Raised in the Jiangsu countryside, Hong Mei (b. 1981) has always been a free spirit with a passion for exploring. In 2007 she and her husband, travel photographer Tom Carter, embarked on a year-long backpacking journey together across all 33 provinces of China. In 2009, they made the great leap to India. Her journals from that wild, romantic and groundbreaking adventure across the entire Indian subcontinent became her first book, The Farther I Walk, The Closer I Get To Myself (走得越远, 离自己越近), sold by Peony Literary Agency to Thinkingdom and published in 2014. [Photography]