White-collar worker
quit job to start a journey of
self-discovery, fulfillment
Four
o'clock in the morning and a
slim Chinese woman jumps off a
truck stacked with cabbage in the
wilds of Kenya, her face covered
with dust from the road and
around her nothing but
darkness.
For many it could
be a moment of worry, alone in
a foreign land, but for 27-year-old
Yuan Tian it was another part
of a great adventure that took
her deep into the culture of
the African country.
"That was
the best part of traveling in
Kenya," she says, speaking from a
cafe in the southern Chinese city
of Shenzhen. "I got to see the
most primitive tribes of the country,
which most travelers may never
see."
Jack Kerouac's On
the Road with its tales of a
trip across the United States inspired
generations of Americans and Europeans
to travel. Now Yuan Tian hopes
do the same in China with her
African travel story.
"Many
Chinese fly over Kenya to see
the wonder of animal migrations every
year," she says. "But Kenya not
only has animals, it also has
brilliant culture and sincere people,
which are the more touching and
impressive things about this
country."
Two years ago,
Shenzhen-based Yuan was working in the
offices of a financial company,
earning an enviable salary compared to
many of her contemporaries. In
material terms she was well off,
but despite this she often questioned
if she was truly happy and
whether there was more to
life.
"I felt that I
didn't belong there, that this
was not the real me," she says.
"I didn't want to repeat the
same work day after
day."
She became increasingly
unhappy with her situation and
eventually, after much thought, made
the bold move to quit her job
and travel, heading first to
India.
"My whole family was
shocked, they thought I was crazy,"
she says. "But the trip to
India was like a rebirth, which
helped me find the courage to
face the real me inside. Moreover,
before that, I didn't know
whether I could be a travel
writer, but this trip helped me
to find my future direction."
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