In April 2009 I set out from Jiayuguan in Gansu province, the westernmost gate of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall, and started walking east. On 2 December 2010, 601 days and about 6,000 km later, I reached the Hushan Great Wall at Dandong in Liaoning province, on the North Korean border. A dream I had carried for more than twenty years was complete: I had walked the entire Ming Dynasty Great Wall of China.
In April 2009, the month I set out, China’s official survey of the Ming Great Wall named Hushan, not Shanhaiguan, as its eastern end. Most people who walk the Wall still finish at Shanhaiguan, on the coast in Hebei, leaving out the last stretch of the Ming route to Dandong. When I reached Shanhaiguan, I sketched that stretch from an old Ming Dynasty map onto my own map and followed it all the way to Hushan.
The walk in numbers
- Distance: about 6,000 km (3,700 miles)
- Duration: 601 days, April 2009 to December 2010
- Start: Jiayuguan, Gansu, the first watchtower at the edge of the Gobi desert
- Finish: Hushan Great Wall, Dandong, Liaoning, on the North Korean border
- Temperatures: from -25°C to about 45°C
- Walked alone, apart from 7 weeks with my brother Jon
Other expeditions
In 1991 I walked the length of Great Britain, from Land’s End to John o’ Groats, about 2,000 km over 87 days. The walk is documented at lejog50.com.
In 2005 I kayaked the entire length of Norway, from Lindesnes in the south to Nordkapp in the north, covering 2,372 km over 119 days. The expedition is documented at langsnorge.no.
My name is Stephen Robert Loken. Along the Great Wall I used my middle name, as Robert Loken, written Robert Løken in Norwegian coverage. All three names refer to the same person.