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UPDATED: October 10, 2014 NO. 41 OCTOBER 9, 2014
Content in the Subcontinent
A Chinese backpacker and her American husband document real India in a recently released travelogue
By Ji Jing
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NO EASY TASK: A Dongria tribal woman carrying bushels of crops on her head to sell at a market descends the hills in east India's Odisha on February 3, 2010 (TOM CARTER)

Despite the fact that many in India are materially poor and impoverished, they are satisfied and happy with life thanks to their inner spirituality.

AFFINITY: The cover of the book The Farther I Walk, the Closer I Get to Me features a photo of its author Hong Mei (right) with an Indian girl (TOM CARTER)

This is how Hong Mei, a Chinese writer who backpacked across India for a year with her American husband Tom Carter, describes India in her newly published travelogue The Farther I Walk, the Closer I Get to Me.

The book, published by Beijing's New Star Press in May, is considered one of the most comprehensive travelogues of India ever written by a Chinese person. Hong recounted in detail her experiences traveling in India, including descriptions of local religious ceremonies, festival celebrations, indigenous tribes, food, accommodation and transportation. She also expressed her feelings about India and its people, while providing a useful guide for those who plan to travel there in the future.

The road less traveled

In the beginning, Hong had no plans to venture across India. Rather, it was her husband, at that time her boyfriend, who persuaded her to quit her job in a film company and to travel to the South Asian nation with him in March 2009.

Before her India trip, Hong, born in 1981 in Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province, had never traveled outside of the country. Her backpacking experience comprised only one year spent traveling around China with Carter from 2007 to 2008, during which she said she really saw her own country for the first time. "I traveled to India entirely because of Tom. The concept of backpacking also came from him," said Hong.

So did the money, as Hong had to leave her lucrative job. During their travels, the couple relied on Carter's savings from teaching English in Japan during the year prior, about $7,000 in total. This allowed them each a budget of $10 a day during their time in India, a very tight budget even in a developing country. In order to save money, they relied on low-end hotels and traditional modes of transportation including trains, buses, auto-rickshaws, and hitch-hiking. This resulted in some interesting and even hair-raising experiences, like the time when a rat fell from the ceiling onto their hotel bed.

Backpacking for one year was no easy task for the couple, as they tried to visit as many places as possible with as little money as possible. In addition, Carter often got sick during their time there.

"This was the great irony of the trip. I persuaded her to come to India with me, but during the trip, I was the one who couldn't take it and wanted to go home," said Carter.

In spite of all the difficulties, Hong and Carter managed to complete their circuit and experience the "real India." They were deeply impressed with the cultural diversity of the country.

"Traveling in a place like India really enriches your life and provides you with a lot of experiences that you normally wouldn't have: meeting so many different kinds of people, seeing so many different ways of living, experiencing the contrasting lifestyles and cultures," Carter told Beijing Review.

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