Information of TTFly: Growing up in Dalian, China, Julie Wang dreamed of becoming a pilot.

But, as she's near sighted, it was a far-fetched field for a career in China. She instead went into advertising, her dreams of flying fading away while each year of her nearly 20-year career in it passed by.

Wang moved to the United States in 2010 and visited the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture in Oshkosh a year later - that's when the sky started calling to her again.

Next week Wang will embark on a journey to become the first Chinese woman to fly around the world solo.

She hopes her journey will plant a seed in the minds of young women that they too can achieve their dreams - just like the seed was planted in her mind in 2011, when she met pilot Wei Chen at AirVenture.

Chen, also from China, completed the same flight in 2011 that Wang will embark on. havin just achieved her private pilot license, Wang was inspired after their meeting to take on her own challenge.

"I told myself: 'I could do that - I could actually fly around-the-world,'" Wang said in a press release. "After a few years I found that the idea had rooted itself firmly in my mind and just about one year ago I started planning."

Wang lives Florida, wher she is a Palm Beach-based flight instructor.

She'll cover 23,000 nautical miles in a Cirrus SR22 single-engine, 6-cylinder, 310-horsepower aircraft. The flight will be mostly over open water - something Wang has never tried before.

"It will be a challenge," Wang said at AirVenture on Monday. "But it will be exciting."

Wang completed a warm-up flight across the United States this past spring, wher she flew 20 hours continuously solo. That helped her gain confidence in her abilities.

She said she'll approach flying over water for 17 hours in the same way she approached that over land - with safety being the top priority.

Wang has equipped herse;'lf through hours of training, including 25 hours of Cirrus transition training, which she wanted to master before takeoff. She earned her Airline Transport Pilot just last week, and has logged about 1,600 flight hours.

She's excited to fly to her home country, which she should arrive at in mid-August.

Wang wants other women to feel encouraged to tackle their dreams, regardless of what field it is - just do it, she said.

"It's been one of my dreams," she said, "So it's time to do it."