Liu Chengxin to make her globetrotting dream true at the age of 101; Gets her first passport

Beijing, Sept 2: Age is no bar for following your dreams and as ‘Alchemist’ says “And when you want something, whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”. A Chinese centenarian has proved the saying. 101-year-old Liu Chengxin, who has always wanted to travel overseas, can now realise her globe-trotting agenda after being granted her first passport this month by the Chinese authority.

The great-grandmother from Wuxi city said she wants to see the ‘big world’, reported the People’s Daily Online.

Liu Chengxin was born in March, 1915.

She applied for a passport on August 20 through the Wuxi authority.

Last Friday, an official at the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau of Wuxi Public Security Bureau delivered the document to Liu home, according to the report.

Together with her passport, Liu was also issued an Exit-Entry Permit for Travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macau, a travelling permit mainland Chinese residents must obtain before visiting the country’s two special regions.

The elder woman was excited at getting the travelling documents and posed for pictures with them happily.

Liu’s son, who is surnamed Han, told a local reporter that the family had started planning travel itineraries for her.

He said: ‘We will visit Beijing in September, then take the plane to Wuhan, afterwards my mother will take cruises to Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Macau.’

However, the pensioner has a grander plan.

She told an official at the exit-entry bureau when she was applying for the documents: ‘The world is big, and I must go and see.’

Liu has become the oldest person to have applied for a passport in Wuxi. The last record holder was a 94-year-old man.

The elderly woman has 10 children and more than 40 grand children and great grandchildren.

Her youngest daughter told the reporter that Liu likes travelling, but she wasn’t able to travel much in her earlier years due to the family’s poor financial situation.

The daughter also said now all her children have grown up, and they want their mother to realise her dream of travelling overseas.

Liu, who appears to be in good health, is not shy of sharing her secrets to longevity.

She said: ‘I enjoy eating coarse grains, taros and Chinese yams. I especially like braised pork belly and glutinous rice dumplings with sesame filling.’

Liu added that she has a sweet tooth. She said she adds sugar to ‘everything’.

As a pensioner who suffered a poor youth but now lives a happy life, Liu is a representative of China’s fast-growing travel market for senior citizens.

According to a recent market report, there are more than 210 million Chinese citizens aged above 60 and they are expected to spend a whopping one trillion yuan (£114 billion) annually on domestic and international tourism.

However, there are also concerns.

The Chinese authority is set to impose a set of regulations on the senior tourism market from September 1, according to eastday.com.

The new regulations require some senior group tours to have an accompanying doctor.

In addition, travel agencies should not arrange bus journeys longer than two hours or sightseeing trips longer than three hours for senior tourists, according to the regulations.