Chinese woman biking 4,000km to train in Muay Thai with Buakaw
The story of a Chinese woman bicycling 4,000 kilometres from her hometown in southern China to train Muay Thai in Thailand has gone viral.
Li Zhen-xiang, a resident of Mianyang city in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, told Chinese media that her goal was to learn skills in the Thai martial art from Muay Thai superstar Sombat “Buakaw” Banchamek.
A confessed avid fan of Muay Thai, Li planned to meet Buakaw at his boxing camp in the northern Chiang Mai city. Then, she would bike another 700km to Bangkok to train at a Muay Thai school for six months before taking part in actual boxing matches five or six times.
“I am biking alone this time, and my destination is Thailand. Certainly, I will face difficulties and challenges due to the weather, language barrier, and tough training,” she was quoted as saying by the Chengdu Daily Star News.
Her story has been ranked third on the Chinese social media platform Weibo’s popular trends.
Buakaw’s Facebook page asked his followers to give the Chinese woman a warm welcome while she is in Thailand.
“As fellow fans of Muay Thai, we should be proud that foreigners also admire our national martial art,” the Facebook post said.
Earlier, there was another viral social media post involving Muay Thai.
American 7th grader Reed Harrington recently posted an Instagram message promising to follow the advice of the most-liked comment if he reached 200,000 followers.
The top comment, which broke the Instagram record with over 2.5 million likes, told the teenager to “fly to a small town in Thailand, get accepted by their people, learn the language, train Muay Thai for a year and half, fight in a tournament, win the tournament, return to the USA and join the UFC, stay in shape & go undefeated in your weight class, retire and do an interview saying this comment was the reason you fought so hard.”
Reed reportedly is raising funds for air tickets to Thailand for himself and his father.
This matter caught the attention of former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij, who tagged Buakaw and Muay Thai film star Tony Jaa, saying, “I'm sure these two gentlemen will be happy to help.”
Buakaw was quick to get back to the American teen. “Hello, I am Buakaw! Both myself and the governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand extend a warm welcome and are prepared to assist you during your stay in Thailand. I will send you a direct message to discuss this further,” he said in his Facebook post.
