DISPITE being wheelchair-bound most of the time, Liu Wenyan has recently finished a road trip covering more than 15,000 kilometers. The trip from her home city of Shangqiu in Central China’s Henan Province to Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and back again took 31 days. Liu, aged 52, suffers a neurodegenerative disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. But the condition did not stop her from enjoying the journey with her son Zhao Tianci, taking in beautiful sceneries along the way, sipping tea on the prairie and enjoying local delicacies. “It’s a tiring journey, but my mom is all smiles,” says 29-year-old Zhao, who acted as driver and videographer. Zhao captured their heartwarming journey in a series of videos that he posted on the popular Chinese short-video streaming site Douyin. The videos went viral. Liu had enjoyed a busy life, running a business and enjoying pastimes such as traveling and doing yoga, until misfortune hit in 2014. “One night in 2014, as my mother was making dumplings, her two fingers suddenly felt powerless,” recalls Zhao. Rest and such treatments as massage sessions didn’t help. In 2015 in a Beijing hospital, she was diagnosed with ALS. ALS patients would progressively lose muscle strength, eventually becoming paralyzed and unable to speak, move, swallow or breathe. Despite care and encouragement from her family, Liu was depressed and gradually gave up her hobbies. She even locked herself up. A few months later, when Zhao took his mom to a scenic spot for the first time since her diagnosis, her mood became noticeably more positive. He began to plan trips and activities for his mother to offer some reprieve from her suffering. In June this year, Zhao decided it was time for a longer journey. He would accompany his mother on a self-driving road trip to Xinjiang. Zhao quitted his job, refitted his car’s passenger seat to accommodate his mother’s wheelchair, and purchased medicines, daily necessities and a tea set, among other things. On June 10, after teaming up with one of his friends and his mother’s caregiver, they left Shangqiu and headed for northern Xinjiang. Each night, Zhao would edit the video clips his friend had taken and upload them to Douyin. “My original intention in making the videos was to record the memories for my mother to look back on, even after the trip,” Zhao says.(Xinhua) | 