Everyone might have dreamed in childhood of “reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles,” but due to school, work, and family, everyone is trapped in the crisscrossing coordinates of life, struggling hard. Occasionally, taking a short three- or five-day holiday for a trip often turns into a crowded rush—people jostling through crowds, tired and resigned.
However, in Qidong City, Jiangsu Province, there is such a family—parents took extended leave, their two children took a break from school, and the family pooled together 2 million yuan. Starting in July 2012, they embarked on a 300-day self-driving journey around China, across Eurasia, an Arctic adventure, and along the way promoted the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games.
On September 26, after arriving in Taiyuan, the Dragon City, they gave an exclusive interview to reporters.
Giving dreams a starting point
The father, Huang Haitao, and mother, Huang Furong, are both teachers at a primary school in Qidong City and also columnists for China Jiangsu Net. Their daughter, Huang Xinyi, born in 1998, is in the third year of junior high, and Peng Xinyao, Huang Haitao’s niece who is eight months younger than Xinyi and currently in the second year of junior high, are both young reporters for the Yangzi Evening News.
“We’ve had the idea of traveling around the world for many years, but we only participated in some self-driving tours during holidays,” said Huang Furong. Since their daughter was four years old, the couple often took the child to travel around the mountains and rivers, almost covering the entire country.
In 2010, their daughter read a newspaper report about “seven young men from Xiamen driving around Europe.” “So ordinary people can actually fulfill the dream of traveling around the world. We were inspired and decided to put the idea into action.” After Huang Furong decided to travel the world with her husband, they began preparing funds.
“Our savings over the years, plus support from parents and siblings, added up to 2 million yuan,” said Huang Haitao. For more than ten years of marriage, they had always lived in a house of 60 or 70 square meters and never bought a new home. “The money we saved has now come in very handy.”
Considering that Nanjing would host the second Summer Youth Olympic Games (referred to as the “Youth Olympics”) in 2014, the Huang family decided to apply to the organizing committee to become volunteers and promote the Youth Olympics along the way. Fortunately, they were approved as Nanjing’s first and only family volunteers.
Subsequently, the couple took a one-year leave from school, and the two girls applied for a one-year leave of absence.
“The ancients told us to read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles. In addition to fulfilling our dream of seeing the beautiful scenery around the world, we also want our children to learn things they can’t learn in school or from books along the way, while also promoting our Nanjing and the Youth Olympics. It’s really killing multiple birds with one stone,” said Huang Haitao. As an art teacher and photography enthusiast, he also wanted to capture the beauty of the world in his lens.
When preparing for the trip, the couple divided the tasks: Huang Furong made the “road book,” including the self-driving route, scenic spots, food, local customs, etc.; Huang Haitao specifically went to a repair shop to learn car repair skills for two or three months. To better complete the world tour, the couple also bought a brand-new pickup truck, spending 1.16 million yuan including modifications. The vehicle was also equipped with tents, sleeping bags, trekking poles, compressed oxygen, repair tools, stoves, and other outdoor supplies. Considering the inconvenience of refueling in uninhabited areas, they also prepared five large fuel drums filled with gasoline. To organize photos and travel notes along the way, the family also brought two laptops.
On July 1, 2012, the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympics Organizing Committee held a grand send-off ceremony for the family, and they set off full of dreams.
Never backing down in the face of danger
After more than 80 days of travel, Shanxi was the 12th province the Huang family had reached. Lingering in the beautiful scenery of Tibet and Xinjiang, they spent over 20 days each in Xinjiang and Tibet. It was in Tibet that the family encountered danger several times, even facing threats to their lives.
On the most difficult stretch of the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway, they set off at 8:30 a.m. and drove continuously until 3:30 a.m. the next day before finding a place to stay. That day, the road section they traveled happened to be under construction, with no road signs along the way, and the navigation happened to malfunction. When night fell, the local temperature suddenly dropped to around 0°C, with fierce winds and very low visibility. The family searched for direction in confusion.
Because the altitude of this road section is above 5,000 meters, the exhausted Huang Furong suffered from altitude sickness, with splitting headaches, uncontrollable vomiting, and oxygen inhalation did little to relieve her symptoms. Huang Haitao, who had planned to stop and rest for the night, had no choice but to press on despite his wife’s condition.
“We were both nervous and scared, but couldn’t help, and we were really very anxious,” recalled Huang Xinyi and her cousin Peng Xinyao, still shaken by the memory.
Just when the family thought they were in a hopeless situation, at around 10:00 p.m. that night, a military vehicle on a mission saw them and lent a hand, bringing them to a barracks at an altitude of over 3,000 meters to stay. “The family finally escaped danger!” said Huang Haitao. According to locals, if they had stopped along the way, the whole family could have been at risk of life-threatening altitude hypoxia.
During their travels in Tibet, they also passed through a pond over a meter deep. “The car floated and spun in the water, but luckily he drives well,” said Huang Furong. Once, after suffering from altitude sickness, she developed a fever of 39°C and had to find a local doctor for an injection.
On the way from Batang, Sichuan to Mangkang, Tibet, they even encountered a tornado. “We could see the vortex of wind and sand, which was terrifying!” What frightened Huang Furong even more was that her husband, Huang Haitao, ignored warnings and went close to take photos. Fortunately, with his rich outdoor knowledge, Huang Haitao narrowly escaped disaster by staying close to the tornado.
On the 318 National Highway from Chengdu to Lhasa, they saw cars get flat tires from sharp rocks and others stuck in mud pits, so they stopped to help with repairs. “We have the tools, so we should help others,” said Huang Haitao. In areas with more mud, their car was completely covered with three or four centimeters of mud, so they had to scrape the mud off the windshield to continue. When passing through the “Tongmai” dangerous section, on the narrow road with cliffs on one side and frequent landslides on the other, he carefully drove under others’ guidance and safely passed after more than an hour. “My clothes were completely soaked!”
But in the face of so many difficulties and dangers, the family still experienced a great deal of joy. “For example, Mount Everest—we had learned about it in school and seen pictures, but only when you actually go there can you be shocked by its beauty!” exclaimed Peng Xinyao.
To save expenses, the family often stayed in budget hotels or affordable small inns, or slept in tents in the wild. Huang Haitao often took time to cook for the family. “Dad’s cooking is especially, especially delicious!” said Huang Xinyi excitedly. She was grateful to be able to experience something at this age that her peers couldn’t.
Recording all the scenery along the way
In addition to enjoying the beautiful scenery, the family never forgot to promote the Nanjing Youth Olympics. They went to civic squares, schools, military units, and other places several times to promote the Nanjing Youth Olympics to different people. They also organized the photos they took every day, posted on Weibo at any time, and insisted on writing travel notes to send to websites and newspapers. “We also frequently connected with radio stations to share our joyful journey with everyone.” On Huang Haitao’s Tencent real-name Weibo, the number of followers kept increasing, and some celebrities also began to pay attention to this Youth Olympics volunteer family.
Huang Xinyi and her cousin Peng Xinyao also conducted questionnaire surveys along the way on “Chinese parental education concepts” and “Chinese youth happiness index.” They kept diaries every day, recording their observations and feelings during the trip, and compiled them into articles to send to newspapers. The local customs and human geography they experienced enriched their knowledge and broadened their horizons.
Peng Xinyao used to be an introverted little girl, but promoting Youth Olympics knowledge to people along the way gradually made her outgoing and generous. “I’m very grateful to Mom for always paying attention to us, often calling us, and keeping in touch online.”
Surprisingly, the two little girls never gave up on their studies. They take time out to review their lessons. “I’m going to take the high school entrance exam next year, and Peng Xinyao will move up to the third year of junior high,” said Huang Xinyi. Around the Spring Festival, the family will return to Nanjing for a one-month break, during which she and her cousin plan to pick a cram school to “intensively brush up” on their studies.
When talking about how they overcome language barriers abroad, the two girls said with a smile, “We can speak English—perfect timing to practice it even more!” “If that doesn’t work, we’ll just throw out words one by one, or use body language!”
So far, the Huang Haitao family has traveled through 11 provinces including Jiangsu, Anhui, and Hubei, with Shanxi being their 12th stop. “But every place is always just a starting point,” said Huang Haitao, adding that the road ahead is still a long one.