Tik Tok star Dong Xuxi is conquering the world

"Strangers would be staring at me, and when they did, I would stop walking altogether and wait for them to leave. I didn't want to walk at all, let alone go outdoors and participate in sports."

Around 2016, Dong watched an online video, in which a girl wearing a prosthetic leg walks with seemingly perfect ease. Yearning to walk properly, she contacted the girl and learned about a prosthetic company and rehabilitation center in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

"It already hurt so much that I thought I might as well give it a try," Dong says, adding that she left her home in Shenzhen to move to Hangzhou for rehabilitation in 2017, where she later transferred her job and now trains.

Encouraged by her physical therapist, she began to participate in outdoor activities. One of the first activities was a group walk last year, in which a dozen of her amputee colleagues went for a walk together. It was the first time after the accident that she wore shorts and revealed her prosthetic leg in public.

"I had no qualms walking behind my colleagues and taking photos with them. Even though people stared, they also expressed their amazement at our courage," Dong says.

She also learned to run again, which was initially daunting as it was the first time in five years. Over time, she felt more capable and willing to push her limits. Now, she has completed three events with the longest record being 7 kilometers, and she has also climbed the Huashan Mountain in Shaanxi province and flown through clouds on a paraglider.

For fun, she opened a Douyin account last year. At first, she posted only videos that did not expose her new leg. Then one day, she took some full-body shots, which received a lot of comments that expressed support and admiration for her.

"Your willpower is beyond imagination. Keep going. You are beautiful," Douyin user Afanda commented on her photo.