Soon, she made up her thoughts: Once her grandsons entered preschool, she would embark on a journey of her personal. She had purchased a small white Volkswagen hatchback a number of years earlier, along with her financial savings and a month-to-month pension of round $300.
Her household was resistant. Ms. Su reassured her daughter that she could be secure. She ignored her husband, who she stated mocked her.
On Sep. 24, she mounted her tent to the highest of the automotive, packed a mini-fridge and rice cooker, and set off from her dwelling within the metropolis of Zhengzhou.
She posted video updates as she drove, and in October, one among them went viral on Douyin, the Chinese TikTok. In it, she described how oppressed she had felt by home tasks and her husband.
“Why do I want to take a road trip?” she sighed. “Life at home is truly too upsetting.”
Millions watched the video, sharing it with hashtags like “runaway wife.”
Ms. Su continued throughout the nation, visiting historic Xi’an, mountainous Sichuan and the previous city of Lijiang — overlaying greater than 8,500 miles to date. She saved on freeway tolls by taking nation routes. At night time, she unfolded her tent atop her automotive like an accordion, feeling safer up excessive. Before setting out once more every morning, she draped her moist towel on a clothesline strung throughout the again seat.
In her movies, she marveled at her newfound freedom. She might drive as quick as she wished, brake as onerous as she preferred. At every cease, she made new buddies, she stated. Wrapping dumplings on digital camera in a Hainan parking zone in February, she laughed when vacationers passing by requested who was touring along with her.
