A post-90s young man spent 2,000 yuan to hike through ten provinces and cities in a year

       He is a “rebellious” post-90s youngster; he once turned 300 yuan into a net profit of 1,000 yuan in just three days; his name is Song Jianxi, a young man from Zhijin. With 2,000 yuan in hand, he hiked through ten provinces and cities in a year.

　　Yesterday, back in Guiyang, Song Jianxi sat in his shoe store, sharing his recently completed long journey with us……

　　At 20 years old, Song Jianxi appears more mature than his peers, and his dream sounds even more ambitious than most: hiking around the entire world.

　　In 2009, at the age of 17, Song Jianxi first encountered the term “hiking.” In order to engage more with society and meet more people through travel, he gave up the college entrance examination.

　　In January 2010, Song Jianxi set off alone on a journey to Ganheba. This canyon, located at the junction of Qingzhen, Zhijin, and Guiyang, was the destination of Song Jianxi’s first ever hiking trip.

　　This hiking trip gave him a taste of “success,” and he decided to fulfill his dream of hiking across the country.

　　“I tore the map in half down the middle and decided on my route!” First, he planned his itinerary. Because the western part of China has the best-preserved primitive ecology, he set his sights on Tibet as his destination.

　　At that time, Song Jianxi only had 2,000 yuan, which was all his savings from a year of work.

　　In January last year, after more than a month of preparation and with 2,000 yuan, he set off alone...

　　With limited funds, along the way, his 2,000 yuan was mainly used to buy supplies such as biscuits and water. Moreover, he often ate only one meal every two or three days. When passing through villages, he would go in and explain his situation to the locals, asking for a place to stay and a meal. Many of the places he passed through were rural areas, and when a ride came by, some kind drivers would give him a lift, helping him save on transportation costs.

　　Before setting off, he bought some low-cost Guizhou specialty trinkets, such as small wooden puppets and embroidery, at very cheap prices. Along the way, he hawked these items. By the time he reached Tibet, he had almost no money left. Some local villagers, finding these items novel, traded food with him. The food he received were dried meat chunks—made by directly air-drying slaughtered cattle and sheep—which were as hard as stones, but he still ate them.

　　While in Motuo, he occasionally helped lead groups and acted as a “tour guide.” This way, other travelers provided him with food and supplies.

　　By relying on staying as a couchsurfing guest, sleeping in tents, hitchhiking, and other methods, spending the least amount of money on the road, he passed through Guizhou, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, and finally arrived at his destination, Tibet.

　　“The Xinjiang-Tibet Highway, National Highway 219, the highest-altitude road in the world, was a nightmare, but also a new beginning!” A direct brush with death on the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway made Song Jianxi doubt his belief in traveling for the first time.

　　One noon last December, Song Jianxi was walking along the road. The altitude sickness made his head feel as if it might split open.

　　Just then, he noticed something moving about a kilometer ahead.

　　“At the time, I thought it was a Tibetan antelope!” Seeing any sign of life in this silent and terrifying desert brought some joy to Song Jianxi, who was alone. But when he picked up his binoculars, he realized those seemingly friendly “Tibetan antelopes” were actually a group of terrifying Tibetan wolves.

　　The wolves also spotted him but didn’t move. Song Jianxi and the wolves faced off like this. His hands, gripping a hunting knife, trembled non-stop, and his legs began to go weak. After more than an hour, when cold sweat had drenched all his clothes, the wolves finally left.

　　Having survived the encounter, Song Jianxi ran wildly for 10 kilometers before finally collapsing from exhaustion on a dried-up riverbed, gasping for breath...

　　That night, he wrote in his diary: Please forgive your son for being willful one last time, mom and dad. I just want my life to not be empty because of this dream. If I give up now, all those thousands of kilometers I’ve walked will have been for nothing...

　　The next day, waking up from the desert, he shouldered his heavy pack again and continued his journey.

　　After completing his journey in Tibet, Song Jianxi then continued on to Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan, and Linyi in Shandong. Around February 15th this year, he returned to Guiyang and “paused” his travels. In this way, in just over a year, he completed his journey through 10 provinces. Now, he helps manage the family shoe store.

　　Song Jianxi said he has a dream: the first step is to leave his county, the second is to leave Guizhou Province, the third is to travel across China, and the fourth is to travel the world.

　　Now he has achieved the first three steps, and he will continue pursuing this dream. For his honeymoon trip, he plans to exit from Nepal and head west...