I wanted to do something challenging and out of the ordinary. Paddy s chosen charity is the relief and development agency GOAL , and he hopes to raise funds for its street children s projects in Africa and India. He has already earned enough money to cover the expenses of his trip, so every penny donated by the public will go directly to GOAL s street children s programmes. Paddy will cycle through Xinjiang province in north-western China, and along the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau in central China. One of his biggest fears is the climate in certain areas, where there can be huge differences between daytime and nighttime temperatures.
People wear fur coats in the morning and silk at noon .
Mongolia, which borders the province, has been suffering extremely cold temperatures for the past two years, with recent reports of temperatures of around minus 42 degrees Celsius. He is currently learning the basics of Mandarin Chinese. He is nothing if not ambitious. The course is actually quite good, and it s interesting learning such a different and bizarre sounding language. There are some nice turns of phrase as well.