Me
Hi, my name is Yunli. I was born in China, grew up in Zaandam, and got my university degrees and PhD in Amsterdam. In my professional life, I worked as employee as well as entrepreneur in various sectors. And now, I’m traveling on bike to discover the world…
In my younger years, I read a thought experiment. Just imagine as if you would have been born differently. How will your life been looking like? Who will you be? How will you behave differently? And can you find some core parts that remains the same. It was mind-blowing when I took time to experience this.
For a long time, I have tried to give contribution to make the world a better place. Only slowly and slowly, I came to this insight that I rather better start to change myself instead. Although this process started more than a decade ago, I am still learning. In this process, the two main approaches that I practice regularly are Vipassana meditation and generative self-relationship.
This journey
It was the roads that called me to make this journey. It’s as someone said, a sailor can’t choose the wind, I have a strong urge to go on my bike in January 2022, mid in the winter, a soft one though.
For me, it’s a new experience to start traveling and not knowing how long it will take. Will it be weeks, months and/or years? I also don’t know where the roads will lead me to.
I choose bicycling as my form of traveling. The seed for this form has been planted in 1999. Back then, I guided a group of Dutch bike travelers from Beijing to Yan’an. Some 1000 kilometers in about 14 days, across some mountainous area’s like the HengShan and the Wutaishan. It’s the way how the participants supported each other while also take care of themselves that impressed me much. Also, some other aspects of this way of traveling attracted me nowadays.
In comparison to a faster form of transport (like car, train, airplane), a bicyclist will have a closer contact with what comes underway. And underway can also be an interesting part of travel, can’t they. The advantage of a faster form is of course that one can be at more distant places. In comparison to a slower form of transport (like walking), for which there is even a closer relationship with the environment, while the distance per day that could be traveled is much lower while walking. For me, bicycle is the optimal choice in finding this balance between close to the nature, while have this ability to travel a reasonable daily distance. Furthermore, in the light of the current climate issues, bicycling is one of most climate neutral form of transportation.
As there are so many directions to start with, and in order to have something to hold on, and not getting lost completely, I set my first destination set to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. I am open to, and very curious to the adventures and new learnings this new phase in my life will bring…