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Man Walks Nearly 3000 Miles Through China

111 points| richardknop | 12 years ago |lifebuzz.com | reply

66 comments

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[+] jzwinck|12 years ago|reply
I walked 113 miles (182 km) of the South West Coast Path in Cornwall, England. That took "only" 9 days, but it was enough that when I arrived in a decent-size town after a week of walking, I felt a sort of vertigo simply from being around so many people, shops, and all the rest. A week spent just walking (and eating full English breakfast every single day) was enough to feel something really different.

I highly recommend ultra-long walks, and the South West Coast Path (600 miles and two months to do the whole thing). There's nothing quite like it.

[+] shrikant|12 years ago|reply
I would strongly second this recommendation -- I've done about 200 miles over different legs of the SWCP (across two years), and it is a magnificent way to spend a weekend. Some of the scenery is quite breath-taking, and literally all the places I stayed in (ranging from campsites to B&Bs) were excellent.
[+] doorhammer|12 years ago|reply
I cycled, hitch-hiked, and walked a rough perimeter of ireland.

I was with a friend, though. It was a lot of fun and really interesting.

Had a bivy sack and sleeping bag so most nights we just walked off the road and slept wherever seemed hidden enough. We took about five weeks or so. Stayed in random towns and such for different durations, but the walking part was always my favorite.

I'd like to do more trips like that, except try a few by myself. I get to and from work walking pretty often. Right now that's only about two miles, but even if it's five to ten, it can be nice. It takes awhile, but it's always been therapeutic to me. Walking home today, actually. Love it.

Roadside bivy sack: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yxfmxk7qk0mmhx7/_MG_6280.JPG

[+] gbog|12 years ago|reply
It's become fashionable to walk along Saint-Jacques de Compostelle pilgrimage path in France and Spain. Would you call it ultra-long walk?

Anyways, the good part of it is that you have cheap and clean pilgrim hotels all the way, and the food is quite good in most places.

[+] nsaparanoid|12 years ago|reply
Question - what gear did you take, etc? You mention the english breakfast every day - I take it that meant you stayed in a village every day? So no camping gear etc? Did you buy new supplies in each place?
[+] agumonkey|12 years ago|reply
I wonder how much ~sensory depravation~ we're getting for free with the average sedentary/city lifestyle.
[+] kjs3|12 years ago|reply
Similarly, in the Eastern US we have the Appalachian Trail (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/) at 2200 miles. Many folks do the whole thing, and many more do various subsets. Highly recommended.
[+] danso|12 years ago|reply
So, I'm guessing blogspammy Upworthy links are banned, but upworthy-clone links aren't yet? This side by side comparison of the two sites' layouts will shock you:

http://i.imgur.com/kvcdjCB.png

[+] chrisBob|12 years ago|reply
Thats about how any long trail hiker looks. My personal best is the John Muir trail (15 days no resupply). That was plenty to see a difference. My wife and I both lost about 10 lbs, and neither of us had that much to loose. I actually got sick and threw up after eating regular food at a restaurant the day we finished.

Some day I would like to do an art project of before and after photos of all of the AT hikers one year. I think it would be impressive, and would only require a few weeks at the start and about a month or so at the finish to get a good group of people.

[+] morgante|12 years ago|reply
I highly recommend long hikes/walks as a method of realigning yourself (and improving health).

For my father's 60th birthday, we hiked the 270 miles of the Long Trail. It was a grueling experience at first, but one of the best things I've ever done. We became much closer afterwards, and I lost about 40 lbs.

[+] sanoli|12 years ago|reply
Call me jaded, but this is another "let's travel somewhere exotic/remote and post about it later because it's cool" doesn't get me anymore. But I don't get why he didn't just start walking from where he was. If you want to wander and just walk, start from there, no need to go to China. Like I said, a little bit jaded.
[+] avar|12 years ago|reply
If you live in a rich western country and want to take time off to wander then it's going to be less expensive to do so in a country like China.

It's also probably much more interesting to go to a poorer country where people are more likely to be farming out in the countryside or walking/biking around than just walking by some highway in a western country.

[+] leyfa|12 years ago|reply
I've read parts of his book. He had already been living in China as a student for a few years when he decided to start his trip, if I remember correctly.
[+] OlivierLi|12 years ago|reply
I also would have liked to know why he didn't leave from where he lived. I bet the slow change of lifestyle and landscape going from western Europe to Asia would have been really interesting to experience.
[+] epaladin|12 years ago|reply
I'd really like to do a real long-distance walk/hike eventually. I tried walking south out of Nagoya station in Japan, aiming to get Hiroshima, but I only ended up going about 50 miles before I ran out of time and had to take the train the rest of the way. I didn't make nearly as much progress as I hoped, at least part due to shoes that weren't appropriate at all, and hadn't been broken in. That was a huge surprise, as I had spent the rest of the year training for a marathon, and figured I was plenty used to foot pain. So I learned that shoes matter just as much for walking as they do for running when it comes to long distance.

I was hoping it was going to be a transformative experience, but either I didn't try hard enough to break habits, or a few days wasn't enough time. Now that I've learned a thing or two about mindfulness, I feel like I'd approach it differently in terms of attitude/mindset. It was still an interesting adventure.

[+] PhantomGremlin|12 years ago|reply
Bah. Headline is misleading. There aren't "photos", it's a 5:18 video.
[+] frenger|12 years ago|reply
> A lot of people look at the video thinking “I want to be free like that guy!” – but they don’t realize that I was driven by something, and maybe I was losing control over it.”

very interesting

[+] admiraltbags|12 years ago|reply
As someone who just quit his job to walk 2650+ miles along the pacific crest trail I found his last statement very interesting as well.

I'm a pretty normal tech industry hacker who can sometimes be socially awkward and definitely a bit introverted. I'm hiking the PCT because it will force me through things I find uncomfortable like being alone, and meeting new people. As I see it, I'm forcing myself through a tumbler and hoping what comes out the other end is more in line with who I want to be. Very different reasons.

[+] orph|12 years ago|reply
I calculate my life saving in terms of years I can spend walking non-stop. At ~20 years worth, I'll begin.

After soloing Annapurna and GR20 and many US national parks, walking is the only thing I really want to do with my life.

[+] rplnt|12 years ago|reply
The share functionality over the video blocks me from allowing that particular flash to load/play. So I can either enable all plugins or not watch the embedded video at all. Just a thought for web developers.
[+] 1986v|12 years ago|reply
Is that 3000 miles with or without backtracking to pick up the camera he often walked by?
[+] ilovecookies|12 years ago|reply
more reddit stuff horay.

BTW this video is super old. Was going around alot on facebook at the time.

[+] infecto|12 years ago|reply
Fun to watch ancient videos resurface.
[+] the1|12 years ago|reply
that's about a month's distance to run for a normal long distance runners (90 miles/week).
[+] keerthiko|12 years ago|reply
Varsity level distance athletes I knew wouldn't run 12 miles a day 7 days a week all month, not even when training. They do more like 5-7 miles, for about 5 days a week during off-season (and something like 15-24 miles about twice about a month or so prior to a marathon event). So it's more like 40-60 miles a week, for a fairly committed athlete?

Not just that, your math indicates running for 30 weeks at 90 miles/week...not a month. That's 7 months =)

More realistically, a really athletic guy who has the comfort of nice running clothes and comfortable places to rest and has been training for a few years, would cover maybe 50 miles running and an additional 28 miles walking each week, and still take about 7 months.

You'll look less silly if you double check why people are impressed by something before dismissing it as trivial (by your tone that's what you seemed to do).

[+] mchanson|12 years ago|reply
gotta work on that math buddy
[+] daliusd|12 years ago|reply
About all commenters making fun of you. You meant 7 months (33 weeks). Ultramarathon each day is beyond capabilities of any living (or dead) man on this planet.