Tibet Story: Backpacker delivering charitable donations across China's Tibet

LHASA, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Shi Hongqing, 52, once dreamed of travelling across Eurasia by bike, but he changed his mind upon his arrival in Lhasa, the capital city of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, out of pure love for the public welfare cause.

Hailing from northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Shi was once a carpenter in a local pasture. The humdrum existence soon bored the young man. One day he read about the exotic sceneries and cultures of other countries on the continents of Europe and Asia, and got lost in thoughts.

"I had heard a lot about the exciting outside world from my friends, and thus I made up my mind to become a backpacker in 1993, hoping to ride all across Eurasia," he recalled.

During his trip to Tibet in 2001, Shi ditched his bike for a horse, a common transportation means at that time in the region. When Shi reached more than 4,000 meters above sea level, the muddy roads forced him to continue his journey on foot.

With little replenishment, he had to eat wild vegetables growing along the roads. Unfortunately, he got poisoned and began hallucinating when climbing a mountain.

"I thought I was about to die there, since it was in the middle of nowhere. However, a local villager saved me, offering me home-made yak butter tea and food," Shi said, adding that it was the help and support of warm-hearted strangers on his journey that enabled him to reach Lhasa in 2003.

"Though I belong to a different ethnic group and speak a different language from that of the local Tibetan residents, they always smile back at me whenever I smile," Shi said. "I have been to many places, but this is where I am received with the most warmth," he added.

The backpacker was deeply touched by the kindness of the locals and began his public welfare career by donating unused and unwanted clothes to those in need.

Shi later opened his own pub in the city, attracting visitors from other parts of China, many of whom have proved to be civil-minded. People began to ask Shi to help them transfer their donations to children living far away from the city proper. New clothes, stationery, books -- anything the children may need but can hardly afford -- are brought to the pub and then sent to schools in Tibet's distant pasturing areas.

Over the past decade, Shi's charitable donations collected by himself and other backpackers have reached over 60 counties in Tibet, with more than 1,000 "kind strangers" like the one who saved his life on the mountain involved in this love and care campaign.

"What Shi does is extraordinarily moving to me. I once followed him to deliver such donations to the rural areas. Looking at the bright smiles and into the clear eyes of the children, I felt my heart was melting and got to understand the reason why Shi has kept sending the materials all the time," said Li Kunming, a visitor to Tibet from southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Shi is proud of his pub becoming a famous "transfer station" of love and care. On trips to deliver such donations, he has also found some welcome changes in the pasturing areas, such as the much improved road traffic and living conditions of the locals, as well as better healthcare and material supplies in the rural areas.

"Tibet offered me a new start in life. It was the kind smiles and people's goodness in Lhasa, which is often dubbed 'the city of sunshine,' that made me decide to settle down and end my backpacker journey. I hope I can plant the seed of warmth in others' hearts by doing my part," Shi said.