In June 2010, after President Carter returned to his hometown 30 years later, on a Sunday morning, Qi Tian and Yuan Jun met him in a Catholic church in Press City. He opened the Bible, found a passage and read it, then began to express his own feelings: "In fact, I just want to remind everyone, to remind all Americans that there are many places in this world beyond our sight. God teaches us to love our neighbors, which may make us ignore those who are thousands of miles away..." After the service ended, Carter was already standing outside the door, holding his wife's hand, leaning against a shrub, waiting for the tourists to come for a photo. The two young Chinese people walked forward, stood beside the couple, and smiled at the camera. Standing next to Carter, Qi Tian heard Carter kept saying "Welcome you, thank you, hope you can come to see me again in the future."
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In August 2010, as the journey approached its finale, the two people reached New York. "When we were in New York, we had countless opportunities to see the Statue of Liberty, but we didn't go," they gave their reason: "It is a 'too touristy attraction' 'We want to walk a more real America.'"
The same year, both Qi Tian and Li Yuanjun, an 80s-born Beijing boy and a Henan girl, met at a classmate gathering during their study at the University of Pennsylvania. One studied architecture, the other studied electronics. After completing their studies, the two made a decision that would affect them for life - not to get married, but to spend a year traveling across the United States by car from Philadelphia! Thus, they had 60,000 kilometers of roads, 48 states, and 100 cities...
To find real Native Americans, the two came to the Pine Ridge Reservation at the foot of the Black Hills. There, they encountered a Lakota family: two middle-aged women were busy around a car full of bullet holes, with necklaces and earrings made of colorful plastic pillars and small pieces of bones placed on the hood. A long-haired man descended from the hillside, leading several saddleless horses, with two boys of about ten years old, red-faced, with ponytails, following behind. At this scene, a little girl of three or four ran away from her mother's side, rushing towards the man. The man picked her up, gently threw her onto the bare horseback, she naturally grabbed the horse mane, sat steadily, rode two steps, and giggled. Seeing this, Qi Tian finally mustered up the courage to approach one of the middle-aged women and strike up a conversation: "Hello, are you local Native Americans?" "No, Indian is the American word, we are NATIVE AMERICAN (American indigenous people)." She said while laughing, "My husband can take you for a horse ride, a circle costs 25 dollars"...
On August 27, 2009, the two packed their luggage, picked up their camera, and set off in their two-wheel-drive RAV4. About a month after the start of the journey, the two young people arrived in Chicago, Illinois. In early October, their two-wheel-drive RAV4 finally crossed the Missouri River and entered the western United States.
Li Yuanjun took a photo with the Carter couple. Qi Tian and Li Yuanjun interviewed Native Americans.
The U.S. newspaper "The World Journal"
In order to find real Native Americans, the two came to the foothills of the Black Hills, the Pine Ridge Reservation. There, they encountered a Lakota family...