French couple cycles across China to encourage green travel

Maxime and Lise discuss the route for cycling in China after fixing their tandem bicycle at Beijing Capital International Airport, April 17, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

Maxime and Lise, a young French couple, are ready to travel across China from Beijing in North to Yunnan province in Southwest on a tandem bicycle in a bid to encourage green travel.

Maxime, 26, works helping herdsmen better raise and take care of their dairy cattle, while his wife Lise, 26, is a speech-language pathologist. The two like sharing their travel stories on Facebook to advocate green travel.

"We choose a tandem bicycle because it makes it easier to communicate with each other about beautiful landscapes we come across during the journey. Besides, bicycling is an economic and environment-friendly way of traveling in comparison to using motors, vehicles and so on," the couple said in a letter to a photographer.

The two said the aim of their journey is to get locals' good ideas on topics such as health, economy, biology, agriculture and politics.

They said they chose to visit China because they often talked about how much of the country is very competitive in developing renewable energy resources.

"We know China is a densely-populated country and will be the leader of the global economy in the future. We want to get a better understanding of the country and its residents. We love the country," they said.