Aged 54, with a high-paying banking job and a happy family. After his mother passed away, he gained a new perspective on life: cherish your health and, while you're still alive, you must chase your dreams. That’s Ke Shichang from Dalian. He has a dream: to carve out a hiking route around the world between 30 and 60 degrees north latitude that is suitable for human trekking.
On May 18, 2013, he set off from Dalian. After 40 days and covering more than 1,700 kilometers, he arrived in Henan. On the evening of August 31, 54-year-old Ke Shichang, wearing a camouflage baseball cap and carrying a half-person-tall backpack, stood in the square of Zhengzhou Railway Station. From time to time, he would take out his DV to record some interesting moments.
“Some people say I look in my 30s. I tell them I’m 54, but no one believes me,” Ke Shichang said with a smile. It’s the long-distance hiking that keeps him looking so young.
By day 42 of his journey, Ke Shichang was walking 30 to 40 kilometers every day, staying overnight in accommodations provided by fellow hikers along the way. Sometimes, he’d just eat a few bites of compressed biscuits with water—that was a meal. But this was just the beginning. He aims to establish a suitable hiking route for global trekking between 30 and 60 degrees north latitude.
During his three days in Zhengzhou, Ke Shichang used his DV to film the Zhengdong New District International Convention and Exhibition Center, the Erqi Memorial Tower, and the railway station. He felt that Zhengzhou is a very modern city. Most importantly, he fulfilled a dream he had before setting off: seeing the Mother River. Speaking of the people of Henan, Ke Shichang said: “(The people of Henan) are very warm, which reminds me of my hometown, Dalian.”