SKILLED CRAFTSMAN: Sun Yang, who successfully raised money on crowd-funding platform Demohour.com, operates a vintage press in his studio for fine letterpress printing and handmade stationery in Beijing (SI CHENGYI)

After losing all his savings in a stock market crash and a bitter divorce in 2008, Cao Shengkang was so depressed that he even thought about taking his own life.

Instead, an invitation from a resort hotel in Tibet Autonomous Region to trade accommodation for his services led to his first backpacking excursion. The life of this 31-year-old blind masseur changed forever.

With the help of his cane and a few good Samaritans, Cao climbed to the top of a snow-capped 5,000-meter mountain summit. "Although I cannot see, I was in awe of Mother Nature when standing there. I felt myself too trivial, and so were my difficulties in life," Cao said. When his sojourn ended, Cao decided to live a full life for himself as well as for his parents and daughter.

After coming back to his massage clinic in Beijing, Cao found that traveling had become his true passion. A dream of becoming the first blind person to backpack around the world gradually came into focus.

Early in 2012, Cao shut down his clinic despite its handsome returns and went to Sanya in the southern island province of Hainan to learn sailing.

This April, Cao embarked on the first leg of his world tour with a trip through Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. He set off with a companion, but disagreements forced them to part ways shortly thereafter.

Many difficulties for this lone traveler involved the language barrier. Cao knew only a few English words, including "China" and "blind." When he was hungry, Cao followed his nose to food stalls. His use of pidgin gestures resulted in some hilarious incidents: He had to unbuckle his pants to signal he was looking for a restroom.

Despite the setbacks, Cao greatly enjoyed his journey. Besides getting help from countless warm-hearted strangers, he said that he was also pleased by local cuisines and fellow travelers' descriptions of beautiful scenery. Although the first foreign trip only cost Cao 4,000 yuan ($635), he felt that working as a masseur to save money for his future and support his teenage daughter could delay his plans for his next trip. He plans to go to Singapore and India at the beginning of 2013.

Therefore, Cao went on to raise money on Demohour.com, a crowd-funding platform. Cao posted his goal of raising 60,000 yuan ($9,524) and interested parties could pledge as little as 20 yuan ($3.20) or as much as 1,500 yuan ($238). In return, Cao promised that donors would receive postcards that he mails during future trips, a photo album, or even vouchers for his massage service, according to the amount of their "investment."

During the first 20 days since Cao's travel plan went online, 87 netizens pledged their support worth a combined 7,140 yuan ($1,133). Although it seemed unlikely that Cao would raise the expected amount of money before his bid became invalid on December 6 as scheduled, he was grateful for the encouraging comments left by people who checked his web page. "I will continue to fulfill my dream, no matter what," Cao said.

Source of possibilities

Demohour.com, launched on July 4, 2011, shows off the videos of creative people like Cao and their programs as a way of attracting funding support. In return, donors will be rewarded with products and/or services by recipients based on the amount they give. Once a bid's fundraising target is met, Demohour.com will take 10 percent. If the fundraising target is not met within a preset deadline, the received funds will be returned to donors' accounts.

According to the company's website, the returns cannot be monetary, such as equities or bonds, as China's financial regulations forbid it. In this respect it is similar to its American counterpart Kickstarter, which explicitly prohibits its "investors" from making money on the creative projects they sponsor.

Bids on Demohour.com involve industrial design, travel, filmmaking, music recording, photography and publishing. During the first year of the website's operation, 318 bids went on Demohour.com and 150 succeeded in raising enough money, totaling nearly 3 million yuan ($476,190). The bid attracting the largest amount of donations is sponsoring a cartoonist to publish a book on her ongoing fight with lymphoma. Her bid drew 339,500 yuan ($53,889) in pledges.