Hiking the Glenn Highway through Alaska. Published in Asphalt Pilgrims.
Paul Salopek
Every hundred miles Salopek pauses to record the landscape and a person he meets, assembling a global snapshot of humankind. Milestones reflect straight-line distances, but his walked distances are generally much longer. More on these waypoints here.
Every hundred miles Salopek pauses to record the landscape and a person he meets, assembling a global snapshot of humankind. Milestones reflect straight-line distances, but his walked distances are generally much longer. More on these waypoints here.
We climbed up from the Yellow River to the city of Lüliang, and a storm was blowing in from Inner Mongolia. The big, windy, lonely, new roads that exited the city were almost empty of pedestrians. This was not uncommon in China, where booming infrastructure often leapfrogs the presence of people. There was nobody around to talk to. But someone had left a plastic cup containing incense at the intersection, doubtless to honor some ancestor or family member for the Qingming Festival—Grave Sweeping Day. The festival is said to date back more than 2,500 years, when a servant proved his extreme devotion by feeding a slice of his own thigh to a hungry lord during a period of exile. When the lord regained power, he neglected to reward the servant. Eventually, the lord felt pretty guilty about this. So years later, he located the aged servant living like a hermit in the forest, and when the servant refused to meet and be thanked, the lord burned the servant out. The servant died. Now the lord felt extra guilty. He declared a national holiday.
I know. I don’t get this story, either.
The next day, while we hiked across the Lüliang Mountains, it snowed.
A wraparound soundscape at this Milestone
This Milestone’s location on a map
Photos of the ground under Paul’s feet and the sky above at this Milestone
A brief question and answer with the first person Paul meets at this Milestone
Milestone 86: Encounter
No people were encountered at this Milestone.
A video showing the landscape around this Milestone
To comment, log in using one of the options below. If you don’t have an account, write your comment, enter your name and email address, and select “I’d rather post as a guest.” Paul may respond, so keep an eye out.
