Song Jianhui is from Leshan in southwest China's Sichuan Province. He loves outdoor sports and especially riding a motorbike. As he makes his living on repairing cars, his friends call him "tire uncle".

 

One day in June, Song Jianhui asked his 84-year-old mother where she would most like to visit in her lifetime. "Tibet!" his mother blurted out.

After some preparation, Song Jianhui decided he would ride his motorbike all the way to Tibet with his mother. 

 

On June 6, the mother and son set off on their journey to Tibet. As planned, they passed through Jiajiang, Hongya, Ya'an, Luding, Kangding, Yajiang, Litang, Batang, Mangkam and Zogang before finally arriving at their destination in Lhasa at midday on June 21.

 

Then Song Jianhui took his mother and played around in Lhasa. They visited Jokhang Temple and Potala Palace in their two-day stay in Lhasa before returning home, which left his mother longing for more.

 

On the morning of June 23, Song Jianhui took his mother home. "In order to see different scenery, we took the Sichuan-Tibet north line on the way back, along the National Road 317." They finally arrived home in Leshan on July 1 in the afternoon.

 

On arriving home, his mother couldn't wait to pick up her son's phone and start flicking through the photos without a rest, while telling her family what she has seen during the journey. "It's so beautiful! The scenery is beautiful and the air is great!" she kept saying.

 

According to Song Jianhui, the National Road 318 Sichuan-Tibet line has two mountains with an altitude of over 5,000 meters, among which the Tongda mountain pass reaches 5,130 meters. "When we reached the Dongda pass, my mother didn't have any altitude sickness and even asked whether that was highest mountain on our way to Tibet. This is really the highest? That's rather disappointing, she said."

 

After news spread online that Song Jianhui had taken his 84-year-old mother on the back of his motorbike to Tibet, many people praised his filial piety. However, there were others saying that there is nothing wrong with his love towards his mother, but he shouldn't take his elderly mother to take risks. After all, many young people experience altitude sickness when traveling to Tibet and in addition, riding a motorbike is very dangerous. 

 

"I considered all these things," Song Jianhui said with a faint smile. In his view, now that his mother likes to travel and he loves riding a motorbike, and riding a motorbike to Tibet is their common aspiration, then they should do it, or it would be too late as his mother is getting older.