Pilot returns home after circling the globe

A 54-year-old amateur pilot has become the first man to circumnavigate the globe in a private plane starting and ending in China.

Zhang Bo, from Gansu province, landed at Beijing Capital International Airport on Sept 24 after a 49-day, 40,818-km trip around the world.

He made 44 stops in 23 countries, but it was not until arriving in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, that he realized the enormity of the challenge he had almost finished.