Father teaches daughter, 4, persistence on long bicycle journey

A young father hoped his 4-yearold daughter would learn the values of strength and persistence during a monthslong bicycle journey from their home in the Pearl River Delta to the Tibet autonomous region.

Dou Haobei and his daughter, Dou Dou, have become popular online and have won many thumbsup from netizens after they completed the 4,139-kilometer trip over 71 days.

The 26-year-old father set out from Dongguan, Guangdong province, on April 2 — with his daughter behind him in a bike trailer — and arrived in Lhasa on June 12.

The pair recently returned to Dongguan and became media stars.

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

Dou said Dou Dou was very excited when he told her he would take her on a bicycle journey to Tibet, as her kindergarten had been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

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

When a hill was too steep to peddle up, his daughter got out of the trailer and helped push the bike, Dou said.

The father-daughter pair rode about 59 kilometers a day and also enjoyed an abundance of beautiful scenery on the way.

“My daughter, who lives in South China, saw beautiful snowy mountains, the Gobi Desert, great rivers and lakes, and winding mountain highways during the journey,” Dou said.

Dou frequently published clips of their journey on Douyin, a Chinese short-video platform.

“I found many local residents and netizens across the country were actually concerned about our journey,” Dou said.

“Many warmhearted residents along the way gave us food and necessary help when we met difficulties, and many netizens gave us their thumbs-up,” he said.

Dou said he hoped the journey would help his daughter grow, and he wrote her a letter during the journey telling her to learn, to be strong and persistent when facing difficulties.