[Photo provided to China Daily]

"In the end, I didn't have to push my car back to Beijing."

He enjoyed driving a few days before a family emergency forced him to pull an all-nighter, racing from Qinghai province's capital, Xining, to Beijing in about 20 hours.

Krasnopolksy, who has conquered three cross-country routes, believes China road trips are worthwhile, despite occasional roadblocks.

"If you want to see things, you have to get your own wheels," he says.

"In the morning, I don't know exactly where I'll be at night."

He loves veering off-road to discover villages.

Krasnopolksy and Webster once got their cars stuck in a bog in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. A tractor came to rescue them. It got stuck, too.

Eight hours later, a larger tractor extracted all three vehicles from the muck.

"Still, driving is more convenient," Krasnopolksy says.

"Public transportation isn't that reliable outside main cities."

Webster recalls waiting six hours for a delayed long-distance bus in Sichuan province. When it pulled in, police arrested the driver and told everyone to return the next day.

"That was the moment I decided to actually get my license," he says.

He'll lose that license on June 20, 2028. National law bars people over 70 from driving.

"That's the day I'll leave China."