You may laugh at me on the inside when I say 'We are all living on the same planet' but we are all part of the global community and that’s a fact. And of course the word “we” doesn't only mean human beings, it also includes the animals, plants, our oceans and our environment. But mankind is usually too busy making money and developing new places and does not care about the other creatures on this planet.

As you know, I like traveling around the world and I would arrange one or two countries to travel to and explore with my son in a year. I still remember we went to Iceland for our holidays five years ago. We visited one of the Icelandic National Parks on the last day. There were no service facilities, transportation or tourist center, let alone restaurants and shops. Tourists were only permitted to hike in the park on foot and should take their own water and food for the lunch if needed. What's more, the local guy asked each of us to plant one small tree when we were leaving. We were very puzzled, wondering if this was a trick to get an extra ticket fee. In fact, we misunderstood completely. It was totally free. They just thought that we breathed in too much oxygen and breathed out too much carbon dioxide in the park, so we should do something to compensate the carbon offset. We were touched by it and each of us really did plant one small tree.

Two years later, we went to South Africa and stayed at Kruger National Park for five days. We saw the amazing African big five namely the rhino, buffalo, lion, leopard and elephant. Many animals walked around our car, even the lions. All of us were frightened, what we could do if they attacked. But then we were so disappointed that they were reluctant to glance at us even for a second. When night fell it was even more amazing. We saw the Milky Way stretch out into the infinite universe and for the first time in our lives we saw millions of millions of stars sparkling in the night sky.

The Kruger National Park has been a Game Reserve for over 100 years since it was founded in 1898. We were just a tiny part of it, but the animals seem to be used to us and they don’t bother us unless we bother them; they seem to know that we are living on the same planet.

We always think we are the most powerful creature in the world that mankind must be the center of the world, but we are not. Travel broadens our horizon and changes our mind and behavior. My son and I started thinking of how we could possibly protect our environment when we returned home. My son always reminds me not to drive the car to my office, so I have persisted in walking for one hour every day for 5 years. He prefers to ride his bicycle to his school rather than ask me to drive him regardless of rain or snow. In addition, he sponsored one social welfare activity called recycled pen lead in his school and then it spreads many other schools in Suzhou, which indeed arouses more students to protect our environment. But this is not enough. Please join us, so that we can make our world a better place because we are all living on the same planet.