Climbing Mount Hua at 1 a.m. to watch the sunrise, admiring the night view of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda and Asia’s largest musical fountain, tasting yak yogurt and butter tea in Tibetan homes... Wu Yimeng said these were the sights she saw over the past month during a more than 1,500-kilometer cycling trip with friends, and also the first gift she gave herself for her university life.
Wu Yimeng, 20, a student majoring in labor and social security at Shanxi University, cycled through more than 20 counties and cities and three major cities this summer with over 20 other university students, fulfilling their dream of a first "expedition."
"Once you’ve made up your mind, just go for it and don’t let your youth be full of regrets," Wu Yimeng said. With her family not supportive, she saved up 5,000 yuan from her financial aid and part-time jobs to buy cycling gear. To ease her family’s worries, she patiently persuaded her parents and finally received a text message from her mother before departure: "Let you fly."
There are quite a few Chinese university students who, like Wu Yimeng, love cycling. In recent years, as cycling activities have gradually gained popularity across China, university cycling clubs have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. According to incomplete statistics, there are now over 500 university cycling clubs nationwide, and the number continues to grow. Taking Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, as an example, there are more than 10 university cycling associations.
Yang Qian, deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League Committee at Shanxi University, said the university’s cycling association has been around for 15 years, and the school allocates a certain amount of funding each year to support their "expeditions." At the same time, before students set off, the school prepares safety plans, including purchasing insurance for them, providing safety education, and assigning experienced students as team leaders.
"'Expeditions' allow them to endure hardships in practice, temper their willpower, and cultivate students' sense of social responsibility and practical abilities," Yang Qian said.
Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. Shi Yukuo, a university student, told reporters that along the way, there were both torrential rains and scorching sun, exhaustion and injuries, but when everyone was tired from cycling, they would shout out loud and boost morale with music.
What impressed him most was the rain on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Their clothes were soaked through by the heavy rain, and they felt cold in waves, but it was during this most miserable rainy ride that he saw deserts, grasslands, oases, rapeseed flowers, lavender, lilacs, and Qinghai Lake. Eventually, they found a small restaurant where everyone gathered around the stove to dry their soaked socks and gloves. Such experiences brought endless laughter.
"Enduring hardships is also a kind of training. When you’re young, you should dare to chase your dreams. It’s been a few days since I got home, but the encouragement from everyone still feels so warm in my heart," Shi Yukuo said.
Besides cycling purely for pleasure, they also engaged in public welfare activities. Li Weiting, a sophomore, said she participated in a forest protection awareness campaign during the summer, cycling from Taiyuan to Harbin. At every stop, they held exhibitions and gave verbal appeals to encourage people to protect forests and refuse disposable chopsticks. "There was encouragement along the way, as well as skepticism, but doing something is better than doing nothing."
Jia Gang, deputy secretary-general of the China Bicycle Association and director of the China Cycling Culture Promotion Center, said cycling is not only a moderate-intensity, enjoyable aerobic exercise, but also conveys positive values such as environmental protection and low carbon, gradually becoming a fashionable and healthy mode of transportation in China.
"For university students, besides fitness and environmental benefits, it can also foster a sense of teamwork, develop organizational and management skills, and improve psychological resilience. At the same time, combining public welfare with travel along the way greatly enriches the youthful experiences of university students," Jia Gang said.