Liu Haifeng cycling on the plateau
His greatest dream has always been to one day leave his footprints in Tibet. With unwavering determination for this dream, he cycled 5,100 km one way in 58 days to reach Lhasa, calling it emulating the “Journey to the West” of Tang Seng. On the 26th, reporters met Liu Haifeng, the Journey to the West traveler who had just returned home, in Dacheng County, Hebei Province.
Liu Haifeng, 42 years old, has six years of experience as a motorbike enthusiast and three years of self-driving tours, and is a manager at a private company. His favorite saying is “The world is only the distance of a bicycle ride away.”
On March 18 of this year, Liu Haifeng set off from Dacheng, Hebei, cycling to Lhasa, Tibet, covering a one-way distance of over 5,100 km in 58 days.
“Back in school, whenever I read articles about Tibet or heard others talk about it, I felt an immense longing. From that time on, going to Tibet became my greatest dream.” Liu Haifeng touched his mountain bike and said with a self-deprecating smile: “Maybe in other people’s eyes, my dream is unrealistic. No matter if this dream is thinner than air or weighs far more than life itself, I will stubbornly see it through. I’m the kind of person who won’t turn back even after hitting a wall.”
During the interview, Liu Haifeng said that throughout the journey, in order to fully experience the joys and hardships of cycling, he insisted on riding all the way—even when the speed was slow—and never considered using other modes of transportation. “I was almost always among the first to reach the mountain passes. I didn’t let Langfang down!”
“Of course, the hardship is not something everyone can endure. The weather on the plateau is unpredictable, with frequent blizzards and mudslides. On mountain roads over 3,000 meters above sea level, due to the thin air and low pressure, water can’t be boiled properly—you can only eat cold food, and you can’t even eat your fill, otherwise breathing becomes even harder. But no matter what, I stuck it out,” Liu Haifeng said with a smile.
For Liu Haifeng, this cycling trip was not only a challenge to himself but also a realization of his cycling dream. “Along the way, many motorbike and self-driving friends greeted me. They waved at me, or slowed down and gave me a thumbs-up. Their looks were full of longing for cycling to Lhasa and reverence for cyclists. Several times, because the uphill stretches were too long and I ran out of water, it was the help from fellow cyclists and drivers that allowed me to keep going.”
According to Liu Haifeng’s calculations, the entire trip lasted 66 days, including 58 days of cycling to Lhasa, averaging over 10 hours of riding per day, with each leg moving 36,000 times. During the entire cycling journey, he climbed over 11 snow-capped mountains higher than 4,000 meters above sea level.
When asked about how this experience impacted his life, Liu Haifeng paused for a long time before saying, “This trip was a review of the first half of my life. Looking back, I’ve stumbled through a lot, hustle and bustled around just to make a living, and even forgot what my original self and the purest colors of dreams were. I don’t want to go with the flow—life should be a process of balancing struggle with enjoyment, materiality with spirituality.”
“These 66 days of travel have taught me that life without dreams has no hope, and without hope, life has no meaning. Hold tightly onto your dreams, because if a dream dies, life is like a bird with broken wings—it can no longer fly,” Liu Haifeng said.