Chinese entrepreneur Chen Jinwei spent 33 years and US$1.5 million visiting 233 countries. After returning to Shanghai in August 2026, he shares his journey, challenges like a Antarctic ship fire, and why he believes perfect timing rarely arrives.
Tags:33 Years Around the World: Chinese Entrepreneur Completes Journey Across 233 Countries and Regions
For more than three decades, Chinese businessman Chen Jinwei carried a personal ambition that began when international travel was still a distant dream for most people in China: he wanted to see the entire world for himself.
Now, at the age of 53, the entrepreneur from Zhuji in eastern China’s Zhejiang province says that dream has finally been completed.
In August 2026, Chen returned to Shanghai from Peru after visiting the remaining destinations on his list. His final South American journey took him through Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Peru, bringing his total to 233 countries and regions over a period of 33 years.
The achievement reportedly places him among a relatively small number of Chinese travellers to have reached such a wide range of destinations.
A Dream That Started in the 1990s
Chen’s fascination with travel began long before smartphones, social media and online booking platforms made international trips relatively simple.
His first overseas journey came in 1993, when he travelled to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
At the time, information about foreign countries was far less accessible. For Chen, reading about distant places or seeing them on television was not enough. He became increasingly interested in experiencing different societies, landscapes and cultures personally.
However, travelling around the world could not immediately become his main priority.
He was building a business, starting a family and raising children. For years, work and family responsibilities competed with his desire to explore.
Once his manufacturing business became more established, Chen began treating his travel goal as a serious long-term project rather than an occasional holiday.
His strategy was unusual: tackle the most difficult destinations first.
Countries and territories with complicated entry requirements, poor transport connections or limited access moved to the top of his list. Easier destinations could wait.
Seven Years to Reach One Remote Destination
One of his greatest challenges was Tokelau, a remote South Pacific territory consisting of small coral atolls.
Chen first attempted to reach it in 2019. He travelled to New Zealand and remained there for roughly two weeks preparing for the journey.
Then a public-health situation disrupted the trip and the planned visit was cancelled.
It became one of the stubborn missing pieces on his world map.
Seven years later, in 2026, Chen finally succeeded in reaching Tokelau. For him, arriving there represented far more than another destination. It meant that one of the most difficult obstacles in his decades-long project had finally disappeared.
Soon afterwards came his final journey through South America and his return from Peru.
Completing the list was deeply emotional. After spending much of his adult life pursuing the goal, Chen described feeling an enormous sense of relief when he returned to China.
The Journey Was Not Always Safe
Thirty-three years of travelling also brought dangerous situations that would have persuaded many people to stop.
One of the most serious occurred during an Antarctic expedition in November 2015.
Chen was travelling aboard a French cruise ship heading toward Antarctica when, in the early hours of the third day, the vessel lost power and smoke began spreading from the lower sections.
Passengers rushed from their cabins, some barely dressed for the emergency.
As conditions worsened and the ship began leaning noticeably, passengers were ordered to abandon the vessel. Chen boarded a lifeboat along with other travellers and spent hours at sea before rescue eventually arrived.
The experience was frightening, but it did not end his Antarctic ambition.
After recovering and reorganising his plans, he tried again. In January 2016, he successfully reached the Antarctic Peninsula.
Other journeys brought different dangers. Chen says he contracted malaria while travelling in Africa. During a trip to Greece with his wife and children, the family encountered an earthquake.
Years of unexpected events gradually changed the way he responds to problems. Instead of panicking when something goes wrong, he tries to accept the situation first, remain calm and work out what can realistically be done next.
He believes the same mentality has helped him in business.
One Month Travelling, One Month at Home
Despite the extraordinary number of destinations, Chen did not spend 33 uninterrupted years on the road.
When his international travelling became more intensive, he developed a system designed to keep the rest of his life functioning.
He would often spend roughly one month travelling and the following month back in China.
His time at home was used to manage his company, spend time with his family and organise the next journey.
Chen estimates that if all his actual travel days were combined, he probably spent about six or seven years physically travelling.
The entire project cost him more than 10 million yuan, equivalent to roughly US$1.5 million.
But he says the objective was never simply to accumulate countries for a record.
Rather than arriving, taking a photograph and immediately leaving, Chen tried to experience each destination. Food, everyday life, local customs and cultural differences were important parts of the journey.
He also became an enthusiastic collector.
Among the items gathered during his travels was currency from 198 countries, which he later donated to a museum dedicated to the famous Chinese traveller and geographer Xu Xiake. Chen has also said that other souvenirs collected around the world may eventually be donated to schools.
From Teenage Salesman to Business Owner
Chen’s ability to finance such an ambitious project came from decades in business, but he did not begin life as a wealthy traveller.
At 16, before completing middle school, he reportedly left home with 2,000 yuan and began working in sales.
At a time when people around him might earn approximately 200 yuan a month, Chen says he made around 17,000 yuan during his first year.
He eventually moved into manufacturing and built his own company, Zhejiang Yibang Machinery, which he has operated for more than three decades.
His experience as both an entrepreneur and traveller has convinced him that success in the two areas requires similar qualities: deciding clearly what you want to achieve, continuing when difficulties appear and finding solutions instead of waiting for perfect circumstances.
In 2023, his extensive travelling was formally recognised when he received an honour naming him among China’s contemporary successors to the adventurous spirit associated with Xu Xiake.
His Message: Stop Waiting for the Perfect Moment
Chen believes one of the biggest obstacles preventing people from pursuing their ambitions is the idea that life will eventually provide an ideal moment.
People tell themselves they will travel after earning more money, when work becomes quieter, when their children are older or after retirement.
His own experience has led him to a different conclusion.
Perfect timing rarely arrives.
Instead, he believes people should examine the resources and responsibilities they have now, set realistic goals and gradually begin working towards them.
His 33-year journey was not completed in one dramatic decision. It was achieved piece by piece while he continued running a company, raising a family and dealing with setbacks.
The lesson he takes from those decades is simple: having a destination matters, but continuing to move toward it matters even more.
What Comes After Seeing the World?
Finishing all 233 destinations does not mean Chen intends to stop exploring.
His priorities, however, are changing.
He says he wants to spend more time with his children and parents while continuing to operate his company steadily.
At the same time, he has already created another travel-related project.
Over the next two years, Chen hopes to meet around 100 notable figures from China’s outdoor-adventure and travel community. Instead of concentrating on countries and territories this time, he wants to hear other travellers describe the roads they have taken and what those experiences have taught them.
After 33 years, more than 10 million yuan and journeys stretching from remote Pacific islands to Antarctica, Chen has finally finished the map he started imagining as a young man.
But completing the map does not appear to have ended his desire to keep moving.
For him, the greater achievement was never simply reaching 233 places. It was refusing to leave a lifelong ambition permanently waiting for “someday.”
No comments:
Post a Comment