could only use her bicycle as a crutch, taking a break every three steps and pushing the bike forward. At Feilai Temple in Deqen County, Yunnan, she hoped to see the sunrise over Meili Snow Mountain, but the weather didn’t cooperate. There, she met a pair of Taiwanese cyclists riding a tandem bike into Tibet. They had been staying there for a week but still hadn’t seen the sunrise.

  In 2009, she participated in the “Retracing the Long March” event organized by the city’s elderly sports association cycling team. A team of 29 set off in grand fashion from the Monument Square. Over four months and more than 11,000 kilometers, they passed through 16 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions including Henan, Shaanxi, Hubei, Shanxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou.

  On June 9, 2010, she set off alone, cycling for 58 days and covering 4,500 kilometers. She traveled through the three northeastern provinces and along the China-Russia and China-North Korea borders, taking in the scenery of the Songhua, Mudan, Heilongjiang, Ussuri, Tumen, and Yalu rivers, as well as the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea.

  In March 2011, she received an invitation from Taiwanese authorities to cycle along Taiwan’s east coast for 13 days and over 300 kilometers. The story began in 2010 when she accepted an invitation from the Beijing Cycling Promotion Association to participate in the public welfare activity “Low-Carbon Action: Cycling China.” Among the 12 cyclists, she was the oldest and was called the “Mother on the Battlefield.” A Taiwanese cyclist who learned about her story later specially invited her to visit Taiwan.

  In April 2013, she and three other cyclists rode into Tibet again. Coincidentally, during their previous ride, they experienced the Wenchuan earthquake near Chengdu, and the following year, they encountered the Ya’an earthquake. But they pressed on according to plan. Having cycled into Tibet twice already, she told reporters, “I love the blue skies and white clouds there. It feels like my soul is purified. I’d even like to go a third time.”

  Liu Chunli’s monthly pension is only about 1,600 yuan, but for her dream, she usually lives frugally. After joining cycling activities, she felt that using the metaphor of a phoenix rising from the ashes or a lotus blooming from the mud to describe her own transformation wasn’t an exaggeration. She has earned a meaningful title: “Phoenix.”