Couple follows ‘crazy dreams’ on the road to ends of the Earth
Print Edition
ONE of China’s most popular online travel shows follows a married Beijing couple who crave excitement and adventure Ñ they got married in Antarctica, hired armed guards to tour war-torn Mogadishu in Somalia and went diving in an ancient Mayan well used for human sacrifice.
Among many other things.
Not your typical Chinese couple.
“People’s dreams are often a little crazy but that’s no reason to deny them,” said Zhang Xinyu, 35, at a lecture to several hundred travel fans and students at Fudan University last month.
Zhang and his wife Liang Hong, 34, now plan to fly a hot air balloon by themselves over the spectacular South African landscape. A balloon ride seems tame in comparison with other exploits.
They have spent three action-packed years on the road, starting in 2012 and visiting 30 cities in 24 countries.
Their outdoor reality show “On the Road,” shot by the couple and friends, has been clicked 180 million times on Youku.com, one of China’s most popular online video sharing website. The show is one of the most popular titles in the tourism category on the website and episodes were broadcast by CCTV.
The couple, both from Langfang in Hebei Province, got married on February 25, 2014, in the Antarctic after an 18,000-nautical-mile voyage with friends that lasted 234 days. Zhang was at the helm.
Their wedding was broadcast live online.
The couple, then engaged to be married, were traveling around the world to some of the most challenging locations. Zhang promised Liang a romantic wedding on the edge of the world.
Their first destination was Oymakon in Russia’s polar region, famous for bitter cold. In January they camped out at what they called the world’s coldest village, minus 52 degrees Centigrade at night.
The next morning Zhang proposed to Liang and presented her with a spectacular diamond ring.
“I was so moved and I accepted without hesitation,” Liang told her Fudan audience. “I realized he’s the person I want to share the rest of my life with.”
Their next stop was Mogadishu, capital city of Somalia, where an insurgency has raged and pirates launch attacks on passing ships. They wore flak jackets, carried rifles and hired bodyguards while they visited markets and hospitals, as locals looked on in amazement.
They found a resident who used to study in China and spoke Mandarin.
Other destinations included the exclusion zone around the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, seldom visited by tourists since the devastating accident in 1986.
They went on to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and went SCUBA diving in a well where humans were sacrificed for rain during the Mayan civilization dating back more than 3,000 years. The bottom was piled with bones.
The couple were childhood friends and later went into business together, importing and exporting machinery and heavy equipment. They became wealthy.
When Sichuan Province was devastated by an 8-magnitude earthquake in May 2008, Zhang and his friends (not including Liang) went to Hangwang town with their heavy equipment and rescued people for 15 days.
“That experience reminded me of life’s fragility. I realized I had to find the time to pursue my dreams,” Zhang said.
And he wanted to do it with Liang.After several years of planning, they began their journey, which they discussed for two hours to applause and laughs at Fudan. Many fans traveled from outside Shanghai to meet them.
“I never expected that popularity because we are not good-looking guys,” Zhang said with a laugh.
He is nicknamed “270,” referring to his former weight of 270 jin (135kg).
Zhang has always been good with machinery, electronics and gadgets. On their journey they drove a truck carrying several tons of equipment; other equipment was shipped in advance. They carried aerial photography equipment, SCUBA gear, radiation detectors and everything needed for their adventure.
Zhang is licensed to fly helicopters and sail yachts. He is certified in SCUBA diving.
“We have been to places where they speak languages we don’t know, but smiles and good faith are universal languages,” Liang said.
In South Africa (the date to be fixed), they plan to fly a balloom in honor of Nelson Mandela, the freedom fighter and the nation’s first democratically elected president. He died last year.
“Zhang and Liang use their adventures to tell us to never be afraid to follow our dreams, even if they seem crazy and impossible. That’s the appeal of their programs,” Youku president Wei Ming told the audience.
After their wedding broadcast, the couple was congratulated by celebrities and political figures, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel who said, “Loving is not just looking at each other, it’s looking in the same direction.”
Zhang and Liang don’t plan to start a family until 2017 because the exposure to radiation in Chernobyl will affect their bodies for around five years. They then plan to have a child.
“We will take him to Africa if it’s a boy and to Europe for a girl,” Zhang said.
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