The trip to South America was the hardest journey for the couple, and one of the reasons was the poor public security. When they traveled in the forest and on the beach, they sometimes even dared not take out their DSLR camera. However, an event that occurred during the journey to Paraty, a Brazilian town listed as a World Heritage Site, made them realize that "many times the world is not as terrible as we imagined."
Because the ticketing point and boarding point were not at the same station, plus the official language of Brazil is Portuguese, the couple was a bit confused. At this moment, they met a kind staff member who patiently told the couple how to take the metro to the station in broken English, sent them onto the metro, and even entrusted the passengers inside the carriage to remind them when to get off. When the metro door opened, a security guard at the station appeared. It turned out that the staff member had called the security guard at the destination station and asked him to send the couple to the station. Thus, the security guard escorted them all the way to the station before leaving.
She also felt helpless about the hearsay of "selling the house to travel around the world." "Recently, the click rate of our blog has dropped a bit, which is good. Travel, after all, is just our own dream!" Wang Zhongjin said calmly.
This elderly couple relied on each other, traveling through more than 30 countries and regions in three years.
From observing the world anew, re-examining themselves, and then re-evaluating whether their understanding of the world is right or wrong. In Zhang Guangzhu and Wang Zhongjin's view, travel is not only about seeing the scenery but also involves social observation and experience. However, they found that although young netizens enthusiastically praised the two elders' spirit of defying old age and courage to explore the world, they could not understand their views on the world. Recently, Wang Zhongjin posted online and was criticized by someone, making her feel wronged and helpless.
35 years ago, Wang Zhongjin was a Beijing youth who went to Shanxi for rural development and met Zhang Guangzhu, who worked at a bank at that time. That one glance of fate led Wang Zhongjin to marry Zhang Guangzhu despite her father's opposition, and their wedding room was a warehouse on the roof of the unit building. Later, both of them worked at the Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences, and Zhang Guangzhu chose to go into business at the age of 42 and was a manager of a company before retirement.
When they were busy with work, everything seemed calm. But once retired, issues arose, and they often quarreled. Wang Zhongjin pointed to the floor in front of the TV cabinet and said, "Look, this is the dent where I threw things during our argument. Later, I would slam the door and leave. His temper is also strong, easily ignited."
Love can be like this.
Not long ago, on a Beijing subway, a young man was passionately criticizing the current state of Chinese society. Wang Zhongjin could no longer bear it and asked, "Have you been abroad? Do you know what foreign countries are like? Not all fingers are the same length!" In European supermarkets, they saw how old ladies sneakily hid cracked eggs; in New York, USA, they saw street beggars defraud government subsidies; while using credit cards in Australia, they were stolen 50 Australian dollars by a white shop owner.
Language barriers, trivial matters, busy work schedules, and economic limitations... These are the confusions of those who have dreams of global travel but cannot take the first step. The two "elderly backpackers" firmly crossed one obstacle after another. To save money, they always carried a pot during their travels, which indeed saved them quite a bit on food expenses. However, after traveling through dozens of countries, Wang Zhongjin and Zhang Guangzhu did spend a lot of money. When the reporter asked Zhang Guangzhu how much money they spent in total, he modestly replied: "About the cost of a mid-to-high-end car, hundreds of thousands of yuan." For the two elderly people, this amount was not small, but Wang Zhongjin was very calm, "When you choose to achieve your dream one day, as long as you have the courage and determination, nothing will be an obstacle!"
In a small street in southern Beijing, the sun was warm and lazy, and cars moved forward in a winding manner. Knocking on the door and entering the house, Wang Zhongjin was washing the pot, calling the reporter of the Global People magazine to sit down, and she sat cross-legged too, while her husband Zhang Guangzhu leaned on the sofa.
Li Xue
Global travel for a happy life
In their view, they are pursuing their own happy life. "Happiness is not determined by a high level of material civilization. It is about living the kind of life you want, and that is the happiest. For example, the aborigines in Australia, despite the government providing them with housing and a weekly subsidy of 200 Australian dollars, still prefer to sleep in the wild at night."
In 2007, during a hike in Tiger Leaping Gorge, Zhang Guangzhu and Wang Zhongjin stayed at a local Naxi family inn. One evening, they happened to meet the innkeeper hosting a wedding banquet. Guests from different countries gathered together chatting and eating, creating a lively atmosphere. Among them was a foreign tourist who didn't speak Chinese, but his interest was no less than others. When communication was difficult, he let others help translate or used body language instead. His happiness deeply infected Zhang Guangzhu.
A month ago, they ended their fourth trip and returned to Beijing. Tens of thousands of photos documented their 180-day, 14-country South American journey. "We camped in Antarctica, slept in hammocks in the Amazon, attended black Easter Mass in churches, searched for history in Machu Picchu, swam in the wetlands, observed various aspects of life in weekend markets, experienced popular culture in luxury settings, and enjoyed campfires under the stars." The passionate words in their blog posts were hard to believe coming from two elderly people in their sixties.
During the South American trip, when they reached Cusco, Peru, known as the "pearl on the crown of the Andes," Wang Zhongjin could no longer hold on. She suffered from altitude sickness and caught a cold, with a fever of 40 degrees Celsius. None of the medicines they brought worked, so they had to rush to the emergency center. After treatment, the fever finally subsided. However, at an altitude of 3,200 meters without a pressure cooker, the rice and noodles were half-cooked, and Wang Zhongjin's stomach couldn't handle it, vomiting everything she ate. This troubled Zhang Guangzhu greatly, as every time they changed locations, the two large bags and two small bags were all carried by him. Upon arrival at the hotel, he had to take care of Wang Zhongjin, buy groceries, cook meals, and couldn't sleep soundly at night. "Without him, I really don't know how I would have gotten through it. We've lived such ordinary lives for so many years, but when we started traveling, we began to understand each other again. It's like we're back to the days when we were dating."
"Every trip is a systematic project involving many factors, from applying for visas, designing routes, booking flights and hotels, considering uncontrollable risks, to budgeting funds. We are our own travel agency, planning and executing everything ourselves." Zhang Guangzhu told the reporter.
But the couple's backpacking trips gradually changed them. "After walking this path, the biggest harvest is that our relationship has become stronger. Life's journey is about supporting and helping each other, loving each other in difficulties, and overcoming challenges together. There is no smooth road, but there is a road that can be walked forever."
This is an ordinary household in a common alley. Zhang Guangzhu is 64 years old, and Wang Zhongjin is 61. They have a daughter and an 8-year-old grandson. Yet, they are extraordinary because in the past three years, they have embarked on a global journey and written a blog under the name "Elderly Backpackers," gaining widespread recognition. Their next stop will be West Asia and the Middle East.
During their travels, they also witnessed many beautiful love stories. In the Pantanal Wetland of Brazil, far from modern civilization, only a few hundred people visit here each year. Backpackers come and go, but a German girl stayed, waiting for the boat returning in the twilight. Later, they learned that she fell in love with the scenery here and also with the smart and capable Brazilian guide who spoke fluent English, so she stayed. Wang Zhongjin sighed, "Love can be like this."
The distance between hearts is not far. The world is originally diverse, and when they use an open mind and a multi-perspective view to look at all kinds of things, they find that communication between people can be so simple. On their way to Manaus, deep in the Amazon, the couple chose to take a slow boat. On the boat, Wang Zhongjin met a local old lady. Although they couldn't speak the same language, it didn't hinder their communication. Holding hands together - Are you married? Making a semi-circle on the belly - How many children do you have? Making braids near the ear - How many girls? After a few days and nights of interaction, they chatted happily and became friends.
Faced with his wife's sighs, Zhang Guangzhu jokingly said, "What excites me most is that when I'm hungry, you have already prepared the meal." In fact, he is as rational as his wife - he secretly wipes his eyes when his wife thanks him for taking care of her; he also suddenly stops talking and gently looks at his wife, "You talk."
In March 2008, they began their first global trip - a 90-day journey through 16 European countries. During this period, they experienced a different kind of Alps in Chamonix, France, where the forest was dense at the foot of the mountain, and the snow-covered peaks sparkled golden in the sunset. They also took a 20-hour train ride from Stockholm, Sweden, to Narvik, Norway, experiencing the changes in time, region, and season from a bustling city to a desolate Arctic area. Since then, they haven't stopped - a 105-day trip to the United States, Canada, Cuba, and Mexico; an 8-day trip to Russia...
While traveling in the Amazon, there were several hippies dressed extravagantly in their tour group. At first, the couple often kept their distance because, in their impression, hippies were like idle hooligans. Until one day during breakfast, a young man from Colombia curiously asked them if they would go to Colombia. They said they couldn't get a visa. The young man exclaimed, "Colombia is so poor, yet it requires a visa?" From the topic of visas, the conversation continued to dancing, and the young man vividly explained the origins of tango and samba with lively body language, teaching them how to distinguish between the two dances while dancing. Zhang Guangzhu said, "I began to gradually understand them. They are not as cynical as we imagined, but rather full of love for life, just unwilling to be bound by tradition."
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