Never too old for adventure

Updated: 2016-02-03 08:24

By Xu Lin(China Daily)

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An elderly Chinese couple has faced rockets, police and cheek-kisses to backpack the world. Xu Lin reports.

"Bomb!"

Li Xinpei was confused when an old Israeli woman frantically repeated the English word to her.

The woman gestured.

"Bang! You die!" she said.

Li still didn't understand - and wondered why everyone in the vicinity had gathered under a bridge.

But the 69-year-old and her husband, Kong Shijie, joined the huddle when they saw someone stop their car and dash out.

They had no idea the people in Tel Aviv were hiding from Gaza rockets until she later saw photos of explosions in newspapers.

It was July 2014, a period during which Israeli-Palestinian tensions erupted, when the elderly couple visited Israel on their fourth overseas backpacking expedition.

They've traveled to 36 countries in Southeast Asia, Europe and North America over the past seven years, and recount earlier adventures in Li's 2013 book, Traveling the World to Lead a Different Life.

"I'm curious about the world," the retired executive of a Beijing company says.

"These bittersweet explorations have enriched me. We want to seize what days we have left before our health gives out."

As an adolescent, she was fascinated by depictions of mysterious overseas destinations she'd read about in literary classics, such as the isolated Chateau d'If in The Count of Monte Cristo and Verona city in Romeo and Juliet.

She dreamed of seeing them. Decades later, she did.

"People assume it's difficult for elderly folks like us to backpack overseas," Li says.

"How can you know if you don't try?"

Li has leg problems, and her 76-year-old husband has a benign brain tumor.

This means they have to do more to prepare for their trips than just booking itineraries and getting visas.

They exercise to stay healthy. Kong has also studied remedial massage.

Li taught herself English at the age of 60 and became proficient within a year and a half.

Kong agrees the extra efforts are worth it.

"The magnificent buildings we've seen have stirred my soul," the 76-year-old retired engineer says.

"Experiencing cultures, sceneries and historical sites makes overcoming difficulties worthwhile."

Most tourists left Tel Aviv as the violence escalated.

Li and Kong were the only guests in their hotel, where service staff clutched carbine machine guns and pistols. Air-raid sirens woke them at night.

But returning to China would mean losing their nonrefundable connecting flights for the rest of their journey.

So they stuck it out.

"We've been in various situations and are fearless," Li says.

"There's always a way out."

The couple then headed to Jerusalem, as per their original plan, two days later.

They'd arrived in the country after visiting Amman, Jordan, during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan because flights and accommodation were cheaper.

"We'd never imagined it could be so hot in the summer," Li recalls.

It was nearly 50 C.

"And fasting was too hard."

Food wasn't served between dawn and sunset.

Yet one day, they were able to get KFC hamburgers but weren't allowed to eat them in the restaurant.

So they sneaked to a shopping mall's corner and planted their faces into their sandwiches until they noticed a pair of feet stop in front of them.

It was a policeman.

Never too old for adventure

Li pleaded with the cop, explaining her husband needed to eat because of his disease. He perhaps saw past her fib but took pity on them and gave them one minute to scarf the calories.

They fell ill several months after their journey through the Middle East, yet plan to live in Northern Europe this year to immerse themselves in the culture.

Li enjoys engaging locals on the road, picking up information and friends along the way.

"We're touched that many strangers helped us."

They recall a man in Britain who, after taking his wife home, accompanied them in the rain on a bus to their hotel at 3 am after they missed their train.

The couple says traveling afar together has brought them closer.

"We've gone through thick and thin on the road," she says.

"It's not easy."

Li literally thrusts her husband out of his comfort zone.

Many foreigners have wanted to hug or cheek-kiss Kong upon discovering he's Confucius' 74th-generation descendent.

"He tries to dodge the kisses. But I push him forward," she says, smiling.

Contact the writer at xulin@chinadaily.com.cn

Never too old for adventure

 Never too old for adventure

From top: Li Xinpei and her husband, Kong Shijie, at the Colosseum, Rome, when they first traveled to Europe in 2009. Li poses for a picture in front of the British Museum. Li with a French woman and her two kids on a bus. Photos Provided To China Daily

(China Daily 02/03/2016 page19)

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