It was sunny and hot in London on 27^th July. Around 6:00 pm, Chinese Embassy in UK greeted four special guests. British young man Issac Lewis from Shotton Shire of North Wales, concluding the last leg of his hiking trip for collecting donations for earthquake hit Sichuan, arrived at the finishing point—Chinese Embassy accompanied by his brother, granny and aunt. 

On behalf of Ambassador Fu Ying, Councilor Liu Weimin expressed warm welcome to the Lewis family, and expressed high appreciation and heart felt thanks to Lewis for his gracious deed of charity hike and for the generous support rendered by his family. He indicated this fully shows the friendly sentiments of the British people to the disaster-hit people in Sichuan.

As a boy of 19, Lewis is in love of Chinese culture. He worked as English teacher for five months in Sichuan Deyang No.5 Middle School when he engaged in social practice in China after graduation from high school in 2007. Lewis is thin and with sunny smile. He said with deep feelings, “I’ve got many friends in Sichuan and spent beautiful moments there. After the earthquake, I was shocked to see the scenes there. I emailed my school and friends there right away and was gratified to learn there were no casualties. But I really want to do something for the people there and hope to help the victims.”

Lewis decided to walk to London from his hometown North Wales and collect donations on his hike. He also set up a donation website (http://www.justgiving.com/walktolondon). Lewis started his 240-mile journey on 7^th June. He walked for 8 hours daily and arrived in Birmingham four days later. After days of long walk, blisters emerged on his soles and he was exhausted. He had to obey the doctor’s advice and adjusted his plan into walking to London every weekend.

Lewis said he was supported and taken care of by many people on the way , and he would transfer the donation of 2,500 pounds to China Children and Teenager’s Fund to help children victims. Sichuan has beautiful mountains, waters and people. The real China is very different from the China on British media coverage. He expressed the hope to get an opportunity to work in China in the future, and also hoped more British people would be able to see China with their own eyes like himself and experience a new and wonderful China. His granny and his family are all proud of what he did.

Liu gave a brief account of post disaster reconstruction in Sichuan and the preparations for Beijing Olympics. He presented to the guests Olympics souvenirs and invited them to attend reception at the Embassy to mark the opening of the Olympics, and to watch the broadcast of the opening ceremony. The guests expressed their thanks, indicated the Beijing Olympics would surely be wonderful, and wished the Olympics a complete success.