THE librarian Li Jing rode his horse into Beijing and the headlines in March after a solo equestrian odyssey from Votkinsk in central Russia through Siberia to the capital. Regarded as eccentric but revered in horse circles as a legend knight, Li is back in the saddle for a trek to London, Yao Minji reports.

It was eight o'clock in the morning at Guanting Reservoir, about 80 kilometers northwest of Beijing, chilly and windy in the early spring. More than 100 professional and amateur horse riders were gathered from all over the country, ready to set off for a two-day trip around the reservoir, about 160 kilometers in total. It's been a tradition of the five-year-old China Equestrian Association.

The scale of the tradition has got quite grand - not only with more participants from more places, but also dozens of reporters holding cameras and video equipment.

Organizers were there. Participants were ready. Veterinarians were checking their packages. But everyone was still waiting - for Li Jing, a former librarian and a recognized legend and hero among Chinese equestrians.

Many people, especially the media, were there for him. When he finally arrived in his signature cloak, Li was welcomed by hundreds of flashlights from cameras as well as cheers and applause from the crowds.

But none of them had heard of his name before January. Some were still asking "Who is Li Jing?" while clapping their hands.

"The cool hero who rode horses around the world."

"Ah." Then they nodded with an admiring smile. "Right, I've heard about his story. Wow. I always wanted to meet him."

Yes. Li has earned his fame among Chinese equestrians since arriving in Beijing on March 10 - the end of his horseback trip which started from Votkinsk in Russia on August 21, 2007.

Born in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, Li has been curious and excited about horse riding since he was six.

"I wanted to become a wrangler in Inner Mongolia, but my father who is a teacher wanted me to get into a good university before thinking about anything else," Li recalled.

Li compromised and got into Wuhan University, majoring in library management. He later became a librarian in Shenzhen, but soon switched to his own ambition and traveled to Russia in 1991.

Since then, Li had planned a horse-riding trip, but delayed for years for all kinds of reasons ? lack of money, issues of horses and partners, and language barrier.

He had a short period of normal life, normal in terms of the traditional values. He married a Russian woman who gave birth to his son in 1998. But the cheerful and warm family life couldn't hold him back from his childhood dream for adventures on horseback.

Finally he started off in central Russia in the summer of 2007, riding alone.

"I realized it was too difficult to go with a group, so I decided to start by myself," Li said.

The Chinese-Russian traversed the desolate Siberia in winter, crossed northeast China, and arrived in Beijing, six months later than he had scheduled. He had planned to watch the Beijing Olympics on his arrival.

The whole trip was close to 9,000 kilometers long and he changed horses six times on the road. He took four with him and changed two with others found en route. He tried his best to take care of the horses, yet the harshness still made them skinny and tired. One horse died of sudden sickness.

The rugged hero was considered "nuts" for most parts of the trip.

"Most of the people I met on the road didn't understand me. Some asked why I was doing this and where I had been in a teasing tone. Others just outright considered me a beggar or a crazy man," Li said.

His situation got better last December when he arrived in Changchun of Jilin Province in northeast China. He was welcomed by the local equestrians who spread the word and asked fellow hobbyists in other cities to welcome him as a hero.

Li has now made friends all over the place. He felt great because they helped him out of respect for his passion rather than expecting something back from him. These people made Li feel like a straying kung fu master back in the old times.

And the media also started reporting his long and arduous journey, comparing him to Don Quixote, his favorite childhood hero.

But outside the circle of equestrians, he is still considered crazy and eccentric.

It's difficult not to think that way when city people see Li, a 47-year-old man with long curly hair and a scruffy chin draped in a filthy cloak, riding a horse while leading another. That doesn't remind anyone of the normal ways of modern city life, where one works from nine to five in clean office attire.

"I realized it was too difficult to go with a group, so I decided to start by myself."



Li looks too much like a character from a movie and he talks and acts like in the movies.

He went in the opposite direction of his planned route, backtracking an extra 200 kilometers to take a look at Tchaikovsky's hometown.

He talks about the surroundings and solitude of his odyssey in the tones of Chinese poets in the 1980s.

"I never felt lonely on my way. The elements of nature were always kind to me, although sometimes I did feel helpless confronting the extremes."

He was aware of the feelings of fear and alienation from people he met on the road. He enjoyed it because "I want to experience the life of a beggar," which he did on the road by asking for accommodation or help.

Most of the time he followed the small countryside roads, not only for horse-riding convenience but also for his love of the rural environment. Li considers the only difference between the countryside and cities is "the use of a toilet."

To reduce people's fear of his strange appearance, Li bought a large cloak at the beginning of the journey and wrote poems on it. He copied late Chairman Mao Zedong's famous poem, "Long March" - the epic 12,500-kilometer journey the Red Army took between 1934 and 1936. Mao's poem brimmed with heroism and compared the dangers and obstacles on the road to ruts in the mud. Li chose this poem for self-encouragement.

"I never felt lonely on my way. The elements of nature were always kind to me."



"I thought people might get less scared if they realized that I'm educated - at least I could write a poem on the cloak," Li laughed.

"But they still branded me as a psycho when they saw me wearing such a cloak written with words and riding tall on a horse."

Although he arrived in Beijing later than he had planned and missed the Olympics, Li felt rather satisfied for finishing the long journey because "I have realized my lifelong dream."

He went back to Wuhan to spend some time with his wife and to share the experience with his 10-year-old son. Then he returned to Beijing to prepare for another long trip.

On April 18, Li set out from the Guanting Reservoir on the suburbs of Beijing on a horseback journey to London, witnessed by more than 100 equestrians from all over the country.

This time, he got partners - Beijing taxi driver Peng Wenchao in his 40s and 60-year-old Megan Lewis from Wales in the United Kingdom.

Lewis met Peng on her horse riding along the Great Wall last fall and then Li through a mutual friend. She invited them to join her dream - to ride from Beijing to London, the two Olympics cities, before the London Games starts in 2012.

They will ride from April to autumn every year and pick up from where they stop for the next four years. Currently, they are going northward to Inner Mongolia and their plan is to stop in Xinjiang this year.

Unfortunately, Lewis fell from her horse on April 28 and the doctor suggested she rest for 30 days. Peng and Li took advantage of her rest to go home and spend time with their families. The journey will restart when Lewis recovers.

You can track their journey on Lewis' Website (www.thelonghorseride.com) which she updates quite frequently.