What does courage look like? Sometimes, it looks like standing at the base of the world's highest mountain, knowing the air will thin with every step. Other times, it looks like walking into a new industry, knowing you must rebuild everything from scratch.

On 3 April, the University of Manchester China Centre witnessed both. We were honoured to host two extraordinary women for a conversation that left no one in the room unchanged.

🌹 Ms Han Zijun – The first Chinese woman to summit Mount Everest from both the north and south routes. Her story is not merely one of physical endurance, but of a quiet, relentless truth: resilience and passion know no age limits. Whether facing avalanches or the inner voice that whispers "turn back," Han Zijun has proven that the summit is not a destination – it is a choice, made again and again.

🌹 Ms Serena Yu – Partner at CGL Consulting and a Global MBA alumna of The University of Manchester. Across industries and through career transitions, Serena has rebuilt herself with a constant upward drive. Her journey shows that professional transformation is not about avoiding failure – it is about recalibrating direction in change and reshaping oneself in challenge.

What Unites Them

At first glance, a mountaineer and a business leader walk different paths. But as the dialogue unfolded, a shared truth emerged.
What unites Han Zijun and Serena Yu is not simply excellence – though both possess it in abundance.

It is courage.

The courage to calibrate direction when the path shifts. The courage to reshape oneself when the old shape no longer fits. The courage to say, "I will keep going – not because it is easy, but because the view from the other side is worth everything."

To everyone who joined us that day: thank you for bringing your questions, your openness, and your own quiet courage. It was a privilege to witness such honest, powerful storytelling.

And to Han Zijun and Serena Yu: thank you for reminding us that whether we are climbing mountains or climbing career ladders, the climb is always, always worth it.