From the East African savanna to Rwanda's mountain forests: the field footsteps of Li Zhiqiang and the Free Wilderness team

Where does a travel itinerary really begin?

For Free Wilderness, it rarely begins with a hotel list, online photos, or a map. More often it begins with a real arrival: stepping onto the savanna, sitting inside a safari vehicle, staying in a camp, experiencing different seasons of weather and road conditions, then carrying every issue observed on the road back into the itinerary design.

Free Wilderness Travel is operated by Chengdu Free Wilderness International Travel Service Co., Ltd. The brand and company were founded in 2022. Before the brand was founded, founder Li Zhiqiang had already accumulated many years of destination experience in the high-end custom travel industry. 2013 marks the starting point of his personal career, not the founding year of the current company.

Starting in 2013, turning destinations into first-hand scenes

After entering the high-end custom travel industry in 2013, Li Zhiqiang began long-term involvement in destination research, itinerary planning, and travel services. For him at the time, judging whether a route was reasonable could not rest only on how famous a destination was, but also on what travelers would actually experience after arriving.

In 2014, he traveled to Ethiopia and Tanzania. From city connections to the East African savanna, from long-distance transport to safari pacing, this arrival turned Africa from a destination on paper into a real scene that could be observed, compared, and continually corrected.

Three years later in 2017, the early team entered Botswana for destination research, learning not only about camp connections, light-aircraft transport, and safari scenarios, but also beginning to compare different camps from the angles of location, accommodation style, and actual experience, accumulating on-the-ground judgment for later itinerary design and camp selection. There was no uniform, copy-paste sightseeing route here: water levels, seasons, wildlife activity, and camp location can all change the experience of a journey.

These experiences gradually formed a working habit: before recommending a destination to clients, first understand as much as possible about how it actually operates.

From Africa to the poles, building judgment for nature travel

In 2015, Li Zhiqiang first arrived in Antarctica, experiencing polar sailing, landing activities, and constantly changing weather conditions firsthand. In 2019, he traveled to Greenland and Iceland, extending his destination experience from the Antarctic to the Arctic Circle.

The African savanna and polar ice may seem completely different, yet both demand that travelers respect nature's uncertainty. Wildlife will not appear on schedule, landing points may be affected by weather, and camp experiences change with the seasons. Truly professional planning is not promising that everything will definitely happen, but understanding the variables in advance, designing a more sensible pace, and leaving room for possible changes.

This also became an important principle for Free Wilderness in later planning African safaris and polar nature travel.

2022, turning personal accumulation into a brand method

In 2022, the Free Wilderness brand and Chengdu Free Wilderness International Travel Service Co., Ltd. were founded.

The brand does not package 2013 as the company's founding year, but clearly distinguishes two histories: 2013 is the founder's personal career starting point; 2022 is the founding year of the current brand and company entity.

Founding Free Wilderness was about turning previously accumulated destination understanding into a more stable travel service method. It cares not only about "where to go," but also about whether each day's journey is reasonable, how camps connect, whether guides understand wildlife, whether the accommodation matches travelers' true preferences, and how domestic coordination makes long-distance travel more reassuring.

After founding, continuing to return to Africa

Founding the brand did not mean the end of field exploration. In 2023, Li Zhiqiang returned to Tanzania, observing safari vehicles, route pacing, and camp experiences firsthand. In 2024, the team met face-to-face with local ground teams in Tanzania to continue learning about destination operations, guide services, and on-site collaboration.

This work may not directly appear on an itinerary, but it affects many details of a journey: whether a drive is too long, which area is better for an extra night, how to choose camps across seasons, and how local teams respond to changes.

In Botswana, seeing another rhythm of safari

In 2025, the team returned to Botswana, not only experiencing safari activities but also staying in and visiting multiple luxury camps from a real guest's perspective, comparing rooms, dining, guides, activity pacing, transfer efficiency, and service details to filter the most suitable accommodation for travelers.

For high-quality nature travel, expensive does not automatically equal suitable. The area a camp is in, seasonal water levels, activity styles, room count, and overall atmosphere all affect the final experience. Returning to the same destination repeatedly is about re-observing under different times and on-site conditions, rather than giving a permanent answer based on a single visit.

In 2026, Li Zhiqiang continued into Botswana, continuously verifying the real stay experience of luxury camps across different areas, seasons, and price levels. Based on travelers' interests, pace, and budget, he matches more suitable hotels and itineraries, ensuring budgets are invested first in the experiences travelers truly value; at the same time, through direct partnerships with local hotel groups, he improves the matching efficiency of availability, pricing, and service coordination.

From the savanna into Rwanda's mountain forests

In May 2026, Li Zhiqiang traveled to Rwanda for a mountain gorilla travel experience. Unlike vehicle safaris, mountain gorilla trekking requires entering the forest under professional guidance, and the actual process is affected by terrain, weather, and the gorillas' location on the day.

This arrival added to the team's on-the-ground understanding of East African mountain forest travel: not only considering trekking permits and travel time, but also understanding the relationship between trekking intensity, forest conditions, accommodation location, and on-site organization. The photo records a real arrival and does not mean wildlife activity can be guaranteed in advance.

That same year, Li Zhiqiang experienced southern Africa's rail travel products. From savanna camps to the Rovos Rail, the team continued to build understanding of southern Africa's transport, accommodation, and service connections.

Field experience ultimately returns to the traveler

For clients, the value of destination research is not in showing how many countries were visited, but in whether these experiences truly enter the service:

• When designing itineraries, reduce unnecessary backtracking and over-rushing;
• When choosing camps, look beyond brand names to area, season, and activity style;
• When arranging safaris or forest trekking, understand the importance of local guides and on-site organization;
• When facing wildlife, weather, and transport changes, keep reasonable expectations and room to adapt;
• On long-distance journeys, bridge domestic communication and overseas on-the-ground service.

From the personal career starting point in 2013, to the founding of Free Wilderness in 2022, to the continued journeys into Tanzania, Botswana, Rwanda, and southern Africa, what has changed is time and destination; what has stayed the same is a single standard of judgment: no truly trustworthy nature travel experience can ever completely bypass the field.

Free Wilderness will not package every arrival into an award, nor write unpredictable nature as a guarantee. The team prefers to walk the route again, actually stay in the camp, personally experience the complex connections, and then place these judgments into the next traveler's itinerary.

This field path continues.