BEIJING, Aug. 3 -- Marcus Haraldsson, a Swedish journalist and photographer, has cycled twice from Xining, capital of Qinghai province to Hong Kong with a distance of nearly 4000 kilometers for the first time and half of that for the second time on bike. He has witnessed great improvement in ordinary people's living conditions especially in western China's rural areas just over seven years. He put his experiences and impressions into a book in Swedish titled 'A line across China'.

    "I like bicycling. When I was 12 years old, I wrote in my diary that I wanted to travel around the world. In 1999, I was studying Chinese in Chengdu. I thought it might be interesting to travel across China by bike," said Mr. Haraldsson in an interview with People's Daily Online reporter during the Chinese Cultural Festival in Sigtuna, north of Stockholm.

    In his book, he said that it was when he was bathing at Sichuan University, he came up with the idea of bicycling across China because he felt it was not very satisfactory by just staying with all the foreigners who came to China to study Chinese. He wanted to meet real Chinese and learn about their life. He also liked to use the language he learnt.

    After some time preparation including buying a mountain bike with 1400 yuan or about 200 US dollars, he drew the line from Xining to Hong Kong crossing Gansu, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Guangdong provinces.

    Then-20-year-old Haraldsson divided the trip in two parts. One is from Xining to Chengdu, he cycled with a friend and from Chengdu to Hong Kong he did that himself. It took about 10 weeks. When he finally arrived in Hong Kong, he could hardly imagine that 7 years later he would travel again by bike on the same route.

    "I did it twice because I wanted to see how people's lives have changed. During my first trip, I saw a lot of poverty and I felt it was as if in the middle ages in some western areas, it was much poorer in 1999 than the trip I experienced in Europe," said Haraldsson.

    During the years, he has studied peace and conflict, journalism, photography and other skills. He has been a journalist for different kinds of media including newspaper and magazine. Now he reports more on political, social and environment news from South Africa since he is living there now.

    "After 1999 I see a lot happening in China and I wanted to understand what was going on, why it was going on and how it was. One day when I was in Russia, it suddenly came to my mind that I will do the same trip again because I have hundreds of pictures and the contacts and places. I thought if I took the pictures with me, I would find those people again and dig up their stories and get to know how people's lives have changed over the years. I also wonder how the villages and cities changed. This time I prepared for about a year and a half because I wanted to write a book about it," said Haraldsson.

    His second trip began from Xining in January 2006 and ended in Chengdu in March. Then he began the part from Chengdu to Hong Kong in the fall of 2006. In between he still refreshed his Chinese at Sichuan University.

    "I expected a lot of development along the coast in Guangzhou and those areas, but in fact, the greatest development was in the rural areas. The villages I passed by in 1999 were almost like that in the middle ages, very simple houses, no knowledge about the world, no electricity, no technology, no telephones, people were curious about foreigners. When I came back in 2006, there were new houses, mobile phones, computers and the people knew the world was round and they knew how a foreigner looks like, that was just seven years, a completely new world has been built. There were huge changes in those areas, " said Haraldsson.

    "I started from Xining and then eastward where there are many Tibetans living there. In 1999, the monastery I lived by was in very poor condition. People had no knowledge about outside world. But in 2006, when I visited it again, I was extremely surprised that they got the new houses and golden roofs. The monastery was newly built and bigger than ever it was. There were telephones, computers and internet, too, " said Haraldsson.

    He said the changes in cities are even greater.

    "In Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou, enormous changes took place. In 1999, it was grey concrete, smelly and a lot of smoke in the air. It was hard to connect with the outside world. I almost wanted to give up my trip and forget about it. But in 2006 when I came back again, it was almost as if the whole city has been torn down and built up again because there were enormous changes," said Haraldsson.

    It sounds that China's 'developing western region's policy have been very effective, isn't it?

    "It might be that it has great to do with China's policies. But I didn't specifically study policies. I mainly see the changes through individual families and persons. I didn't study about big projects," said Haraldsson.

    What is the most impressive thing for you?

    "One example was in the upper reaches of the Yellow River where there were old beacons in the old villages which existed for generations as an old communication tool. But in 2006, I went there again, I still saw the beacons on the one side, but on the other side, I saw the China Unicom Antenna there. Weima is a Tibetan farmer. His life didn't change much, still took care of his cattle, but his son got a mobile phone and worked in Xining, so here we can see the change was really drastic, from beacons to mobile phones, they are connected with the world now. It is a big difference," said Haraldsson.

    "One family I met in Guizhou province also experienced great changes. In 1999, I met the family with five children. They had no other choices but lived in an old house, no electricity, no telephone, nor TV. But in 2006 when I tried to meet the family again, I just saw the mother there. The father and the children all moved to coastal areas to work. Later I met one of their girls in Guangzhou. Now the mother has a new house with electricity, telephone and television. She lives alone, but she gets a bit more money. The other members only come back during the Spring Festival. Very few areas I passed by didn't change, almost all the old houses were rebuilt. And the first thing they got in their new house is a television," said Haraldsson.

    How did you feel when you finally arrived in Hong Kong?

    "On the first trip when I arrived in Hong Kong I was very happy because I felt I had realized my adventure. But during the second trip when I arrived in Hong Kong, I was confused. I thought I got to understand China more because probably you noticed that there were two ways of reporting on China here which is one way it is fantastic, business with a huge market and everything was great, and the other way is the party and the human rights record very bad, so one is super good and one is awful portrayed about China, they rarely come together. I want to understand China through the people I met. But when I arrived in Hong Kong, I think my picture was blurred and I was confused…(laughter)… There are a lot of things happening in China and it has many aspects. I feel difficult to give a simple conclusion. Of course I was very happy for the trip," said Haraldsson with a big smile.

    (Source: People's Daily)