Juanjuan’s book, "The Sky is My Ceiling, the Earth is My Bed"

Yu Juanjuan is the first woman to have bicycled the entire border of China, a solo journey of more than two years and over 25,000 miles.  Juanjuan’s book, "The Sky is My Ceiling, the Earth is My Bed" is a visual memoir that recounts her 22 month true-life journey biking around China from Sept. 1987 to July 1989. Working with her husband, Photographer - Phil Wegener, Photo Editor - Paula Gillen, and Writer - Greg Bowles, she has created a photo book that documents her historic journey. The book is 152 pages, filled with stories of her adventures. and heavily illustrated with photographs taken during her trip.  

Juanjuan and her team leaving Beijing. Sept. 1987.

"The Sky is My Ceiling, the Earth is My Bed" is a true-life story of a woman athlete overcoming every imaginable obstacle to achieve a dream.  It is also a coming of age story in post-Mao China and a personal reaction to meeting people of very different ethnicities in a country of over 1 billion people, where 92% of the population is of the Han majority. Juanjuan’s story is true adventure, the story of China and it's complicated history, and one woman's indomitable spirit.  Her book encompasses aspects of feminism, Asian studies, history and ethnography, all set within the framework of a grand adventure by bicycle.

Juanjuan "Under Heaven Gate," western end of the Great Wall of China.

"The Sky is My Ceiling, the Earth is My Bed," covers her personal history as a child of 1960’s Maoist China and her early bike races and trips. Her journey around China on a bike took place in an earlier era, long before the Internet, freely available GPS, and she completed the journey with little of the sponsorship that western athletes now take for granted.  "The Sky is My Ceiling, the Earth is My Bed," is a supremely human tale of a superhuman effort by a woman to succeed against all odds.

Cover of the rough draft of Juanjuan's book.