A retirement home on wheels

Wang Renhe and Zhou Xiaojing at the Tanggula Mountain Pass on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. Photos Provided to China Daily

Hou Yingqian felt searing pain when she regained consciousness.

The 67-year-old didn't realize her spine was dislocated but knew she couldn't move her neck.

She also realized her RV had rolled over, crumpling its nose and door.

Hou and her husband, Zhang Zhiwu, 67, had been racing across Russia to reach Europe before their visas expired.

It had been a longstanding dream to travel the continent together.

But that dream dimmed when they struck the lamppost.

Still, the couple were back on the road in a new RV a year later.

"It's a lifestyle," Zhang says.

"It suits old people. We have time and savings. We want to travel at our own pace rather than with group tours."

The retired lawyer from Liaoning province's Dalian city has spent the past half-decade RVing through China and over 30 countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Zhang turned the stories behind the 100,000 miles he'd racked up into a book in 2013. He's working on another about RVing to Europe.