Chen Liangfa’s character story

Walking in China In 8 years, he walked more than 50,000 kilometers, took 13,800 photos, and wrote more than 1.5 million words and 260 diaries. He said that he would not stop unless he was killed. His goal was--in 8 years, he walked through 24 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, covering more than 50,000 kilometers. His business card is very unique, indicating his identity: Chen Liangfa - contemporary Xu Xiake, the first person to hike in China. Running away from home for a dream Chen Liangfa, also known as "Black Ye", was born in Lailong Town, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province in April 1967. In the words of his family, he is a restless person. In 1983, 16-year-old Chen Liangfa visited Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province, which was the hometown of Xu Xiake, a famous geographer and traveler in the Ming Dynasty. Facing "Xu Xiake's Travels", Chen Liangfa had an impulse. Hundreds of years have passed since Xu Xiake's time. How much has changed in China? Can I become today's Xu Xiake and continue to write Xu Xiake's travel notes in the new era? This impulse stayed with him for several years and became stronger and stronger. In 1987, 20-year-old Chen Liangfa began to formally prepare funds for this dream - to co-open a bookstore. At the same time, he also accumulated knowledge. In addition to teaching himself some geographical knowledge, he also entered a journalism college class to systematically learn writing and photography techniques. After graduating in 1992, he also tried to walk around some places in Suqian City for "warm-up exercises." All this was done quietly, and even his parents didn't know that he had an amazing "ambition". Chen Liangfa said: During that period, when I thought about myself and was about to travel around the world, I felt very sad when I looked at the gray hair of my parents who were already in their seventies. But he warned himself not to waver. On February 1, 1994, at the beach in Lianyungang, listening to the sound of the waves, he picked up a 25-kilogram backpack containing tents, compasses, maps, food, etc., and started walking in China. The first step is not telling anyone. After eight years of walking in China, Chen Liangfa sighed with emotion. At that time, he only knew that hardship was indispensable, but he did not expect it to be so hard and dangerous. In the past few years, he has worn out 189 pairs of shoes. Chen Liangfa said: The biggest difficulty when hiking in China is hunger. In 1997, he entered an uninhabited land in Xinjiang from Gansu. Due to the strong altitude sickness, he was severely hypoxic and had to take a break after walking for a while. Measuring the distance from the map, he estimated that he could cross the no-man's land in a week. To prevent accidents, he had prepared enough dry food for more than 10 days. But now more than 10 days have passed, and he has not yet walked through the no-man's land, and the dry food he carried has been eaten. In the uninhabited no-man's land, Chen Liangfa turned his attention to weeds, wild fruits and small animals. Forty days later, when he was exhausted, he fainted and fell to the ground when he saw the herdsmen. He was sent to the local garrison hospital for emergency treatment and saved his life. Chen Liangfa said that when walking through the wilderness, life is actually very small. At the end of 1999, in a place with no village or shop in Tibet, he set up his tent and prepared to spend the night. Because I walked a lot on mountainous roads, I developed blood blisters on my feet, some of which were rotten. Unexpectedly, the smell of blood from this small blood bubble attracted two wolves. In the empty desert, the howling of wolves is terrifying. After all, he has been in the "jianghu" for many years. Panic flashed through Chen Liangfa's mind, and he immediately thought of ways to survive. Wolves are afraid of fire, so he could try the camera's flash. So he took out a flashlight and pointed it at the howling sound and clicked the shutter. The flashlight was so strong and dazzling that it actually scared the wolf away. After this adventure, when Chen Liangfa was walking in no-man's land, he added some new things to his backpack, which were fireworks and firecrackers. When he encountered a wolf again, the wolf would scare away as soon as the fireworks and firecrackers were set off. Another threat he faced while traveling alone was disease. In January 2000, Chen Liangfa suddenly caught a cold while traveling to Lhasa. The lack of oxygen and water made him increasingly weak. He was forced to drink his own urine, wrap the information he recorded in layers of plastic paper, and write "Chen Liangfa died here while walking across the country." After dealing with all this, he was exhausted and lay in the tent ready to die. At this moment, two snakes swam into the tent somehow. Chen Liangfa, who had not eaten for many days, suddenly gained strength when he saw the snakes. He picked up a knife and chopped two snakes to death, sucking the snakes' blood. He struggled outside the tent, roasted the snakes over a fire and ate them. Chen Liangfa said that he was too hungry at the time and thought that even if he died, he would be a starved man. After eating, he fell asleep without any worries. When I woke up, my illness miraculously healed. In the past eight years, he has escaped from death countless times, and he has experienced eight death threats in Xinjiang alone. Where is the strength to go on? The hungry, full, windy, snowy, and rainy hikes affected Chen Liangfa's strong body. Over the past few years, he suffered from back pain, stomach pain, arthritis and other diseases. He weighed more than 70 kilograms before departure, but now only weighs more than 50 kilograms. Once he got sick and was in a foreign country, Chen Liangfa could not help but feel homesick. Sometimes he would call home, and his elderly parents would cry on the other end of the phone and repeatedly persuade him to come back. At this time, he couldn't help but feel heartbroken. Several times he actually thought about obeying his parents' call and never leaving. However, when he put down the phone, he seemed to let go of that wavering. In addition to feeling the call of parental love on the other end of the phone, another emotion often troubled him. According to Chen Liang's rules, he can only stay in one place for a maximum of three days to facilitate interviews, rest and replenish daily necessities. Once, in a small county in Xinjiang, he hired a girl who knew Chinese to be his translator.

After three days, the 21-year-old girl fell in love with Chen Liangfa and asked him to stay. Chen Liangfa, who was wandering everywhere, didn't long for love. He couldn't sleep that night. However, the next day he left a letter to the girl and hurried on his journey without saying goodbye. In his letter, he said to the girl: Heroes are always on the road. My whole life belongs to adventure, and I will not stop on my feet. I don’t know which day I will be in trouble, and I can’t bring you happiness, so how can I accept your love? Chen Liangfa said that he felt a lot of care and warmth while walking alone. When he set off from Lianyungang, Chen Liangfa only had more than 5,000 yuan in his pocket, but in the past few years, he actually spent 200,000 yuan. Since he left quietly, no unit provided him with financial support. Part of what kept him going was the royalties he earned by constantly compiling diaries and landscape photos and publishing them in newspapers. More importantly, the people along the way, unit support. During the Spring Festival of 1996, Chen Liangfa entered the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and went to a herdsman's home to replenish water on New Year's Eve. The enthusiastic herdsman insisted on keeping him at home for the New Year and gave him a large amount of dry food; in July 1999, Xinjiang Yecheng Military Division He was given necessities such as a military kettle, liberation shoes, and compressed biscuits. The Yecheng Military Station also issued a certificate for him, asking military stations along the way to provide him with food and accommodation. On April 13 last year, he stayed at a guest house in the Altay region of Xinjiang. When the guesthouse manager Yu checked in, he saw from his ID card that his birthday happened to be that day, so he specially gave him a pair of Xinjiang leather shoes. Everywhere he went, Chen Liangfa carefully collected local cultural, geographical, economic and other information, and recorded it all in a diary. Over the past few years, his notebooks have been stamped with 500 official seals and more than 100 postmarks, written down more than 1.5 million words, 260 diaries, and taken more than 13,800 photos.

Chen Liangfa said: After completing walking in China in 2005, he planned to systematically organize his journey experience, publish two series of monographs "Walking Chinese" and "Xu Xiake Postscript" (tentative title), and hold large-scale From the photo exhibition activities, we will raise funds to do two major things. The first big thing is to walk through Lop Nur; the other is to land on the American continent and become the first Chinese to walk across the Americas. Chen Liangfa said that he would be walking all his life. He respected Xu Xiake even more than Xu Xiake.