Chinese father and daughter complete journey to Tibet on bike

A father and his 4-year-old daughter have completed a 71-day bicycle journey — 4,139 kilometres — to reach Lhasa, Tibet, becoming well-known online and receiving lots of support from netizens.

Dou Haobei and his daughter Dou Dou had set out from Dongguan, Guangdong province on April 2 and reached their destination in the Tibet autonomous region on June 12 after passing through the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Yunnan province.

Dou said he hoped the special journey would be a good gift to his daughter, who celebrated her fourth birthday in April.

“On our journey we experienced and overcame many difficulties. It was a way to teach my daughter the real meaning of persistence,” he told media.

“Along the way, my daughter has experienced fatigue, downpour, high altitude reactions, illness and even injuries, but she persisted until the end, and kept a smile on her face.”

The girl mainly rode in a child seat attached to her father’s bicycle. When the hills were too steep for Dou, she daughter came down to walk with him and help push the bike.

“My daughter has now seen snowy mountains, the Gobi desert, great rivers and lakes and winding mountain highways,” Dou said.

The father-daughter pair travelled about 59 kilometres per day and enjoyed an abundance of beautiful natural scenery.

Dou said he hoped the journey would help his daughter grow.