Growing up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 22-year-old Charlie House never imagined his American road trip traditions would translate seamlessly to China’s northwest. Yet in March, the Shanghai NYU student led a diverse group of seven international friends on an eight-day, 1,600-kilometer journey from Yinchuan to Qinghai Lake and Lanzhou.
“The vastness of northwest China felt strangely familiar – those endless plains could easily be South Dakota,” said House, who organized the trip after obtaining his Chinese driver’s license through a streamlined translation and testing process. The group rented two cars for under $120 per person roundtrip from Shanghai.
Their adventure began with skeptical taxi drivers at Yinchuan airport questioning foreign visitors daring to drive in China. But soon the international crew – comprising five Americans, one Pakistani, one Zimbabwean and one Colombian – found themselves navigating wide highways through Ningxia’s desert landscapes, past grazing sheep herds and jagged mountain ranges.
The trip’s emotional high point came at Qinghai Lake, where the group attempted camping in -10°C weather before retreating to their cars. They’d been invited by Tibetan herder Geng San, whom group member Santiago Solano had met years earlier during his monthlong bicycle trip from Xi’an to Ürümqi.
“This is the real China – people remembering connections across years and cultures,” Solano reflected as the shivering students abandoned their tents.
In Lanzhou, the group traded camping for China’s version of road trip culture: checking into a gaming hotel to play through the night after sampling the city’s famous hand-pulled noodles. Along the way, they encountered constant hospitality – from gas station attendants recommending sights to street vendors offering impromptu meals.
For House, who runs a US-China trade startup, the journey underscored universal truths about road trips: “Whether driving through South Dakota’s hills or Ningxia’s deserts, that feeling of freedom and camaraderie transcends borders. China’s backroads revealed the same warmth I knew growing up in America’s heartland.”
The experience has cemented House’s plans to remain long-term in China after graduation, continuing to build bridges through grassroots exchanges and his business ventures.
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