On the home front, Li's most well-known book is 18 Oddities to Savor My Homeland, a reflection of his travels in Yunnan and 18 peculiar customs he found there.

The native of Kunming in Yunnan province had been working as an art designer for a local newspaper.

In 1988, he spent most of his savings to buy a bike and took a trip around his southern province, turning what he saw into cartoon images.

"Few people rode to those remote areas at that time. The ethnic people were so curious about me and took me for a geological prospector because of my hat," he said.

"They didn't understand what I was looking for. Most people had never been to other towns, not to mention visiting Kunming."

"I told them I drew manhua (Chinese for cartoon, but with the same pronunciation as 'draw slowly'.) And they said 'you drew so quickly, not slow at all!'"

Local people judged a cartoon simply by whether it looks like the real image or not.

"But their honesty and simple sentiments moved me a lot and their thoughts as well as their lives also inspired me," he said.

In the following years, he visited many prefectures in the province and published several comic books about his own experiences.

In his 40-square-meter studio near his home, Li is making drafts of new books, continuing to tell the story of a Chinese man's life. The fourth and fifth volumes are finished, and a sixth is planned.

Li has kept the habit of getting up early that he developed in the army as a young man, and exercises daily.

He touches neither tobacco nor alcohol and never complains about a lack of inspiration. Letting nature take its course is his life philosophy.

But there are two things he can hardly let be - one is that the Chinese edition of The Life of a Chinese hasn't been published yet. The second is that the bike he rode for thousands of kilometers in Yunnan was stolen in 2005.

"It recorded the beginning and also the most unforgettable years of my career. It is a crude cross-country vehicle with a bumper and a shock-absorbing seat that I made myself," Li said with a deep sigh.

"I miss it so much."