With just a backpack, a map, and the vow of "never taking a step back until the hiking journey is complete"... A young man from Henan plans to hike around the world in 800 days. He is 23-year-old Guo Lilong. Last year, Guo set off from Mohe in Heilongjiang, passing through Qiqihar, Daqing, Harbin, and Qinhuangdao. After resting in Beijing for several months, on May 1st of this year, Guo set off again. On May 28th, he arrived in Taiyuan.
He loves the feeling of being "on the road"
Setting down his backpack weighing thirty or forty pounds, Guo Lilong plopped down on a stool in the newspaper office and caught his breath. A not-so-clean short-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of casual pants with holes in them showed that this travel-worn young man had already walked quite a distance. "I just went to the Shanxi Provincial Sports Bureau to get a stamp, and then I came here," said Guo, who collects stamps or marks from post offices or sports bureaus in every place he visits as keepsakes. "Where do you live?" the reporter asked.
Guo smiled. "I found a cheap hotel, 30 yuan a night." As he spoke, he raised his hand to wipe the sweat beads from his forehead.
Guo Lilong is a post-80s man raised in a single-parent family. After finishing high school in his hometown of Hebi, Henan, he went to Beijing to work, where he stayed for four years. During those four years, like all other "Beijing drifters," he waited tables at restaurants, cleaned hotel rooms, and held multiple part-time jobs every day. Though tough, his monthly income of four to five thousand yuan allowed him to live a relatively stable life in a foreign land. "But I know very well that’s not the life I want," said Guo with firm eyes. He said there are things in life more valuable than earning money and wealth. "One day, I suddenly had the idea of traveling around the world, and then I actually set off. I love that feeling of being 'on the road.'"
The toughest leg of the journey
Having made up his mind, he resolutely quit his job and took a train to Mohe in Heilongjiang, making it the starting point of his long journey. In three months, he traveled from Mohe, Qiqihar, and Harbin, through Qinhuangdao, Tangshan, and Tianjin to Beijing. He wanted to save up some money in Beijing, but after eight months, he hadn’t saved much. "Waiting like this won’t do," so on May 1st of this year, he set off again, entering Shanxi from Hebei.
At 9 a.m. on May 11th, Guo Lilong set out from Dingzhou, Hebei, and headed toward Shijiazhuang along the Beijing-Shijiazhuang Expressway. The day before, his right foot had developed a large blister from walking for too long, and now the blister on the sole of his foot had burst, causing intense pain. "To make matters worse, it started pouring rain." Dragging his painfully sore feet through the heavy rain for nearly four hours, Guo still couldn’t find a place to take shelter and rest. "At that time, my backpack was completely soaked, extremely heavy, and I almost felt hopeless." Just when he was about to give up, a sedan stopped beside him. A man in his thirties or forties poked his head out of the car and said, "Young man, where are you going? It's raining so hard, I can give you a ride for part of the way!" Then he opened the car door. "To be honest, the thought of getting in the car did cross my mind at that moment, but in the end, I refused. Hiking is all about 'walking.' If I gave up at that moment, it would have been all for nothing."
Guo watched the kind man drive away, then shouldered his backpack and continued on. He walked all night, and then another morning. At 11 a.m. on the 12th, he finally reached Shijiazhuang. "That was the longest and toughest walk I’ve ever had."
"There are still more good people in this world"
Passing through Yangquan, on the 28th, Guo arrived in Taiyuan. "After Shanxi, I’ll go to Shaanxi, then to Gansu, and once I’ve seen the beautiful landscapes of our country, I’ll go abroad. I’ll start with Central Asia, then Europe, Africa, and the Americas." As he spoke, he pulled out a passport and a "phrasebook" from his backpack. In truth, Guo hadn’t fully prepared for his world tour—he didn’t even have a concrete plan—but he remained confident in achieving his goal.
Online, more and more travelers have begun to follow and contact Guo Lilong, with many expressing admiration and praise for this post-80s young man who just went ahead and did it. Nowadays, Guo’s backpack, shoes, trekking poles, water bottle, and other items have all been sponsored by netizens. Everywhere he goes, "local netizens contact me and give me warmth." All of this is incredibly precious to this young man who knows little about professional hiking knowledge and has no money to his name. He keeps track of every small bit of help: Brother Liu, provided dinner; Brother Cheng, donated 200 yuan; Sister Wu bought me snacks... "There are still more good people in this world."