Three years ago, a Chinese farmer packed his worldly possessions into a rusty rickshaw, and, after pedaling 37,500 miles (60,000 km) through 16 countries and more than 1,700 cities, arrived in London.
Chen Guanming, a 58-year-old from Jiangsu Province in eastern China, is a huge fan of all things Olympics, so he decided to pedal his rickshaw all the way from China to “promote the Olympic spirit” and see the London 2012 opening ceremony.
The ever-smiling Chen decided one global trek to an Olympic venue was not enough. A friend found a shipping company willing to transport his rickshaw to Canada, so he can begin pedaling across the Americas to Brazil in time for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games.
Even though he only speaks Mandarin, and just a few words of English, the man told the BBC he will keep going. “This is my job now, to tell the people of the world about the Olympics and about peace.”
(READ the story w/ many photos, from the BBC)
Thanks to Andrew N. for submitting the link!
Photo credits: (top) xpgomes11 via Flickr – CC
(bottom) R. Schofield via Flickr – CC