She went on her first international trip at age 56. Now this Chinese grandma is exploring the world by bike

Li Dongju was accompanied by her brown poodle on her cycling journey across China in 2015. Li Dongju via CNN Newsource

Hong Kong — In her late 50s and early 60s, Li Dongju found herself solo traveling alongside people a third of her age. But despite her late start, she has now biked solo through 12 countries across three continents.

The 66-year-old grandmother from Zhengzhou, in China’s central Henan province, has pedaled around Southeast Asia, Europe, and Oceania, visiting countries like Cambodia, France and Australia on her journeys.

Speaking only Mandarin, she relied entirely on translation apps to communicate with locals. On a tight budget, she camped in parks, gas stations and even cemeteries, though she says many kind locals welcomed her into their homes.

Li’s adventure was halted by the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2022. But she says that her cycling experiences have been “life changing.” Li believes that travel was what cured a decade-long depression that followed her divorce in 2005.

“Before cycling, I was heavily dependent on others … and felt like a frog in a well,” she said. “Now, I’m a wild wolf — free, fearless and independent.”

Becoming a ‘wild wolf’

Li first got interested in biking in 2013, when a group of fully geared cyclists whizzed past her. The group’s upbeat vibe sparked “a surge of envy” in Li, who says she was very depressed at the time.

The retiree has been living on her pension — which is currently 3,000 yuan ($414) a month — since she was laid off from a state-owned textile factory in 2002.

Short on cash, Li first bought herself just a bicycle helmet, but later her son gifted her a folding mountain bike, which costs about 1,000 yuan ($138).

Although she dreamed of cycling to Tibet, the “roof of the world,” it felt impossible, as Li says she had only 170 yuan ($23.50) to her name.

After a year of working as a house cleaner, she finally saved enough to join two seasoned cyclists she met online for a Southeast Asian adventure.

However, the poorly equipped beginner — with only a basic mobile phone and the entry-level mountain bike — lost her travel companions after a week in Vietnam, finding herself alone in a strange land.

Luckily, she met a Chinese-speaking local cyclist, who she said helped her return home.

Despite her chaotic trip to Vietnam, Li was undeterred and decided to spend time biking around China to get more comfortable on two wheels.

In 2015, she pedaled through 20 Chinese cities, from southeastern Hainan to far-western Xinjiang. Her brown poodle Xili (“razor sharp”) was her only travel companion, snuggling in the basket of Li’s bike. Sadly, Xili died in 2023, at the age of 11.

Throughout the trip, Li was able to keep funding her travel by taking one-off gigs like cleaning in a spa and washing dishes in a high-end hotel.

Two years later, the then-59-year-old was ready to revisit Southeast Asia — this time equipped with a smartphone loaded with translation and map apps, a comprehensive travel plan, and two elderly cycling pals she met online.

Her two teammates were ready to call it quits and go home after about three weeks, but this time, Li opted to continue her journey solo, slowly biking through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar.

Li and her two cycling buddies are part of a growing group of “silver travelers” in China, where the population is aging at an alarming rate. According to Dai Bin, head of China Tourism Academy, who spoke to the state-run People’s Daily earlier this month, many Chinese seniors are choosing outbound travel nowadays, cruising to different destinations or combining travel with residency abroad.

Spending about 70 days total in the four countries, Li came back home with thousands of memory-loaded photos — and confidence to explore farther afield.

By 2019, Li was ready for another challenge. That spring, she set off to bike through six European countries. Over 66 days, she bumped into an octogenarian solo hiker in Croatia, chatted with bartenders via Google Translate in Bosnia and Herzegovina and followed local grannies in France to snag discount baguettes in supermarkets.

In November, she flew to Australia.

At that time, Australia was being ravaged by the worst wildfires the country had seen in decades. Burned forests and charred kangaroos frequently appeared along her way.

As she pedaled along the Pacific Highway, a quiet coastal road, she spotted smoke rising from nearby brush and says she alerted the local police with a clip she shot, preventing a serious fire from developing.

“I was so proud of myself.” Li told CNN. “I felt like I’d done a little bit for Australia.” Li went to New Zealand and then returned home in March 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic was spreading. At that point, Li realized she’d stopped taking her depression medication.

Li believes that her adventures cured her depression. However, not everyone agrees that travel is a substitute for medication. Dr. Zhang Lixia, from a psychiatric hospital in Li’s hometown of Zhengzhou, notes that it’s crucial to follow doctors’ advice and make any treatment or medication changes under professional supervision.

‘Pass on kindness’

Still, Li’s travels had their challenges. In Australia, she lost her backpack containing all her cycling gear and supplies and had to start over. While crossing the border in Bosnia and Herzegovina, she thought that two armed border guards wanted high fives — but they were actually waving her down for an inspection.

But Li says that she has had more positive experiences than negative ones.

On a scorching day in Australia, a couple in an RV stopped to offer her a large bottle of ice-cold water, a hamburger, and some pomegranates. On another sweltering night, just as Li was about to set up her tent in a park, a couple — both avid cyclists who had visited China, according to Li — invited the older woman to stay at their home instead.

“Every time I see her (photo), it brings tears to my eyes,” said Li, who brings Chinese knots that she can give as tokens of gratitude to all those who have helped her out during travel woes.

It has been three years since Li’s journey was abruptly halted by the Covid pandemic. Now, the grandmother is “doing her homework” for a planned trip from Kazakhstan to the United Arab Emirates.

“My goal is to visit at least 100 countries,” she told CNN. “Travel is like a drug. Once you taste it, you just can’t stop.”

Article written by Joyce Jiang, CNN