300 Days Touring China

After graduating from college, my girlfriend Su Xiao and I, Li Cheng, skipped the usual routes of graduate school, civil service exams, and job hunting.

We decided to take a gap year.

We saved up some money, bought a slightly used SUV, and made a wild plan to travel around China for 300 days.

Starting on the prosperous eastern coast, we set off counterclockwise.

Jiangnan's rain, the winds of the northern frontier, the spicy food of the southwest, and the far-flung borderlands.

Trouble followed us all the way: breakdowns, dwindling cash, roads blocked by terrible weather, arguments and cold shoulders, getting cheated and scammed, exhaustion that made us want to curse, videos that nobody watched, delivery maps that sent us the wrong way, jobs that landed us in sweatshops, and the harsh wilderness of the distant deserts.

But there was so much more: embraces beneath the stars, helping hands from strangers, breathtaking scenery, mouthwatering food, and two young people gradually learning to get along on the road, to understand each other, the world, and themselves.

Three hundred days wasn't a vacation. It was survival, experience, and a way of scattering our youth across the map of our homeland.

[Road trip + everyday life + travel + one heroine + survival + encounters + food + scenery + relaxing + heartwarming]