Chinese man rides 16,000 km on bike collecting donations for Benin

Chinese man Yuan Jianglei rode a bicycle 16,000 kilometers back to his hometown from Africa’s Benin collecting donations to help install solar power stations and water wells for communities in Benin. The young man is set to go back to Benin after the Chinese Spring Festival in February to fulfill his promise, reports Beijing Youth Daily. 

Yuan Jianglei poses for a photo with his African friends. [Photo: Beijing Youth Daily]

Yuan Jianglei, born in 1991 in Ningbo in China’s Zhejiang Province, graduated from Chongqing Jiaotong University in 2014, and majored in radio and television journalism. He decided to teach Chinese in the Confucius Institute in Benin, one of the most underdeveloped countries in Africa. 

Yuan Jianglei poses for a photo with his African friends. [Photo: Beijing Youth Daily]

In September 2016, Yuan Jianglei rode a bike back to his hometown from Benin, a 16,000 kilometer journey that took him over 360 days to complete. He took photos of his journey, and after arriving in China in August 2017 made them into a documentary. He then contacted with enterprises to collect donations to help the locals in Benin.  

Yuan Jianglei poses for a photo on his 16,000-kilometer ride to come back to his hometown from Africa’s Benin. [Photo: Beijing Youth Daily]

A well-known Chinese enterprise in the field of renewable energy has donated several hundred thousand yuan to Yuan Jianglei. The young man is now set to go back to Benin to fulfill his promise of making living conditions better for the local communities. 

Yuan Jianglei poses for a photo on his 16,000-kilometer ride to come back to his hometown from Africa’s Benin. [Photo: Beijing Youth Daily]