Man’s epic China trek can continue after stolen bike recovered

CNN

10 years ago

Xiamen in southeastern China, near where Wang started his journey. He was due to finish in Hainan, another destination famous for its beaches. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

The bike accompanied Wang to the edges of China, from northwestern Xinjiang (pictured) to the northernmost Heilongjiang. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

Wang encountered Tibetans performing a traditional long-distance prostration pilgrimage. Now that his bike has been stolen, Wang says he may finish his own journey on foot. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

Passing through central Shaanxi Province, Wang visited the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

All of the equipment attached to Wang’s bike (here in Anhui province in the eastern side of China) was taken along with the machine. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

Wang (right) stretched a paltry budget of just more than $100 with help from friends along the route. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

Guizhou (pictured) is in southwestern China, near the beginning of Wang’s journey. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

Wang muscled through the mountainous highway leading into the western territory of Tibet. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

The empty roads and wide open skies of Inner Mongolia proved more hospitable to Wang than the mean streets of Shenzhen. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

Wang Pingan fears he’ll never see his trusty mountain bike again after it was stolen just days before he completed an epic journey around China. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

Wang and his bike in Fujian Province, just before heading into Guangdong, where the bike was taken. Wang has spent 460 days covering more than 29,000 kilometers. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

Wang and his bike survived the often unforgiving landscape of Qinghai in northwestern China. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

Wang readies to repair a puncture in Ningxia, an autonomous region in the northwestern side of China. (Courtesy Wang Pingan)

If there’s one thing that hurts more than the saddle sores from cycling around China for 460 days, it’s having the bike you did it on stolen just days before completing your epic trip.

That’s what happened to cyclist Wang Pingan as he neared the end of a two-wheel trek that covered thousands of miles through every major province in the vast country, according to local media.

Arriving in the southern city of Shenzhen, in southern Guandong province, Wang locked up his trusty mountain bike, loaded with panniers, to check out electronics markets in the city’s Huaqiangbei area.

Within 10 minutes the thieves struck.

But here’s where the story takes an unexpected turn.

Despite police initially saying odds were stacked against the bike ever being recovered, Shenzhen’s finest managed to track it down and return it.

The Southern Metro News reported that police apprehended an alleged criminal and sent Wang a photo of a bike they recovered. He recognized it instantly.

They said the theft, from a road junction “infested” by cycle thieves was caught on surveillance cameras. The bike had likely been sold twice before being recovered.

“We don’t want this lad visiting Shenzhen and having a bad memory of the city,” a police spokesman told the paper.

Now, with 29,200 kilometers under his tires, Wang can continue the final few days of his epic journey.

He’ll be able to add his final destination, Hainan Island, to a route that has already taken in some of the country’s most far-flung places.

Among them are Mohe in Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost and coldest place, Urumqi in the west and Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in the southwest..

Wang, a recent university graduate, who embarked on his trip with a budget of little more than $100, had earlier turned down offers from across China to help him get a new bike, vowing to walk if he couldn’t be reunited with his “old lover.”

“It has a special meaning to me,” he said, according to SMN.

Before the bike’s recovery, Wang had posted a heart-rending tribute to his bike on social media, recalling their adventures together.

“The bicycle itself doesn’t have a high value, but spending more than a year with it, it’s like a best friend who has accompanied me on my way, and taken me to every place without complaints,” he writes.

“Thank you, my buddy, maybe I’ll never see you again … I remember I cried during the difficult times at the beginning of the trip and you were by my side.”