一位六七十岁的老妇竟像哪吒那样，脚踏两只“风火轮”，遨游神州十万里，真成了一个神话人物!她就是上海市青浦区朱家角镇的张玉桢，一个1949年随军南下的山东籍离休女干部。
　　乍见张玉桢，身材不高，朴素无华，就像我们常见的邻里老大妈。可在这平凡的外表下，却包裹着一颗火热的爱国心，蕴藏着一股坚毅的意志力。1989年离休后，她不愿在家享清福，“老有所乐，老有所为”，她找到了自己“乐为”的事：她决定自费骑自行车游历全国。从1990年至2006年，她竟13次游历全国包括台湾在内的所有省、市、自治区，每次骑游春去冬回，短则数十日，长达10个月。13年游历历程，历时1957天，行程110072公里，(其中乘车、船、飞机约3万公里)，途经909个县市、2330个乡镇，拍摄照片10500张，累积签名册和纪念布71本和49块。沿途访问参观了千百个机关、学校、企业、军营、名人故居、历史遗址、各类纪念馆和烈士陵园，游历了无数的名山大川、名胜古迹，真正做到用两个轮子滚量了九洲热土!因此，有96家电视台(包括央视)先后播放了她的骑游新闻，各类报刊(包括人民日报海外版)报道有关文章300余篇。
　　
　　只身单骑到海南
　　
　　张玉桢说服了家人的担心，先用两个月的时间骑游了上海所有区、县，取得实战经验，接着她确定了第一次骑游全国的路线：由上海向南，经浙、闽、粤至海南。计划确定后，1990年春节刚过，张玉桢便冒着寒风细雨，蹬车向南方驶去。
　　她穿过沪、江、浙三角地带平望进入浙江，登莫干山览胜，到杭州绕西湖骑游，在绍兴感受人文历史，经宁波跨海抵舟山。舟山市副市长王孝林高兴地对张玉桢说：“你是骑游全国来到舟山的第一名妇女，真不简单!”然后她游天台，走三门，成为骑车过桐岩岭隧道第一人，到温岭还被特允参观了全国第一座潮汐发电站(世界列第三)。
　　这年7月9日她游过南雁荡山后进入福建。福建山多，入界就要翻越两座大山，光是爬山就耗费了她一天时间。在霞浦过赤岭，凌空山道傍着大海，她只能紧贴山壁推着车横步移行，傍晚到达水门畲族乡政府时，人们对这位“天外来客”惊讶不已，因为从未见过有人推车越岭到这里。乡党委书记钟明华激动地挥笔题词道：“壮哉!我们的勇士。”
　　这年9月29日张玉桢到达广东饶平，在潮州过中秋，在揭阳参加了重阳节老年登山活动，至11月24日抵广州。然后一路飞东向西南，直达广东南端徐闻县，12月10日乘船驶过琼州海峡到达海南省海口市，成了第一位万里单车骑海南的第一位女将。
　　
　　万里签名为奥运
　　
　　1993年4月2日，张玉桢又一次骑游活动开始。这次路线是走西北经青海到新疆，直达边陲阿拉山口。接着，又于2001年一路北上，6月中旬冒着滂沱大雨骑车到达北京奥申委，向奥申委展示了有近500个单位和个人签字盖章的签名册和纪念布。奥申委接待负责人十分感动，随即在签名册上写道：“感谢张玉桢老人对北京申奥工作的支持，祝健康长寿。”并盖上奥申委的公章。
　　
　　1994年联合国决定第四次世界妇女大会在北京举行，张玉桢又心动了，她把“迎世妇会”确定为这一年的骑游宣传主题。但她定出的路线却令人咋舌：先骑游西藏再折返云贵高原，终点定在广西。4月10日开始，她跋山涉水西行到成都，由川入藏，先到拉萨再骑抵日喀则。
　　返回四川时，她住在峨眉山市的一个招待所内，一进房间便看到6月29日的一张《中国妇女报》，该报头版的一篇新闻标题就是《老妪为迎世妇会，高原万里走单骑/黄启遥致慰问》。黄启是全国妇联副主席、第四次世界妇女大会中国组委会副主席，文中记述了她在6月24日特意打电话到张玉桢家中，说：“我刚刚收到张玉桢从西藏日喀则地区寄来的信，她的行动使我很受鼓舞……她不畏艰险，长途跋涉，把世妇会在北京召开的意义传到边疆、传到西藏，这种精神是十分可贵的。”最后她表示欢迎张玉桢明年在大会召开时赴京，展示她西藏之行的成果。
　　1995年8月28日，张玉桢作为特邀代表赴京参加联合国第四次世界妇女大会非政府论坛。黄启副主席一眼就认出了她：“张玉桢同志，见到你非常高兴。”随后也在签名册上题了词：“宣传世妇会，骑车万里行。”
　　
　　骑游生死置之度外
　　
　　远程骑游非同小可，一个高龄妇女骑游全国，遇到的困苦和艰险常人是难以想象的。1998年第八次骑游，张玉桢骑行在齐齐哈尔市区时，被行进中的公交中巴撞倒在后轮边。她头部流血，神志恍惚，直到医院抢救数日做了三次手术后才转危为安。但这次车祸没有阻碍她以“迎澳门回归”为主题的第九次骑游。她写了一份《知难而进》的决心书，明确表示“人生自古谁无死，倘若我在途中发生意外，自愿把遗体无偿献给当地医疗机构。”
　　张玉桢把生死置之度外，所以骑游中她总能笑对困境，豁达应付。大运河畔她遭到龙卷风的突然袭击，大别山上曾连人带车摔下山坡，塞外沙漠中她又被呼啸而来的沙尘暴围困一个多小时，并在塔克拉玛干的“死亡之海”忍受着40℃以上热浪蒸烤，她在这些险境中都逢凶化吉，死里逃生。除了这些险境，她还经常遇到无法预计的许多难题：顶头风让她骑不动车；倾盆雨让人混身湿透；盘山道绕得你精疲力尽；宿夜时的蚊虫叮得人无法入睡……
　　张玉桢把有限的养老金全部投入到骑游中。车辆维修和拍照费，占了养老金很大的份额，剩下的用来吃和住。所以她规定自己的饮食标准每天不得超过10元，住宿限定入住招待所、小旅店或者是机关单位的值班室、学校教室甚至栖身于破庙、窝棚及山洞。因为这苦是自找的，所以她能体会到苦中所蕴含的乐趣。
　　她的这种吃苦精神赢得了人们的钦佩和支持：汕头海军某部送给她胆石通治病，在包头相机坏了，人家给她修理不收钱反倒送她两个胶卷；推车登浙江莫干山，德清县后坞乡乡长派了拖拉机送她上山；翻越秦岭卡车司机硬是要带她走一程路；在沧州她向一位中年妇女问路，却被对方执意邀到家中住宿；入住全国各地的许多纪念馆、展览馆、陵园、旅游景点、招待所、旅店、宾馆，这些单位经常给予她很大的优惠，甚至全部免费。
　　
　　一路风尘一路歌
　　
　　
　　张玉桢所到之处不忘宣传祖国优秀文化，即便到了台湾，她在台北市政府门前，日月潭游船码头，也张开骑游队旗和纪念布展示大陆老年骑游文化的风貌。
　　在黄山市谭家桥镇，当地妇联邀请她向妇女干部宣讲第四次世妇会的主题和在北京召开的意义；在乌鲁木齐返程前，被副市长张国文邀请给体委和体校学生上课，让她讲怎样骑车宣传爱国主义，一路上又遇到什么困难，同时又是怎样克服的；回到上海市委老干部局专门组织老同志听了一场特别报告会，请张玉桢宣讲她的骑游理念和不凡经历；在杭州当张玉桢骑行在莫干山之时，被小学校长拦下要她向师生作报告；到了青海，受青海省劳改局党委政治处邀请，又向各纵队的犯人代表作了骑游爱国宣讲报告。
　　除了演讲，丰富别致的骑游收藏品也是她骑游文化的重要内容。照片、签名册、纪念布，还有各地赠送的上千件纪念徽章、纪念品、书画、题词、各地报道她骑游的报纸以及景点门票和盖有4000个各地邮戳的纸张等等。她利用这些藏品，在华东师大、上海大世界、青浦区等处举办“爱我中华骑游全国图片资料展”18次、照片巡回展20次，部分藏品已被青浦区档案馆收藏。
　　
　　Biking across the Country
　　By Ma Shiming
　　
　　Zhang Yuzheng is a biking legend, for she has traveled across China on thirteen bike journeys since 1990. Of her bike journeys, the shortest one lasted about dozens of days, and the longest ones lasted ten months, starting in spring and ending before winter came.
　　
　　Zhang's bike trips are amazing. In total, the 1,957-day odyssey from 1990 to 2006 covered a total of 110,072 kilometers (including trips by bus, ship and plane) and brought the female biker to 2,330 towns in 909 counties and cities. On the way, she took 10,500 photographs and visited numerous museums, memorial monuments, historical celebrities' residences, military battalions, and scenic spots and places of historical interests. Ninety-six television networks covered her journeys and visits and over 300 news stories were published about her.
　　The data may not appear as mind-boggling as one might imagine, for China is a large country with numerous incredible legends. But, Zhang is indeed an unusual woman, though she looks like an amiable granny in the neighborhood. In 1949, she came to Shanghai a soldier with the PLA storming and sweeping from north to south liberating the whole country. She started her biking after her honored retirement in 1989 and she did the thirteen solitary trips in her sixties and seventies from 1990 to 2006!
　　Before she could start, Zhang needed to convince her family that she could ride long distances at her age. Shortly after her retirement in 1989, she spent two months biking alone across all the suburban counties and districts under the jurisdiction of Shanghai. By learning how to cover a long journey, she prepared herself mentally and physically. Then she came up with a plan for her first ambitious cross-country bike journey: she would bike south, all the way from Shanghai to Hainan Island via Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong Provinces. Shortly after the Spring Festival, 1990, she set out.
　　The journey was full of wonder and excitement and she created many records. She toured the West Lake in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province. She crossed the sea from Shaoxing to visit Zhoushan archipelago. According to the deputy mayor of Zhoushan City, she was the first female cross-country biker that visited the country's largest archipelago. Then she became the first biker that went through Tongyanling Tunnel in southern Zhejiang. In Wenling, she was permitted to visit China's first tide power plant. On the ninth of July, she would cross the province border to Fujian, a mountainous province to the south of Zhejiang.
　　
　　The crossing took her two days. She surmounted two mountains. After trekking the whole day in the mountains, she came to Xiapu and readied herself to hike across the Red Ridge into Fujian Province. She found herself facing a narrow path hugging the cliff side of the mountain with the sea seething far below. She inched along the cliff, pushing the bike along. When she finally left the steep mountain behind and announced herself at the local town government, she astonished everyone there. They had never seen anyone, let alone a woman at her age, negotiating the treacherous path with a bike. On September 29, Zhang arrived in Guangdong Province. After taking part in various activities and paying many visits, she crossed the sea and reached island province Hainan on December 10. No woman biker had ever traveled this far and come to Hainan before.
　　
　　If Zhang Yuzheng's first cross-country solitary biking journey was to prove herself, she took some other journeys to support Olympics and World Women's Congress in Beijing. In 1994， she rode all the way to Tibet and then to Guangxi Autonomous region in the southwestern China. All the way, Zhang publicized the fourth World Women's Congress in Beijing. She was later invited to attend the gala meeting in Beijing in 1995. In 2001, she rode her bike all the way from Shanghai to Beijing. While visiting the headquarters of the bidding committee for hosting Beijing 2008 Olympics Games, she displayed a banner with five hundred supporters' signatures.
　　Biking across China is not totally fun and game for Zhang Yuzheng. The hardships she went through are hard to imagine. On her eighth cross-country journey in 1998, she was knocked down by a bus in Qiqiha'er, a city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. She went through three surgeries to survive the accident. She ran into a cyclone while traveling along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. She fell off a mountain slope on a bike jaunt into the Dabie Mountain. She was trapped in a sand storm for over an hour while traversing a desert. She endured the sweltering heat in the Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang. Winds, rains, endless mountain roads, and mosquitoes all tortured her.
　　Zhang has supported her journeys with her pension only. As photos and bike maintenance accounted for a large part of her expenditures, she had to limit the daily spending to ten yuan for food, shelter and all other things. To save money, she slept in small hostels， dilapidated Buddhist temples, night watcher's duty rooms, school classrooms, caves and field sheds. But she also met with warm-hearted people on her journeys. She was frequently invited into strangers' homes for a night. She was admitted free of charge into museums and parks. She spent nights in guesthouses and hotels free of charge or for a big discount.
　　The tours she took are not just visits and travels. As above mentioned, she has publicized worthy causes and she has been asked to talk about her journeys during and after the bike tours. She has built up a large collection to show for her unforgettable tours: tourist souvenirs, photographs, inscriptions, admission tickets, badges, paintings and inscriptions, maps, newspapers, signature books and banners, newspaper clippings, 4,000 date-time stamps from post offices she visited across the country, etc. These valuable collectables have been used as exhibits for eighteen exhibitions and twenty photo shows to the general public.
　　(Translated by David)