After hundreds of photographs, 2 punctures, mud-soaked shoes and burning quads, I returned home to Shanghai to begin work again after the National Holiday. Over the break, I went on an amazing journey with a group called China Charity Challenge (CCC). CCC aspires to develop a successful model for adventure travel connected to good causes by using travel as a means to connect to communities and implement sustainable projects.

This year, CCC partnered with Roots and Shoots (R&S), an international hands-on environmental and humanitarian education program that engages youth. In China there are R&S offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. R&S Chengdu is the youngest office in China and is still in its early stages of development. As such, CCC partnered with them to initiate a major project to set up 40 new environmental groups in rural Yunnan and Sichuan areas with the end goal of spreading environmental awareness to 500 kids.

The trip was a success in my mind. I got to witness different cultures, poverty and a way of life that seemed so distant to me before the trip. I also developed a deeper understanding of the challenges NGOs face in their start-up stages and act in a way that will help strengthen a grassroots program for areas previously ignored in China. Overall, our group raised over 40,000 RMB to be directed toward R&S training of local teachers in Jinhe Township (Yanyuan County, Jingshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province) and got to connect with the students of Deli Village Primary School located in the midst of Sichuan’s winding mountains.

Full report after the break

The Set-up
We had 20 people from a variety of places ranging from various Chinese cities, Hong Kong, Australia and America. Ages ranged from early 20s to mid-50s. It was an energetic, eclectic group full of FUN. We had 2 CCC staff that organized the events and managed our group. One of the managers, Mark Thirlwall, is an avid biker and the other, Vinny Ng, is involved in nonprofit work for Chinese children (see the China Education Initiative: www.chinaeducationinitiative.org). We also had two cycling pros from Yunnan, who knew the route very well and could solve all maintenance issues for biking equipment One of them, known as Lao Xiong (老熊)，organizes biking trips from Yunnan to Tibet (see: http://www.ftfbikes.com/).

Day 1: Arrival
We all met up at Kunming Airport and loaded a truck with our bikes and our bodies onto a separate van to make our way to the starting location in Lijiang, Kunming. We immediately felt the situation to be a bit ironic given the fact that we were contributing a lot of CO2 already via air travel and now driving. I have to buy 3 trees for a total cost of 75 RMB to cover my carbon footprint. Check out the Million Tree Project with Roots and Shoots Shanghai (http://www.jgi-shanghai.org/Content.aspx?ItemID=164) and calculate your footprint here (http://www.travelmath.com/flight-emissions/).

Day 2: Lijiang and Test Ride
We went for a test ride around the outer areas of Lijiang. The Old Town of Lijiang is an old city of ethnic minorities with brilliant culture and is a central town of the Lijiang Autonomous County of the Naxi Ethnic Minority in Yunnan Province. It is listed as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites and is famous for its system of waterways and bridges.

While walking through the labyrinthine streets trying to find our first destination, I felt like I was in an ancient Chinese town. Many elderly people huddled close together in their traditional clothes as groups of Naxi men and women went on stage to sing and dance. I walked my bike through the crowds of wrinkled, tan faces and blue dresses and hats.

We finally arrived at the Nature Conservancy Yunnan project office (www.nature.org/china ). We learned about the many projects the group is carrying out such as the Alternative Energy Project; Green Building Project; Forest Restoration for Climate, Community and Biodiversity Project; Sustainable Forest Management Project; Yangtze River Project; Wetlands Protection Project; Community Participation Project; China Rural Energy Enterprise Development Project; Non-Timber Forest Products Project; National Parks Project; Poverty Alleviation in Communities Surrounding Nature Reserves Project; Environmental Education Project; Lijiang Visitor’s Center Project; Invasive Species Education Project; Yunnan Golden Monkey Project; and Green Wood Procurement Project. As you can see, they are doing a lot of work and each project is in its various stage of development. Particularly of interest to me are the projects that are working on energy in rural areas and working with rural communities.

The woman who gave us the introduction to the office grew up with the organization and talked to me about the local Naxi people, who have a prevalent presence in Lijiang town. The Naxi people, which literally means “the honored people,” inhabit areas in Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet, and number around 300,000. The Naxi have their own language and pictograph writing system although most Naxi people are also familiar with the Chinese language and writing system as well. Their lifestyle is mostly based on farming, handicrafts and stockbreeding where the horse is highly treasured.

Day 3: Lijiang to Ning Lang (Biked 70km)
For the first day of actual riding, we were delayed because of a morning storm. The majority of the ride was in the mountains and we had to snake our way through delayed traffic due to a landslide mid-way through our route. I got my first mud bath and taste of cobble stone roads that wound their way up the dizzying mountain with steep drop-off ledges. After 70 kilometers of riding we packed up our bikes in order to get to our destination, Ning Lang before nightfall.

Day 4: Ning Lang to Luo Sui, Yunnan side of Lugu Lake (Biked 55 km)
This was by far the most arduous day of biking for me. We climbed for 20 kilometers (roughly 3 hours straight) up a steep and cobbled road while it rained and the weather was freezing. While climbing the mountain, the cobbled stones pushed my tires back and as soon as I’d try to catch the rock below, I’d slip off because of the rain. It became faster to walk my bike than ride after 7 kilometers of exhaustion and sweat. I dedicate this leg to Steven Prost, one of my sponsors for the trip.

After reaching the peak I felt triumph and relief for the 20-kilometer downhill ride…or so I thought. As we started to pick up speed (yes we finally reached pavement!) I felt how cold the weather was because I was no longer trying so hard to climb the slope. My hands were frozen in my biking gloves and I was not physically able to change my gears, let alone successfully squeeze the brakes. After we found our hotel, I tried to wash all the mud off myself and tried to tear a piece of bread in half. I failed at both due to the cold.

That night we had an amazing dinner followed by dancing and singing. The hotel owner sang a song for us and it was amazing and ineffably beautiful. It felt good to come together and celebrate the day’s accomplishment and nourish our sore bodies.

Day 5: Luo Sui to Luo Wa, Sichuan side of Lugu Lake (Biked 35 km)
We had as easy ride to the Yunnan side of Lugu Lake to a village called “Luo Wa.” There we encountered people from the Mosuo ethnicity, which are a subset of the Naxi minority.

The Mosuo are a small minority with a population of only 50,000 living in the area surrounding Lugu Lake where they live an agrarian lifestyle. The Mosuo peope have a distinct language and culture and are most notable for their tradition of matriarchy. In Mosuo culture, women act as the heads of most households and lineage is traced through the mother’s side. When it comes to marriage, the Mosuo practice what is known as walking marriages where women can invite a man to become their partner. While the details of this practice are very complex, the basic premise of it includes the man walking to the woman’s house at night and then walking back home in the morning. He also actively helps raise the children of his sisters and aunts.

Day 6: Luo Wa to Yan Yuan (Biked 123 km)
Day six was our longest day in terms of distance. We biked 123 kilometers to Yan Yuan. On our way we passed through villages with mud huts and small towns filled with roadside sellers of the sweetest apples you could ever try. We also encountered various Buddhist markings along the way that were covered with prayer flags.

Day 7: Yan Yuan to Ping Chuan (Biked 60 km)
We biked 70 kilometers to Ping Chuan and got to see spectacular mountains that were covered with a thin layer of clouds. We could also feel the light mist from waterfalls that sprinkled the roadside as we ascended and climbed varying altitudes throughout the day. We stayed in a small town and ate the spiciest Sichuan food of the trip. Every dish covered my tongue in ma (麻),a numbing spice that makes you salivate with a pain that is addicting. After treacherous food and ruddy cheeks, we retired for the night to prepare for the last day of riding.

Day 8: Ping Chuan to Xi Chang (Biked 30 km)
For the last day, we set off early so we could make it to Deli Village Primary School. It was a steady 15-kilometer climb up to the school where we were greeted by curious, smiling faces.
After formal greetings, we donated all of the school supplies we had brought with us on the trip. We had tables full of goods to give to a school that was alarmingly poor, but decent compared to other rural schools in China.

Thereafter, we organized a clean-up activity picking up trash around the school’s premises. Since the school is located in such a remote location, a regular garbage delivery system does not exist, therefore many rural areas are littered with rubbish because families often discard materials on the ground next to their homes. Since our time was limited, we tried to do what we could within the limited time frame to physically improve the environment and, hopefully, introduce a new way of thinking about the area surrounding the students. I do not think that this activity alone was sustainable by any means; but coupled with regular visits and activities, the building blocks were laid down for a new environmental way of thinking.

Roots and Shoots Chengdu is the newest of the Chinese R&S offices and is currently suffering from a lack of resources and staff. They must travel to all the remote rural locations outside of Chengdu and frequently monitor the programs at the new schools. Our arrival at the school was the first time the R&S staff had ever visited the school and there is a steep learning ahead for both the staff and the school.

During the visit, a logical question come to the forefront of the discussion by many riders, which went something along the lines of: “For a school so incredibly impoverished, would our efforts would be better spent giving them basic supplies rather than an environmental program?” Of course, for students just struggling to get by, this is a very valid point that cannot be discarded.

However, it must be remembered that a good portion of the children we met will stay home in their village and become the next generation of leaders in their remote area. Instilling a basic foundation of environmental awareness may seem minor, but the effect is huge for a whole village of people. Of course many rural Chinese people are already very thrifty with the resources they have, but their thrift can be harnessed in more unexpected ways; the results of which we shall have to await to see.

If you would like to be apart of next year’s China Charity Challenge, check out http://www.chinacharitychallenge.org/ .