A 13,000-km journey across China, on a homemade tricycle, over three years--the story of Huang Ge and his father is an amazing and touching tale.

Huang Ge, born in Changsha City of Hunan Province and now aged 18, looks much younger than his years. He was diagnosed at seven years old with a rare congenital myopathy, an incurable disease that allows few sufferers to live beyond 18.

The diagnosis knocked his father Huang Xiaoyong, who had looked after the boy alone since his wife left when Huang Ge was just one year old.

Devastated by the news, the father sold everything he had and went raising money in order to seek medical treatment in the faintest hope stopping the disease's course. His hope was in vain however, and Huang Ge's muscles began to wither.

Huang Ge's story attracted the media's attention when a friend of Huang Xiaoyong wrote a letter to Hunan Economic Television Station, asking for their help to fulfill Huang Ge's wish to see his mother on his twelfth birthday.

Staff at the station were touched by the story and worked on a television show that would reunite Huang Ge with his mother. At the end of 2000 the show was aired, and two weeks later it was broadcast worldwide through international channel China Central television (CCTV), China's largest television station.

After the show donations to help Huang Ge flooded in from China and abroad. "I never expected that there would be so many people caring about us," said Huang Xiaoyong. "I kept a notebook and put down the name, address and telephone number of each person who sent money, from the moment I received the first remittance." His records filled three full pages.

Seeing the flag

In 2001 Huang Ge's health worsened, and he became unable to move his body below the neck. Despite the disability Huang Ge was determined not to be housebound and said to his father one day, "I've never been to Beijing and I really want to see the flag-raising in Tiananmen Square."

His father vowed to try to make Huang Ge's wish come true and over the following two years built a tricycle at their home in order to ride to Beijing. Wishing to take the journey a step further Huang Ge suggested before they set off that they take the list of benefactors and visit as many as possible along the way to say "thank you."

"They helped us, but I don't know what they look like, and I have a strong feeling that I owe each of these kind people a thanks," Huang Ge told his father.

So, on May 17, 2003, Huang Ge and his father set off on the tricycle, with provisions and clothes packed for the journey and Huang Ge sat in his wheelchair strapped into a metal box on the back.

It took the pair two months and two days to reach Beijing where Huang Ge achieved the first part of his dream--seeing the flag raising in Tiananmen.

Then began the journey home to Changsha, and the second part of Huang Ge's dream--to visit his benefactors.

The father and son found the first benefactor in Qingdao, Shandong Province. Ma Yue, a local citizen who had sent 200 yuan to help Huang Ge after he saw the television program, never expected that three years later the father and the son whose story had touched him so deeply would knock at his door.

"Tears welled up in his eyes the moment he saw us, and the three of us couldn't help hugging together," recalled Huang Ge.

Huang Ge and his father pushed on, but the journey was difficult, with the tricycle only able to travel 100 km a day, and the iron box sheltering Huang Ge getting cold in the rain and almost unbearably hot in the sun.

The journey was also hard for the father, with nothing to protect him, and miles to travel each day. Speaking of his father's trials, Huang Ge said he felt a great debt to him for making the journey possible.

For three years the father and son traveled across China paying thanks to 30 benefactors in dozens of cities, and Huang Ge passed his eighteenth birthday.

"It really gives me a strong sense of victory and my father and I have made a miracle. Now I do have enough confidence to achieve another miracle," said Huang Ge.

Recognition

While Huang Ge and his father made their journey to praise others for their help, the amazing journey has also won them recognition.

At the end of 2006 CCTV held its annual award ceremony, giving prizes to ten people or groups that had moved the country most over the year, with candidates selected by both the public and a panel of judges. Huang Ge and his father were among the winners.

Other winners included Wang Baixing, a policeman who risked his life to defuse 15,000 bombs over two decades, and Hua Yiwei, a veteran military surgeon who conducted numerous surgical operations and saved many people's lives during his career.

There was also Fok Ying Tong, an entrepreneur form Hong Kong who donated 20 billion yuan to charity, and farmer Lin Xiuzhen, who supported six solitary elders for 30 years.

The annual event that recognizes people who have moved the country has won much praise since it began in 2002.

"It is like an epic of our nation's most precious spirits," according to one member of the show's audience. Li Qiang, a sociologist from Tsinghua University, said, "We don't lack heroes in our times. What's more important is what kind of heroes we expect, and the annual selection of heroes of our society has definitely set up a good model for that."

And Sun Jinling, one of the chief producers of the program, added,"We want to make the annual selection of China moving heroes our brand program. The heroes make a better world for the people, and we will make a better TV program out of them to let the country feel our cherished national spirit."