Wu Yuzhe from Dacun Village, Tongle Town, Leye County, cycled 1,000 miles to gather blessings for his mother in order to fulfill a small wish of hers, staging a real-life version of "Turning the Mountain," which drew high attention from media at all levels. His exemplary deeds were touching, moving, and worth learning from. To promote Wu Yuzhe's traditional virtues of respecting and loving the elderly, the Leye County Civilization Office invited him to give lectures at various schools in the county.
He once considered giving up his studies to care for his mother
Wu Yuzhe’s mother, Yao Guigen, is now 68 years old. Before she turned 3, her parents passed away one after the other. The hardships she faced during her upbringing are hard to imagine.
However, rather than complaining about life or fate, she chose to be grateful. “My mother often told me how tough her childhood was, and without fail, she would mention the help she received from others,” said Wu Yuzhe. Many of the details of the assistance she received remain vivid in her memory, “She deeply misses those kind-hearted people and treasures those feelings.”
Yao Guigen is uneducated and illiterate, but in life, she has influenced and inspired her son Wu Yuzhe with her kindness, optimism, and resilience. “Compared to the hardships my mother has endured, what difficulties have I faced? No matter how tough things get, we must learn gratitude and cherish what we have—that’s the greatest influence my mother has had on me.”
There are also three elder sisters in Wu Yuzhe’s family, making him the only boy. “I’m the child born late in my parents’ lives, so I was especially spoiled,” Wu Yuzhe said. Growing up with relatively lenient discipline, he developed an independent personality. When he was six, his mother accidentally fell and injured herself in the mountains, resulting in both legs being amputated. During that time, the young Wu Yuzhe witnessed his mother’s legs gradually rot away. “I truly felt my mother had such a hard life—even at that age, she had to undergo amputation,” Wu Yuzhe said. After the amputation, his mother was in low spirits and often struggled with feelings of inferiority. At just six years old, Wu Yuzhe stayed by her side every day, helping her change and apply medicine. When relatives brought fruits to their home, the young Wu Yuzhe wouldn’t eat them himself but would run to his mother’s room to give them to her. Once, running too fast, he tripped over the doorstep and bruised his forehead.
His mother’s wish remained buried in his heart
Wu Yuzhe attended a middle school near Baise Railway Station. When his mother learned of this, she asked him, “Do you get to see trains every day?” At that moment, Wu Yuzhe felt a deep pang of sadness. It turned out the farthest place his mother had ever been was Liuzhou, and even then, it was just to consult about getting prosthetic limbs. She rarely left the mountains, had never seen a train, let alone traveled by train to see the outside world.
“I also really want to ride a bicycle.” One day six years ago, as Wu Yuzhe snuggled up next to his mother watching TV, a scene appeared on the screen: a group of young people cycling briskly along the road. Suddenly, his mother, who had both legs amputated, said, “Maybe she was just speaking casually, but it was like a seed planted in my heart.”
“If my mother can’t ride a bicycle, I’ll ride for her; if she hasn’t seen the outside world, I’ll see it for her. I want to bring everything I see back home, to my mother in the mountains.” His mother’s wish became a seed in Wu Yuzhe’s heart—one he was determined to let sprout.
Filial son cycles 1,000 miles to gather blessings for his mother
On July 30, 2012, Wu Yuzhe prepared a bicycle, a backpack, and a notebook—and set off from Beijing to fulfill his mother’s small wish, cycling 1,000 miles.
On the first day, in Hebei, there was heavy rain. Wu Yuzhe rested for a long time at a roadside gas station. There, he ate scallions wrapped in flatbread for the first time and also received his first act of kindness—a brother at the gas station gave him two packs of instant noodles. Later, Wu Yuzhe rode through the rain to Baoding. Cold and hungry, with no other options, he called Baoding 110 at night, and two special police cars escorted him to a shelter.
Besides shelters, Wu Yuzhe also stayed at traffic police stations, private hotel rooms, and roadside inns... At a temple in Hebei Province, Wu Yuzhe had his mother’s fortune told, and afterward, checking his pockets, he found he had only 2.5 yuan left. When the monks learned of his situation, they not only didn’t charge him anything but also invited him to share dinner with them.
Along the way, going hungry was almost a daily occurrence for Wu Yuzhe. He said that one day he had only 12 yuan left. That day, he only ate one corn cob and two sandwich cookies, which he managed to get after mustering great courage to ask. A traffic police officer on duty saw this, pulled out 28 yuan, handed it to him, and took him to a shelter. That night, he shared a room with a homeless man. Wu Yuzhe, who had only 40 yuan himself, gave 10 of them to the beggar.
At 21:00 on August 21, 2012, after 22 days of relentless effort and a journey of 3,800 kilometers, Wu Yuzhe cycled back to Leye from Beijing and returned to his mother’s side with a booklet of birthday blessings he had gathered along the way.
Looking back on the 20-day experience, it felt like a dream. Wu Yuzhe was amazed by the warmth shown by strangers he encountered and was deeply moved by the simple offer, “Come eat if you’re hungry.” He said he had never seen people treat a stranger with such openness, nor had he encountered distance due to being from out of town.
Wu Yuzhe’s story attracted attention from numerous media outlets inside and outside the region. Xinhua Net, Tianjin Workers’ Daily, International Tourism Island Business Daily, Guangxi News Network, Contemporary Life Daily, and Baise Morning Post all provided ongoing coverage.
On the night he returned to Leye, leaders from the county propaganda department, the county youth league committee, and the Tongle Town government attended his mother’s birthday banquet. When Wu Yuzhe presented the various blessings and stamps he had collected for his mother along the way, everyone present was deeply moved.