Heading South

When Su Liu was a girl growing up in Kunming, Yunnan, in the early 1980s, she was fascinated by the images of China's elite explorers venturing into the Antarctic.

"Only men who were very fit - iron men - were given a chance to go," she recalls. "It was considered a big deal. To a teenage girl like me, it was like they were going to outer space. Their journey was beyond what ordinary people like me could achieve."

Liu, now a mother of two boys and the head of Greater China and Water Policy Research for Hong Kong-based Civic Exchange, has always been attracted to extremes. "The tallest mountain, the deepest space. Well, I knew I probably won't be able to go to the moon. But maybe Antarctica wasn't so far-fetched."

She knew that the passage would be her litmus test.

Would she be able to survive the motion sickness common during a journey to the South Pole? When she studied in Hobart, she grabbed the opportunity to meet her heroes and spoke to members of the Chinese exploration team who ventured into Antarctica.

"The team members were all young and fit and handsome," she recalls. "They were hand selected but still had to undergo intense training. One told me that to be an Antarctic explorer, you needed an iron stomach. Literally, you should be able to eat your rice with one hand while reaching for a bucket to vomit into with the other."

At a climate change conference in Hong Kong, the top prize awarded to young ambassadors was a trip to the Antarctic sponsored by keynote speaker Robert Swan. Noted for being the first person to walk to both poles, Swan has dedicated his life to protecting the Antarctic's resources through his company 2041.

"My children met him and he invited me to join him on his next trip to the Antarctic," Liu says. "I made excuses, citing my sea sickness. But I realized that I was the one setting the limitations. Why can't I go? My dream awoke."

Liu's work made her realize that China's rapid development has taken a toll on its rivers.

"They have been ruined by hydropower development," she says. "We use so much power that it's destroying our homeland. The Antarctic contains the biggest fresh water reserve in the world: 70 percent of it."

She tapped upon her water resource knowledge to initiate a global program, mobilizing mothers to realize their own dormant dreams while focusing on climate change and water resource protection.

"Women are by nature collectors and their children's first teacher," she says. "China is both the problem and the solution. I hope that my message inspires moms to motivate their children more powerfully."

Even something as common as how we use the toilet can make a difference. According to Liu, the average Hong Kong household uses 220 liters of water each day, and more than 10 percent of that is flushed down the toilet bowl.

"Toilets that use seawater still require energy to get it to every household," says Liu. She suggests that with half of the water used in the shower, simply by putting a bucket to catch shower water and using it for flushing can save about one seventh of total water consumption.

When Liu finally set foot on the icy continent earlier this year, she found the experience overwhelming.

"It was the end of summer there when we arrived and there were still lots of snow and ice," she recalls. "The continent's serenity and grandness was almost like a religious experience for me. I wanted to kneel down: I was so overcome with emotion. It made me realize how small humans are compared to that eternal silence. We are only temporary."

Along with 80 people from 28 different countries, Liu set off from Argentina and reached Antarctica in less than two days because of the favorable weather conditions and "gentle" waves that were one or two meters.

"We camped on the ice for one night," she recalls. "The hardest part was getting up to go to the toilet in the dark. It was so cold! And my shoes were frozen."

While Liu and the rest of Shaw's team learned about climate change and spent time cleaning the remnants, she found time for fun activities such as diving into the chilly waters for a swim or getting up close and personal with penguins.

Now that she has finally realized her dream, would she return to Antarctica?

"I want to inspire more mothers to take action," says Liu. "If that's the case, then I will go back."