On the 24th, in front of the Xuanwu Gate in Nanjing, a tandem bicycle and its two foreign riders attracted the attention of many pedestrians. But few were aware that Greek national Vassilis Mesitis and his fiancée Ariadni Prantzou had already been on a bicycle honeymoon journey for over a month, covering thousands of kilometers since starting from Hong Kong.
When it comes to long-distance bicycle travel in China, Mesitis is quite the veteran. On the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he and a Greek artist cycled 120,000 kilometers from Olympia, Greece, to Beijing. For Mesitis, biking around the world is a lifestyle he deeply enjoys. Regarding the increasingly popular “safe” lifestyle where more people prefer staying indoors and connecting with the outside world through modern communication, Mesitis believes this is just a misunderstanding of what safety truly means. He explained that living in a big city doesn’t make him happy; the office feels like a strange environment where everything seems artificial. That’s why Mesitis gave up his job as a psychologist and chose a back-to-nature lifestyle of farming and rural living, while also spending his free time cycling across the world. Mesitis said he genuinely enjoys this way of life, especially meeting and interacting with different people during his travels. Through these exchanges, people can understand each other and break down barriers. In his view, this is the real “safe” lifestyle, not one where you isolate yourself from the world. His fiancée Prantzou also mentioned that although they occasionally encounter some dangers during their journey, these risks are also part of life, and experiencing them thoughtfully can greatly enrich one’s personal journey. Therefore, for them, a so-called “safe” life is not an ideal way to live.
Besides fully enjoying the joy of cycling in the open outdoors, Mesitis has also taken on the role of a volunteer ambassador for China — in his spare time, he shares his experiences and observations on his blog, allowing people to see an authentic China through his grassroots perspective, much like a modern-day “Pheidippides” of cultural exchange. Additionally, he has deep feelings about the changes in China. Mesitis said that when he revisited China five years later, he found it more prosperous than before, with significant improvements in industrial and infrastructure development in many rural areas, which surprised him greatly. However, on the other hand, he also felt that the “Chinese character” he could observe was diminishing, and the rapid development in some regions of China even left him feeling bewildered and uneasy. “China is developing too fast. Development is a good thing, but when it happens too quickly, it becomes worrying. And now, some signs of problems have already begun to emerge in China,” Mesitis said, though he also hopes that China can find solutions to these issues amid its development.
According to the honeymoon cycling itinerary of Mesitis and Prantzou, after a short stay in Nanjing, they will head to Xuzhou and eventually conclude their journey in China in Beijing. Then, they will fly to Tokyo, Japan, to begin the next leg of their trip. “Our next journey is from Nanjing to Beijing and then to Tokyo,” said Mesitis, who knows a bit of Chinese, playfully.