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Veteran aid-Vietnam soldiers revisit Friendship Pass
Wearing tight sports attire and stylish bicycle helmets, with neatly arranged bikes beside them. Had you been at the train station yesterday afternoon, you would surely have spotted this cool group of cycling enthusiasts, whose average age is well over 60. To participate in the 21st National Senior Citizens’ Cycling Tour Conference to be held on the 19th of this month in Beihai, Guangxi, they loaded their bicycles onto the train, planning to cycle 1,035 km across Guangxi after arriving there.
Veteran aid-Vietnam soldiers revisit Friendship Pass
This cycling trip through Guangxi holds special meaning for team leader Wang Huotuan. Forty-six years ago, Wang left Xiamen, exited via Friendship Pass, and went to Vietnam to take part in the war effort to aid Vietnam.
In August 1967, the then 21-year-old Wang Huotuan was stationed with his unit in a place in Vietnam called Taiyuan. “I stayed there for nine months. This revisit is especially moving,” said Wang. This cycling tour will not only take them along the China-Vietnam border but also to Guilin, famed as having the “finest scenery under heaven,” and Yangshuo, the hometown of Liu Sanjie.
“According to a rough estimate based on the map, we will be covering about 1,035 km on our bikes. It’s not that long a distance,” Wang told reporters. Completing the entire journey will take around 20 days. “We won’t be back until early April.”
Planning began last October
Unfolding a small booklet densely packed with the itinerary for these 20-plus days, Wang Huotuan said they had been planning this activity since last October. “What you’re seeing now is the final version, which has been revised four times.”
A total of 26 seniors are taking part in this senior citizens’ cycling conference. They will be traveling to Nanning in two groups, with 14 people in this batch. The oldest among them is 81 years old, the youngest is 51, and the average age is a remarkable 65.7 years.
Moreover, five of the 26 participants are women, including Auntie Zhang, who is 68. Don’t let her age fool you—she’s just as adept with computers as anyone. Throughout the trip, aside from a few small counties where they couldn’t find hotels online, all the accommodations were found and booked by Auntie Zhang, one by one, via the internet.