One legged man riding all 10,000km of China’s longest and highest highway

An amateur cyclist with one leg is riding China’s longest and highest highway, according to local news reports.

The man, named only as Sun in the report, started his 10,000km journey on 20 February and is not expected to finish until June, according to a report by state-owned media organisation  Xinhua News Agency.

He is riding the G219 highway, which traces the southern and western border of China running from Fangchenggang on the coast of the Beibu Gulf, near Vietnam, right up to Kanas near the Kazakh, Mongolian and Russian borders.

As of earlier this week he was in Tibet.

Sun, who runs a hostel in his hometown in China’s Henan province, told the outlet that he has a history of taking on big cycling challenges and has previously ridden to the base camp of Mount Qomolangma at an altitude of 5,200m.

The 34 year-old said: “I lost my leg in an accident in 2009. I took up cycling in 2013, since then I have travelled by bike every year, sometimes for long journeys.”

“In the past ten years I have ridden over 100,000 kilometres. I think I'm just an ordinary cycling enthusiast with a fast speed.

He added: "I met so many people along the routes and got to know their stories, which made me realize that there are no insurmountable difficulties in life."

Sun has been joined by other riders along the journey Fei Yaun, who rode with him for a portion of his adventure, told Xinhua News that he was “inspired” by Sun’s exploits. He added: “He is very fast. When it takes us a day to cross a mountain it takes him half a day.”

Sun might be fairly handy but he’s in no danger of breaking the longest distance ridden in a week. That was set just last month by Belgian Matthieu Bonne who clocked up 3,619km in seven days riding on the roads around Phoenix, Arizona.

We imagine the challenges Sun faces will for the most part be quite similar to that of Josh Reid who spent four months riding 9,300 miles back to the UK from China. Though being Chinese he’s unlikely to find himself getting pounced on by a Swat team wary of foreigners in the remote western parts of China.