Behind the project.

Who am I?

Where are you from?  That’s the first question I’m typically asked. My name is Sara Qiu Ruan (well, it’s officially Rong Rong 蓉蓉).

I am from Spain and originally from China—a hybrid of two cultures. However, I do not fully belong to any of them. From a young age, I’ve been brought several times to my parent’s hometown in China. Since my teens, I have had the curiosity of living in other parts of the world: at the age of 13, I spent a whole summer in Xinjiang (West of China) at my great uncle’s home. Next year, I spent a month in the US, living with a host family. At 18, I moved to London for half a year to work as a waitress. And in my twenties, I moved to Shanghai and the US as part of my studies. I can say that all these new and unfamiliar places easily felt like “home” to me.

Despite wanting to continue living abroad, I spent five working years in Spain. Mainly in Madrid, working for a start-up and also for a corporation.

I began to travel alone in 2015. On my first backpacking trip, I spent 9 days in Portugal and the South of Spain. It felt amazing to discover new places that way and to meet the genuineness of many – soon not to be, strangers.
After that, during work holidays or job transitions, I traveled to places like the Philippines, South Korea, North Korea, Yunnan (the Southern part of China), Israel, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan… and several European countries.

It wasn’t until the pandemic hit that I shifted the way I travel or engaged in wholly new endeavors:
– In 2020 I cycled for 700 km in 13 days, crossing villages, cities, and mountain passes (here’s the writing)
In 2021,
– I spent 9 days hiking alone in a semi-self-sufficiency mode in the Spanish Pyrenees (here’s the video)
– I did a pilgrimage from Oviedo to Santiago: the whole Camino Primitivo, 320 km in 9 days (video)
– I ran my first full Marathon (writing)
– I joined a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat. 10 days in complete Silence, 10 hours of meditation per day. Now, I am looking forward to my 3rd one 🙂 (writing)

I guess ALL this contributed to starting shaping Journey From the Road 🙂