A 23-year-old girl from southwestern China's Sichuan Province all by herself traveled through 16 nations across Asia and Europe in the past five months alone, covering more than 30,000 kilometers, reported local newspaper Chengdu Evening News on Nov. 23.

Lian Mingqiao started her motorbike journey from provincial capital Chengdu on July 3, traveling through Mongolia, Russia, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Swiss, Italy and Greece. She brought her courageous journey to a successful end in Turkey. The entire trip covered 30,747 kilometers.

Lian experienced one dangerous encounter along her journey. "I was almost raped by a Pakistani man and his Russian wife!" she recalled angrily. She took out a pair of scissors to defend herself when the Russian woman tore open her clothes. She showed the couple the AIDS logo on her health certificate, deluding them into thinking that she had AIDS. Lian was thus spared from rape.

Nonetheless, the journey also had its tender moments of friendship. While she spent most of her time alone and took pictures of passers-by, Lian did make friends with three Russian boys. One day, when Lian had just put up her tent on the way from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, three little boys came to pay her a visit. Having learned that she had not a single friend in Russia, Finland or Sweden, one boy extended his hand to Lian, saying: "We are your friends in Russia. All three of us!" The three boys then dropped by her tent the next morning and brought her breakfast. When Lian recalled this, she said she would one day return there to meet up with her three little friends.

Lian received a short message from his father one day, saying her grandmother had begun preparing bacon for the upcoming Spring Festival. This triggered Lian's yearning for her family and hometown. As a result, she brought her journey to an end in Istanbul, Turkey, where her motorcycle was collected by the local Rahmi M. Koç Museum on Nov. 20. "I will bring my kids [here] to see my motorcycle in 10 years." Lian said.

"My mother used to tell me that all children have a world expanding 100,000 square meters, but it is reduced to just one square meter when they grow up. She hopes us children maintain our 100,000-square meter world and seek for our own world as long as we dare."

At the moment, Lian is preparing to leave for Cappadocia, Turkey, to have a try at the hot-air ballooning there.

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