Coolest class ever: Shanghai’s kindergarten teacher to bike across Antarctica (3)

Antarctica, the coldest place on Earth, will soon become the coolest class for kids in Shanghai, since their teacher could become the first person in history to cross Antarctica on bike.

Leandro Martins, a Brazilian kindergarten teacher working in Shanghai, is going to cross Antarctica by bike in November, and he plans to teach his Chinese students about this adventurous expedition via satellite phone once a week throughout his cycling trip.

“Since I cannot take my little kids with me to Antarctica, Antarctica will come to them,” Martins told People’s Daily in an exclusive interview.

In Martins’ bold project of biking across Antarctica, which is scheduled to last for two months, being able to keep teaching his students is his favorite part. Practicing is the best way of teaching, as the teacher kept emphasizing during the interview.

The satellite call from Antarctica will be a way for the students to get to know more about the coldest and one of the most mysterious places on Earth, he said.

Martins started working as a kindergarten teacher in Shanghai in 2014 after the end of his one-year-cycling trip that started from the Netherlands in 2013. That year-long project took the 33-year-old cyclist to 18 countries where he not only met and befriended many people, but also received blessings from Pope Francis in Vatican.

The idea of going to Antarctica hit Martins in 2014 during his bike trip when Daniel Burton became the first person to reach the South Pole by bike. According to Martins, he then got in touch with Burton and invited him to Shanghai to work on Martins’ expedition, which he said will hopefully be the first one to cross the whole continent.

The Brazilian is also supported by a professional team that includes Burton, Hannah McKeand, who holds the record for skiing from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, and Mia Ballenden, an experienced sports dietician.

The team has been helping Martins prepare for the expedition in perfect order, including a bike training plan in “Ice City” Harbin in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province to adapt to low-temperature cycling. The city’s average winter temperature hovers around –25C, which is about the same for Antarctic.

Though highly preoccupied with his training, Martins has visited several Chinese cities and said he is deeply attracted by Chinese culture and the nation’s rapid rise. Specifically, he spoke highly of Chinese students’ hard work and determination, which would become the mainstay in the future.

“This is the nation that will take the next man to the moon and do even greater things,” Martins told People’s Daily.

Proud of being a cyclist and a teacher, Martins said he plans to return to his classroom in Shanghai, which he now calls “home.”