On October 18, 100 days had passed since I started my bicycle trip. Just before I covered 4,500kms across China, I had an unexpected traffic accident.

The accident happened 5km before Shenzhen, which is a city near Hong Kong. When I crossed a street in Shenzhen, a car didn't turn on its indicator when it turned right. I couldn't avoid the situation. I had already experienced another similar accident before this two months after I started my travel. When I traveled near the northeastern districts of China, my bicycle and a passing taxi, which disregarded a signal, collided head-on. Unlike the previous accident, this time I suffered not only material damage but also physical and mental damage.

At that time, I remembered advice given to me before my departure to China: "Never fight with the Chinese, or you will be defeated by them." In this case, it was true. The driver got angry with me and didn't apologize. It made me so upset, so I started to fight back.

However, I was somewhat lucky in that a Chinese traffic policeman who came to settle this accident was concerned about me and kindly took me to a nearby hospital. He gave me much help until I could settle the matter peacefully with the driver. Through the policeman's help, I could cast away my prejudice toward China and Chinese people.

At that time, I was in such a state of chaos that I forgot to extend my visa. Leaving just two days before the expiration date, I had difficulty in getting out of China to leave for Hong Kong as early as possible. I tried to look for the nearest repair shop, but it was so hard. Hence, I decided to ask for help through the Internet. Contrary to my expectation, many people in Shenzhen gave me a helping hand. In particular, I got support from many Koreans in Shenzhen and, finally, I could overcome the aftereffects from the two consecutive accidents and safely leave for Hong Kong through their help.

Happily, in Hong Kong, I met Koreans who had helped me in China, and we applied for the visa to China together. While waiting for the issuance of my visa, we traveled around Hong Kong together for two days and one night.

Originally, my scheduled plan was to go to Macao, but I suddenly started to miss the people I met in Shenzhen. I postponed my original plan and I returned to Shenzhen to see them and spend a few days more with them. During that time, we spent time searching for various kinds of famous foods. In addition, we had many meetings to get to know one another.

Even though the difficulties I had from the two traffic accidents in Shenzhen hurt me, I was happy to find there were so many other people who could help me, and also like me. The valuable experience made leaving Shenzhen too hard.

I will never forget my experience in Shenzhen during my journey to Hong Kong, and I also want to keep their warmhearted emotions toward me in my mind forever.



● The Gazette will continue to follow Lee Young-keun's interesting travel experiences in our newspaper. We hope you enjoy these articles.