Lei Diansheng

Lei Diansheng was born in 1963 in the far-northeastern city of Harbin. He endured a traumatic childhood due to the Cultural Revolution, losing both his mother and father during his early teens. His ten-year hike across China – inspired by a 1987 set of postage stamps commemorating the 17^th century traveller Xu Xiake – covered 81,000 kilometres and made him the first person since the Tang Dynasty to attempt and complete a solo-crossing of the Lop Nur ‘Sea of Death’. During the course of his journey he took more than 40,000 photographs, kept a travel journal of over one million words and rose to fame throughout China. In 2004 he entered the Guinness World Records, and in 2008 he helped to carry the torch for the Beijing Olympics.