Edgar Snow was the American journalist who, risking his life, made it to the northern part of Shaanxi Province to interview Mao Zedong.
As a young boy, Snow, who might have been influenced by Mark Twain's works, was very interested in travel and adventure. After reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Life on the Mississippi, 17-year-old Snow then drove a T-type tourist car with several of his young playmates, heading for California, 3,000 kilometers away from his home state, Missouri.
Three months later, when he had spent all his five dollars, he had to climb onto slow-going trains. With the rumbling (隆隆作响) of the train, he enjoyed more than half of America's splendid views. On February 15, 1928, Snow decided to board Thunder, a ship leaving for the Far East, without informing his family, setting out to realize his dream of touring the world.
In 1958 or 30 years later, Snow explained his thought more clearly in his book Become a Journey: "I was 22 that year and made some money then, which was enough for me to be on a one-year adventurous tour of the world if I was to be thrifty (节约的). "
Clearly this young man's Far East travel was without any great dream at first. It was only his travel experiences, especially his visit to the northern part of Shaanxi Province years ago that determined his lifetime cause, thus closely connecting his life with China.
