Untitled Document
 The
U.S. is a big country. It is a lot bigger than Korea.
Therefore, it takes a lot
of time to cross the country. However,
an amazing young man from China
recently succeeded in walking
across the U.S. In fact, he became the first Asian to achieve the feat! It took Wang Xuan 89
days to travel the huge country from east to west.
Born in 1978 in China, Wang came to the U.S. to study and graduated
from the State University of New York this summer. After his graduation, he wanted to
do something very special and challenging. So, he decided
to cross the U.S. on foot. He started his journey on June 8 in New
York. He arrived in Los Angeles on September 4. His 89-day cross-America-on-foot
trip is the first ever done
by an Asian.
 Wong crossed
through 13 U.S. states, covering a distance of about 3,000 miles.
He walked between 35 to 40 miles a day almost every day. His journey
was not easy and he faced many difficulties.
Sometimes he got lost and
worn-out. One of the hardest
things was the hot summer weather. Most of the time, the temperature was over 27 degrees Celsius while he was walking.
In Arizona, the temperature
hit as high as 48.9 degrees
Celsius.
At night, he sat down and wrote down what he saw and felt in the day.
Then, he put them on his website and blog to share his story with his
family and friends. Then, one day, while he was staying at a tent to sleep in New Mexico, a bear approached to him. He
was very scared, but he managed to shoo the bear away by lighting a campfire.
 “Sometimes
I thought I would die in the scorching heat. The hardship and difficulties
were beyond my imagination. If I knew of them beforehand, I would have
given up before I started. I was thinking of giving up many times,
but I did not,” he said.
During the 89 days of his trip, many American families allowed him
to stay in their homes for free. Also, he met many Chinese-Americans
who treated him to Chinese food to support him on his trip.
“After all those hardships and sufferings, I think it was
worthwhile for me because
I have made many new friends on the way. Now I have friends all across
America from New York to Los Angeles!
He said he is glad he finally did it. “I just wanted
to show that Chinese young people are as adventurous as Americans
and capable of achieving their
goals. Also, I wanted to
learn about the real American people and the real America by traveling
from east to the west on foot,” Wang said after he finished his long journey.
You did an amazing job, Mr. Wang! Congratulations!
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