'Senior backpackers' trot the globe
- By Daniel Xu and Wu Jin
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China.org.cn, September 6, 2011
Zhang Guangzhu had started laying out travel plans two years before he retired. And before he brought wife Wang Zhongjin on their maiden backpacking trip to Greece in 2008, he took year-long crash courses in English, scoured the Web for travel tips in Europe and even went through fitness trainings.
Life loves to hand out lemons at important turns, and the couple was lost immediately after landing in Athens. Never having any real practice with his newly acquired language, Zhang felt his entire collection of simple English phrases freeze in his stomach.
His wife became upset of her husband's "lack of guts." "What are we doing all the way out here if you can't even ask for simply directions?" She remembered asking him.
What came to the rescue of the stranded couple was a very familiar greeting, "Nihao!"
An airport shuttle driver, hoping to practice his Chinese, was walking toward them. He did not know much more than the simple hello. A warm sensation of relief washed over Zhang, who was finally able to summon his minimal English skills, which became even more useful when combined with hand gestures.
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Zhang Guangzhu (L) and Wang Zhongjin stand before Iguazu Falls, one of the widest waterfalls located at the border of Brazil and Argentina. In four years, the couple had backpacked through 40 countries . [Courtesy of Wang Zhongjin] |
The universal method of communication has since helped Zhang, 64, and Wang, 61, journey to more than 40 countries around the world in the past four years. Only recently did they return to Beijing from a 180-day backpacking tour that took them from the Amazon rainforests to the Antarctic glaciers and from bustling Mexico City to the wild plains of Africa.
The simple English words and a multitude of body languages have made them friends in all places. Some were surprised an old Chinese couple would venture into the back alleys of the world wielding nothing but their passions, others shared travel experiences and even engaged them in cultural and philosophical discussions – as much as their range of hand motions would allow, anyway.
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