Travelling since 1997

Today I met Lee Yuezhong. [http://leeyuezhong.blog.sohu.com]

Lee, originally from a town near Beijing, China, has been travelling the world since 1997. So far he cycled in the excess of 200,000 miles. He has visited the White House in America as well as the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, attended festivals in Papa New Guinea and cycled Buddhist pilgrimage paths through China and Tibet*. From the photos Lee showed me he has stopped on the equator three times, each on a different continent. He leaves Ireland for England tomorrow, and then onto mainland Europe – with a goal of visiting Iceland later this year [something we jokingly had in common!].

Lee will function as my 53rd portrait in my 100 Portraits project.

-PM

*China/Tibet Buddhist pilgrimages: Tibetans ideally are expected to prostrate themselves 100,000 times a year, which works out to almost 300 times a day, every day of the year. Not only do they prostrate themselves around temples they also do it on roads, streets and sidewalks. Some pilgrims cover the entire 33-mile route around Mount Kailis or travel from their hometowns to Lhasa, repeatedly prostrating. The pilgrimage that Lee described was 1200 miles from start to finish. On each third step the pilgrim has to lie prostrate on the ground, and touch their hands to the foreheads (representing the mind), mouths (speech) and chest (body) each time, and that this can take 10 months to complete.