中文 Enquire Adviser
中文
Contact
EnquireAdviser

A LIFE OF EXPLORATION

Zhang Liang

The long way to 14 + 7 + 2

Fourteen 8,000-metre peaks. The highest summit on every continent. Both poles. One journey shaped over 18 years.

Some journeys are measured in summits. Zhang Liang’s is also measured in years: eighteen of them, from his first mountain climb to the completion of a rare mountaineering milestone.

The shorthand is 14 + 7 + 2: fourteen peaks above 8,000 metres, the highest peak on each of the seven continents, and journeys on foot and skis to both the North Pole and the South Pole. Zhang completed the pole journeys in 2005 and 2008, reached all fourteen eight-thousanders by October 2017, and completed the Seven Summits in June 2018.

The final piece fell into place on Denali in Alaska. On 7 June 2018, Zhang reached North America’s highest peak, completing the sequence known as 14+7+2. Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen later described him as the first person from China and the second person worldwide to complete it.

Zhang Liang speaks beneath a mountain image during an exploration talk
THE VIEW FROM THE FIELD

Expedition stories bring distant landscapes into the room—and make the scale of the journey easier to imagine.

THE MEANING OF 14 + 7 + 2

A route across
the whole planet.

It is a pursuit that links very different kinds of terrain: thin air high above the Himalaya and Karakoram, the defining peaks of seven continents, and polar journeys across immense fields of ice.

In a 2020 campus profile, Zhang recalled 36 climbs over 18 years, four major mountain emergencies and nine decisions to turn back. The record is remarkable; so is the judgment to know when a summit must wait.

Zhang Liang at an exploration event
Zhang Liang at an exploration event
An audience fills the auditorium for an exploration presentation
A full room listens to the expedition story
A SHARED JOURNEY

Exploration reaches beyond the person who makes the journey. It gives others a chance to see a place—and a possibility—in a new way.

Guests gather around an exploration display
Meeting fellow travellers
An audience listens to a story from the field
At the Polar Challenge, Zhang Liang and his two French teammates finished second.
Visitors speak with the Newayer team at the event
Conversations after the talk

FROM THE HIGH PEAKS TO THE SOUTHERN OCEAN

The spirit of exploration
continues south.

In 2027, join Zhang Liang on an Antarctic voyage. Follow the edge of a continent defined by ice, ocean and changing light—and experience the value of travelling with curiosity, patience and respect for the natural world.

THE NEXT FRONTIER

From the world’s highest peaks
to the Antarctic horizon.

Join Zhang Liang on our 2027 Antarctic Voyage.

King penguin family in Antarctica 18 JANUARY 2027 South Georgia & Antarctica
King Penguin Expedition Antarctic expedition ship moving through an ice channel 30 JANUARY 2027 Antarctica Fly-Sail
Lunar New Year Voyage
Contact an adviser