Travel - China

Years ago I was in China. It sounds like it was dozens of years but in fact it was about 10 years ago, around 1996 or so. It was my third visit in China and I loved it. It seemed China was less difficult and more mysterious then I had expected. I read books, saw pictures, films and even tried to learn some of the language (which turned out to be very difficult).

After traveling in Gansu and Sichuan I finally arrived in milder climate. After all, it was only March in Dali now. Gansu had been freezing, with snow and ice on the roads while Sichuan was dry though still cold with about 10°C. However, it felt like summer after the freezing busses in north China.

Now in Dali the temperature had been up to almost 20°C and it was comfortable again. I had traveled by busses. Was it hard? In 1996 China was already beginning to open up but many people in the country side were still a bit suspicious to talk to foreigners. In Dali it was different. Here had been tourists over the years and people were used to the "lao wai", the Big Noses.

I stayed in Guesthouse No.4, a nice more traditional Bai houses. Here I met a man who would change my life for the next ten years and probably for many years more.

The man was introduced to me as Mr. Lu. Lu was a man in his early 40's. He had a big smile over his face and seemed to be perfectly happy. Little I knew then about his life story.

Mr. Lu lived in a little town not far from Dalian, far in the north east of China near the East China Sea. 12 years before I met him, it must be around 1984, Lu had been involved in a car accident. In that accident, Lu lost his full left leg and his right arm. In China, this means trouble. Lu had not been a "complete" man anymore. He told me he had lost his will to live. After all, without an arm and a leg, he was no longer useful for society.

In those days, according to Lu, the facilities for disabled were primitive. Someone told him if he couldn't do anything anymore he could still become a monk. After all, "monks don't need arms and legs for prayers", his friend told him. So Lu went into a monastery.

Mr. Lu stayed a few years in the monastery and felt he was useful for the community. In the monastery he learned to live with his handicap. Even more important, he felt he found back pleasure in live. The main problem now was, what could be do to serve his people?

As almost all Chinese Lu had always rode a bicycle. He was thinking if he could do something with a bicycle to be useful again. While in the monastery, Lu had read books about people riding bicycles for fun. Could he do the same? Riding a bicycle was one of the few things he still could do.

During his time in the monastery he had learned to accept his plastic prosthesis. He could walk with it and even ride his old bicycle. So, if he give his people an example that even an accident like his could be seen as something positive, he may be an example for other people, give others hope even if it seemed there was little hope anymore.

Lu left the monastery and bought a cheap mountain bike. He started to cycle around on this one. There were problems, he had to find a way to learn to cycle with his only available hand on the handlebars. Another was his prosthesis of plastic. But after some time, it seemed he was ready to do his next and much bigger idea.

Mr. Lu wasn't rich and while in the monastery he had learned to use what was left of his right arm to write Chinese characters. Chinese calligraphy is an art in itself and over the centuries there have been many masters (in Chengdu lived Du Fu, a poet and calligraphy master).

The way Mr. Lu learned to work was to hold the pencil under his armpit and do his work. It was a solid way to earn money while he was traveling. And in every village, town or city he visited the post office to collect a stamp. He carried with him a big Chinese flag with stamps of all the places he had traveled.

But how did he travel? By car? No! By bus or train then? No again! Mr. Lu gave himself the "impossible" task to cycle from Dalian to Dali, a distance of around 3000 km. And while he started his journey alone, every once in a while, people joined him for a day or sometimes more.

Mr. Lu wasn't a fast cyclist. But Mr. Lu had one advantage over other cyclist and travelers: the will to go! And so he went, on his bicycle. He cycled from Dalian to Dali three times, which is about 10.000 km. Impossible? Lu was one of those real masters you meet in life. Although Lu was making a living as a calligrapher, he was also a teacher. Lu was teaching "life". Seeing Lu doing what he did, you learned a quick and important lesson:

EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE,
IF YOU WANT IT.

Later I picked up cycling again. I had been cycling in Europe for many years. Now I cycled in Asia too. And Lu was one of the reasons why I started cycling again. I met many people who told me they couldn't do what I did. But I always told them about Lu. Anything is possible, if you want it.

I owe Mr. Lu a lot. Unfortunately I have no clue what happened to him. In Dali he told me he wanted to write a book about his adventures. The book would obviously be written in Chinese. And although I have been back to China many times since then, I never found a trace of Mr. Lu. But wherever I go, I tell the tale of Mr. Lu and his one arm and one leg. And after that story no one dares to say anything like: "I can't do this".