Zhao Liping, a thin woman who is 1.63 meters tall, does not fit the conventional idea of
a truck diver. However, the 33-year-old mother from Bozhou, Anhui province, has been
a trucker for 10 years and has driven more than 1.5 million kilometers.
Inspired by her father, who is also a trucker, Zhao decided to drive trucks after
graduating from a vocational school.
It tool her almost a year to learn all the traffic rules and get through the training to
obtain her A2-level driver's license.
Compared to a regular 9 am-to 5 pm job, Zhao says she enjoys the adventures on the road
and the independence during driving. To her, driving a truck is both hard work and reward-
ing.
She can get into her 4-meter-tall rig with agility, and usually a 23-meter-long trailer
is hooked up behind a truck. Maneuvering a trailer truck can be tough but not for Zhao.
Zhao says being a professional trucker is not easy, which requires long hours on the road
with irregular hous and physical strain.
The longest journey Zhao has undertaken so far is driving a truck in shifts with her
sister-in-law for more than 1,800 kilometers within 24 hours from Guangzhou, South China's
Guangdong province, to Jinan, East China's Shandong province.