In Holstein's case she was just an average girl living in Beijing. She lived in a beautiful local Chinese-style hutong home and worked a job she loved at Pingo Space, a local education company. Her life was already great. But, Holstein felt the urge to travel the world and itched for adventure.

It was mid-August of 2021 that Holstein recalled that the idea came to her to travel China by bicycle. At that time, Holstein had never cycled for more than 20 kilometers around her local city of Beijing and was then determined that she would take a 2,500-kilometer journey by herself.

During her first leg of travel, Holstein boarded a train to Chengdu in Sichuan province, her starting point for the cross-China cycling journey. Holstein remarked that "traveling in China is so easy, it cost only 700 yuan ($100) to take a train with her bicycle halfway across China, one of the largest countries in the world".

According to Holstein, the cost of travel in China is incredibly affordable. She remarked in her interview that she "never spent more than 100 yuan on a hotel the entire journey" and that she was able to survive for the entire three months on a budget of 10,000 yuan for food and lodging.