Dalian, Liaoning Province, China: 39° 04' 40" N, 122° 00' 29" E
When you set out to trek across the world, one of the very first things you learn about such a global walk of a lifetime is that it contains many other, if shorter, walks of a lifetime. It’s like an unfolding a map that you can zoom into—and zoom into, and zoom into—infinitely. Or perhaps it’s a bit like roaming a library where every single book you open proves a treasure that could occupy years of attention. The past two years and four months of walking across China has been that way.
China is by far the longest national traverse among the 19 countries included so far on the Out of Eden Walk journey.
More than 6,000 kilometers of the 25,000 kilometers of trails paced off since this project launched in 2013 in Ethiopia have unspooled through the sprawling center of the Middle Kingdom—a crinkly route that began in the autumn of 2021, near the tropical borders of Burma, and ended this summer at the Yellow Sea, near the border of North Korea in China’s chilly northeast. (I reached within a few kilometers of my departure port, Dalian, last December; I closed that final gap in June, after renewing my visa.)
Paul Salopek's route through China: nearly 6,000 kilometers, two years and four months. The dashed line represents a break in the walking trail caused by border restrictions between Myanmar and China during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Courtesy the Harvard Center for Geographical Analysis
China contributed the largest contingent of walking partners to this slow, collective ramble among the human family at the turn of the 21st century: 25 companion storytellers vastly enriched my Chinese trails.
They have included educators like Yang Wendou and photographers like Zhang “Marina” Hongyi. They have been book translators like Liu Kankan and historians and writers like Luo Xin. They are naturalists like Zhang Qing Hua and singing mountaineers like Sonam Gelek. They have been artists like Cheng Xinhao and cultural experts like Liu Lifeng. Xu Haotian was an ex-Starbucks barista. Becky Lin and Frank Geng were entrepreneurs. The list of Chinese brothers and sisters of the open road goes on.
All the hyperlinks above attest to the true power of this shared journey: Lost or found on our trails from the African cradle to our ancestor’s prehistoric finish line at the bottom of South America, we always do better when walking together.
送友人
李白
青山横北郭，
白水绕东城。
此地一为别，
孤蓬万里征。
浮云游子意，
落日故人情。
挥手自兹去，
萧萧班马鸣。
—李白
Green hills lay above the northern wall,
And waters wind around the city east.
Here you part, a lonely leaf
Traveling a thousand miles.
A floating cloud, wandering far from home,
I think of the setting sun above my friend of old.
I wave my hand as he departs—
Dejected, even the horses let out a cry.
—Li Bai, 8th century
Paul Salopek and nearly 20 of his local walking partners trek together to the Yellow Sea—the finish line of the Out of Eden Walk through the Middle Kingdom.
Out of Eden Walk
A bow of gratitude for the flabbergasting generosity, daring, humor, wisdom, and patience of the following walking partners in China: Yang Wendou, Li Bing, Zhang Qing Hua, Li Zheng Kang, Zhang Hongyi, Liu Kankan, Dai Hua, Sonam Gelek, Li Mengchi, Cheng Xinhao, Becky Lin, Huipu Li, Liu Lifeng, Ma Tianjun, Frank Geng, Luo Xin, Xiao Yi, Luo Ying, Wang Wei, Pan Jun, Xu Haotian, Wang Jiawei, Jin Jin, Tracy Cao, Wang Yixin, Han Qian, and Phoebe Ba.
I would also like to thank friends at Disney-China and the Documentary Center at the Shanghai Media Group for their tireless work facilitating the walk across China.
Editor's Note
How to measure progress on a foot journey across the world? The Out of Eden Walk is a global project. Its aim is to deploy the power of storytelling to increase understanding across all barriers—political, geographical, and cultural. Following the standard practice in the overwhelming majority of the family of nations, we are using metric measurements in the walk's stories.
