Would you be willing to spend sixteen days and nights hiking 500 kilometers to get home? Su Zhengang, a 25-year-old university student, accomplished this nearly “crazy” trek using nothing but his “iron feet” and almost unbelievable perseverance. His goal was to use this long-distance hike to mark his university graduation.
At Cangwu Green Park in the city district, the reporter met Su Zhengang, a young man born in 1988. With his slender build, it’s hard to associate him with a 16-day hiking journey. Su Zhengang told the reporter that he arrived in Xinpu on the afternoon of the 21st, carrying only a 30-pound backpack and a tent the entire way, and his total expenses were less than a thousand yuan. Speaking of the backpack, Xiao Su even opened it up to take out a tool that kept him going throughout the trip.
Su Zhengang: “This is our single-person camping pot set. It includes two pots, two small bowls, and a gas canister. When there’s no place to eat, you can cook some noodles or mainly just boil hot water.”
Reporter: “What is this equivalent to in our daily lives?”
Su Zhengang: “It’s like gas. It only takes a few minutes to boil water with this.”
Xiao Su said that he had previously studied at a school in Wuxi and had just graduated from university this year. He undertook this feat he had always wanted to try as a way to challenge himself. He also gave us a brief overview of how he handled food and shelter during the journey.
Su Zhengang: “For food, I could eat at restaurants along the way. For shelter, sometimes I camped in parks with a tent, other times I slept on a couch at someone’s house—kind people offered these temporarily. And when the weather got too hot, I’d find a small hotel to take a shower.”
Of course, the journey also involved many challenges. Su Zhengang said the hardest part was lacking prior hiking experience and underestimating the difficulty of loaded trekking. By the fourth or fifth day, his feet were starting to get injured, so he changed plans and bought a small cart to pull his luggage.
Su Zhengang: “Walking all the way from southern Jiangsu to northern Jiangsu, I realized that Jiangsu actually has a lot of history and culture worth exploring. It was also a test of my body and perseverance. As only children, we’re not just about enjoying comfort—we can endure hardship, even more than previous generations.”
The endpoint of Xiao Su’s hike this time was Haifang Park in Xugou. He said he had only 20 kilometers left to go, and he gained a lot of insights from this journey.
Su Zhengang: “As long as you have seventy percent confidence, decide and just do it, give it a try. Even if you fail, at least you tried. And if you can persevere to the end, that’s definitely the best. Believe in yourself, and you will succeed.”
Xiao Su also mentioned another goal: to hike along National Highway 318 from Chengdu to Lhasa.