Dream Big: Around the World in 68 Days
Author: Zhang Bo
Hardcover, 422 pages
Published by Foreign Languages Press
Zhang Bo is a legend in his own right: at the age of 52, he obtained his pilot’s license; at 54, he became the first Chinese citizen to circumnavigate the globe by air; and at 57, he completed his second round-the-world flight.
His book Dream Big: Around the World in 68 Days – a travelogue documenting his 68-day global flight – offers a breathtaking account. Written in the first person with unbridled passion, the book chronicles this adventurous journey in twelve chapters. It not only vividly embodies humanity’s dream of unfettered flight but also celebrates, with heartfelt sincerity, familial bonds, friendship, and the universal warmth that transcends national boundaries.
The author’s adventure started in Chicago, the third largest city in the United States and a world-famous international financial center. The city is where Zhang resided for a long time after obtaining his doctorate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
He flew over the frozen Arctic Circle, crossed frigid Greenland, soared over the Caucasus Mountains, cut across the Siberian hinterlands, and towered above the ancient Great Wall of China before returning to Chicago where he took on the challenge.
Zhang made history in 2016 when he performed his first flight around the world in a propeller-driven aircraft, flying over 23 countries in 49 days.
In contrast to the first flight, Zhang faced much bigger challenges the second time. The Diamond DA42 aircraft, or “Little White,” which Zhang flew the second time is piston-propelled and has no pressure cabin, which means limited endurance and flying altitude. Theoretically, the voyage mileage of the aircraft is only 1,500 km.
Zhang writes in the book’s introduction, “Flying around the world is not the luxurious, elegant, and leisurely journey that people imagine it to be. To a certain extent, the circumnavigation of the globe could be compared to the journey of life. Regardless of how bumpy and winding the road ahead, all of the hardships were dispelled the moment I flew into the sky by the excitement and joy of a round-the-world flight.”
April is known for the blooming of Spring. That April, however, Iqaluit in Canada taught Zhang the meaning of the Arctic Circle and extreme cold. As the largest city near the Arctic Circle, Iqaluit owes its existence to its airport. It is called a city, but actually it has a population of only about 7,000 people, the overwhelming majority of whom are Inuit. The people wore clothing made from animal hides, including furry hoods attached to their parkas. Iqaluit’s supermarkets provide all types of produce including pork, lamb, beef, and chicken, but the locals prefer their traditional meats – the fat of hunted animals and fish – to help them keep warm.
It took three days for Zhang to fly from the Arctic Circle, where the temperature plummeted to around -50oC amidst raging snowstorms, to Romania, where the weather was a balmy 30oC. They felt like two different worlds. In Timisoara, Romania, he basked not only in the warm weather but also in the warmth of human connection.
After a short time relaxing there, he continued to fly eastward along the Silk Road Economic Belt. Below his aircraft’s wings was the unfolding China-Kazakhstan international railway crossing the whole of Kazakhstan. It has become part of a railway artery that connects Asia and Europe, starting in China’s coastal city Lianyungang and ending in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, entering Kazakhstan through China’s Alashankou City and passing through Russia, Belarus, Poland, and Germany along the way.
Zhang cannot help wondering whether there may be an aerial Silk Road in the future to promote the efficiency and quality of the economic and cultural exchange between Asia and Europe.
Flying over the vast territory of the central region of Asia, Zhang safely landed at Urumqi Diwopu (now renamed as Tianshan) International Airport. He had spent his childhood on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu Province, is the place where he studied at the high school affiliated to Northwest Normal University. Afterwards, he moved to Beijing for seven years: four years as a university student and three years as a government official. Those fleeting years have charted the course of his future, as life in the magnificent capital city emboldened him to dream big.
During his trip, Zhang stayed for more than a month and stopped over at 20-plus airports in China. He has cut through China from northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to east China’s Zhejiang Province, and then turned northeast and left China from Heilongjiang Province. “I flew over the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, and the Great Wall in one flight,” he said proudly.
Zhang concludes in his book that his round-the-world flights mean more to him than just flying around the globe in a narrow cockpit. Sweeping past the loving face of Mother Earth, propelled by humanity’s advancements in science and technology along with nature’s own airstreams, his account of flying around the globe captures a truly mesmerizing and epic adventure.
