Brandon Times: On global tour of joy and pain, he pedals on - 22 September, 2006

In 2001, Yiming Liu left China on the ride of his life, through Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Riverview … He’s been hungry enough to eat a poisonous fruit, thirsty enough to drink cow’s urine. He’s been hit by a bus in Ecuador, spooked by wolves in Egypt and jailed in Lebanon.In 2001, Yiming Liu, 45, left his home in Zhanjiang City in South China with two colleagues to bicycle around the globe. Last week, his quest took him through Riverview.

It was a grand ambition. The trio would ride through five continents, finishing in time for opening ceremonies at the 2008 Olympics. They would ride into National Stadium in Beijing as conquering heroes and the face of a new China. Liu left behind a wife and son to achieve the dream.

But Liu’s last partner dropped out three years ago, and the former physical education teacher has been pedaling the world alone ever since.

He gets by on a small stipend from his former job and the goodwill of strangers.

A worldwide Chinese community serves as his travel agent. In Miami, Liu made a few phone calls to Hillsborough County residents to announce that he would be passing through and ask for a helping hand.

But as he rode into Tampa, accommodations weren’t nailed down. On Kennedy Boulevard, Liu spotted the Jade Garden Restaurant and figured he would find someone there who spoke Chinese.

Within minutes, Riverview artist Ping Chen’s cell phone was ringing. A contact from the Chinese Association of Tampa Bay had given Liu the number.

Chen said Liu’s story impressed her.

“I said, ‘Wow, this is a very big thing,’ ” she recalled. “I will do anything I can to protect this man.”

Chen arranged for Liu to stay at her father’s Riverview home.

The single-speed bicycle loaded in the trunk of her car is Liu’s 19th. A manufacturer from Shunde City outside Hong Kong supplies new bikes whenever one breaks down or, as happened once in Colombia, is stolen.

A thick 145 pounds, he has dropped 30 pounds since embarking on the journey.

He’s on his third passport - entry stamps from Turkey, Greece, several Middle Eastern countries and other places fill up the first two.

“I just want to show humans that if you can do anything if you have enough courage and patience,” Liu said last week while visiting the home of Ping Chan, who translated for a reporter.

Liu gestured as he spoke, his toned forearms covered with mosquito bites, a reminder of his trip from South Florida.

A leather-bound book of clippings documents his journey from its 2001 inception that began along the coastlines of China, Vietnam and Cambodia.

A second scrapbook is filled with photos of Liu standing with foreign politicians, the proclamations they wrote for him and the business cards of Chinese people living abroad.

In 2002, one of Liu’s partners drank some bad water in Thailand and got too ill to continue. Liu and his remaining partner flew to east Africa, then pedaled north along the Indian Ocean coast to Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Even with a partner, Liu found it hard to carry enough food and water to cross long stretches of desert. In Jordan, weak from hunger, he pulled a dark fruit off a plant and ate it. He was on his knees moments later with a finger down his throat, his insides convulsing from an unknown poison.

Another time, also in the Middle East, Liu got sick from eating spoiled meat.

Yet he and fellow cyclist YoungJia Liu breezed along the Iraq coast in 2003 with relative ease, at times close enough to hear artillery fire.

The pair continued on to Rio de Janeiro. They stayed close to the coast until they reached the Argentina border, then cut across Uruguay to the Pacific Ocean.

The bicyclists detoured to London in 2003, where Yiming Liu hit an emotional low. YoungJia Liu announced he would have to quit due to a persistent liver ailment.

For a while, Liu also thought about quitting. Instead, he returned to South America, where he was hit by a bus in Ecuador. Liu was hospitalized for several days but escaped serious injury.

When Cuba officials blocked his entry to the United States. earlier this year, Liu temporarily returned to China. His wife, Chun Qin Zhu, met him at the airport. They hadn’t seen each other for five years.

“It’s hard to use any words to describe that kind of feeling,” Liu said. “The only words are the tears.”

Asked why he is sacrificing years away from his wife and 14-year-old son, Liu likened himself to a soldier.

“You have to be willing to die for this,” he said.

He flew to New York in June and methodically pedaled to Florida. When he makes it to California, he will disassemble his bicycle and fly to Australia.

Liu said that the Chinese government is watching his progress, and he hopes to participate in opening ceremonies in Beijing. He plans to ask the Guinness World Records office for official recognition of his effort.

No record exists for bicycling around the world, said Alessandra Stanimirov of Guinness.

On Sept. 15, more than 20 Chinese-Americans gathered on the Friendship Trail at the Gandy Bridge to cheer him on. To the irregular beat of a red ceremonial drum, the group walked onto the bridge with Liu.

“Thirty years ago the government told us what to do,” said Shouliang Lai, principal of the Tampa Bay Chinese School. “He is telling himself to do this.”

By Monday, Liu was making his way toward U.S. 19, hoping to reach California by the new year.

The most elaborate tribute, a poem, has come from Yang Chan, his Riverview host. Chan, 76, an artist and a 30-year political prisoner in China, wrote: You measure the whole earth with your feet. You are a good friend. You are halfway through. In the future you must go by yourself, with many difficulties. But you have the courage to tell yourself: I will not give up. Everyone admires you. You have a large heart and mind. And we show you respect. All of us try to support you. We wish you safety back to China.

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