 |
| Eleanor Moseman visits a beach in Taiwan during her 2008 trip. The American woman will take a nine-month charity biking odyssey from Shanghai to Inner Mongolia. (Photo: Shanghai Daily) |
BEIJING, April 29 -- In a country where women are still hesitant about equality with men, one expat woman is taking the initiative to inspire others with a grueling, nine-month trip across China for charity.
Armed with just a bike, a tent and a camera, American Eleanor Moseman is setting off on Saturday on a solo cycling odyssey from Shanghai to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and back again.
The trip will cover 15,000 to 20,000 kilometers and Moseman plans to return by mid-February, 2011.
Along the way, the freelance photographer plans to raise US$15,000 for women's education, and invites any woman interested to join her for a stretch anywhere on the journey.
Setting off from Shanghai just as the World Expo 2010 opens, Moseman will cycle along the Grand Canal of China up to Tianjin, then through Jilin Province, cutting west to Inner Mongolia.
After exploring the whole of western Mongolia, she will ride on to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and its city of Kashgar, returning via Chengdu in Sichuan Province and Guilin in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The project has taken a year to plan and will raise funds for Girls Education International, which supports educational opportunities for women in developing countries, and for the charity Stepping Stones, which helps children of migrant workers' families in Shanghai.
