Voices
TV trekkers offer lessons for lifestyle
By Wan Wan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-16 10:49
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Television programs in China are often hopelessly boring. Some of my friends install illegal antennas to receive international television channels such as HBO or CNN. I play DVDs or video games on television.
But a recent glimpse at a travel documentary caught my attention. Two Beijingers - Gu Yue and Liu Chang - hitchhiked from Beijing to Berlin last year to visit Gu's German girlfriend. I could not stop watching it.
The 16-episode documentary, To Berlin By Thumb, currently airing on the Travel Channel, vividly recounted 88 rides in 13 countries over more than 100 days the pair spent on the road. The program, also available online, has drawn millions of Internet viewers.
The heat generated by the program is not a coincidence. Unlike big-budget television shows such as Super Girl, a nationwide singing contest, or the spy-themed series Lurk, or Qianfu, the documentary offers true stories that cannot be fabricated.
When you hitchhike you don't know what to expect.
Even when the pair were sad and disappointed, their emotions and purposeful effort suddenly brought them pleasure and laughs, said Gu Yue and Liu Chang in one episode.
For example, when the pair marched into Turkey, they worried how they would be received by local people because of the rioting in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. But a young man from Turkey not only gave them a ride, but also offered them an overnight stay in a four-star hotel room.
"Such things you cannot even make up," said Liu in the show.
The main reason for the show's popularity is its contrast with the lives of urban dwellers in a spinning city. Most of my friends and I work every day in an office in a giant building and our commute is limited to work and home. Vacations are a luxury.
My best friend, Christina, bought an apartment near the Sixth Ring Road in east Beijing last year - the only place she can afford. Because of the long distance from work, she must awaken at 7 am to catch a bus to the subway station, fight thousands of commuters to get on the train. She must make two subway transfers to get to work at 9 am.
"It feels worse when you sometimes work till midnight," she told me.
But among city residents, Christina is lucky because she owns her home. In an era when property prices are rapidly making homes unaffordable to the majority of white-collar workers, people work for a place to live and for a car to drive. Personal dreams and other pleasures are secondary.
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Instead, on the road, they made friends with herdsman, drivers, sailors and even prostitutes. Their stories and values show that lives can be different, and that the measure of success should not be defined by social status or how much money one has in the bank.
One online viewer left a comment on the TV network's website: "We are alive. They are living. Though their lives are difficult, they are happy and free."
The pair's courage to undertake an adventure and their willingness to make things happen impressed Gu's girlfriend - and television viewers - the most.
