Paul Salopek gives a speech at a seminar in Beijing on July 21, 2023. Photo: Li Yuche/Global Times
"I walk slowly and steadily. Even if it's just four or five kilometers a day, following our ancestors' most primal pace, you can discover so many different things," US storyteller Paul Salopek said at a recent seminar in Beijing, a stopover on the Chinese leg of his over 30,000-kilometer journey.
Back in January 2013, Salopek embarked on a global trekking adventure, starting from East Africa's Ethiopia, walking through the Middle East, Central Asia and China, crossing Siberia, and then proceeding southward through the Americas, and hopes to eventually reach the southernmost point of South America, Tierra del Fuego, by 2027, to retrace the journey of ancient man's migration beyond Africa.
Along the way, he recorded the stories of local communities through various mediums, including the written word, photography and videos, aiming to create a global compendium of human life through his findings.
Covering 10 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, which span a distance of more than 6,000 kilometers, Salopek's trek across China is an integral and memorable segment of his expedition.
"It has been great for me, as an international storyteller, to illuminate for my readers and viewers across the world how complicated and diverse China really is," he said at the seminar.
Deep history
Salopek kicked off his journey from Tengchong, Southwest China's Yunan Province, in September 2021, which also marked his first visit to China. He planned to walk through provinces and autonomous regions of Yunnan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, heading toward the Chinese-Russian border.
Salopek's journey in China is half complete, granting him the opportunity to witness China's vast and magnificent landscapes and immerse himself in the local life and culture.
In his nearly two-year stay in China, Salopek has spent most of his time in rural areas, to him, a remarkable and wonderful experience. Local people have offered him warmth, kindness and friendship, recharging his drive to keep going despite exhaustion and occasional disappointments.
In Yunnan, he learned useful phrases from the languages spoken by various ethnic minorities along with traditional botany techniques with the help of the locals. During his time in Sichuan, he visited giant pandas and admired the efforts China has made to protect these magnificent creatures.
"One of the great things that opened my eyes in China was the deep history of travel," Salopek expressed, noting that ancient routes such as the Tea Horse Road and the Silk Road tell incredible stories. In his words, the interconnectivity in modern times also lies in China's high openness to outsiders like himself.
Throughout his journey, Salopek has witnessed various projects under the Belt and Road Initiative across Asia, such as the big infrastructure projects in Central Asia, connecting cities through new highways and railway lines, leading to speedier access to services and products for local people.
His slow-paced journey has allowed him to capture precious moments along the way. Though different from the demands of news reporting during his time as a journalist, it has become a way for him to rediscover the world.
'Out of Eden Walk'As an advocate and practitioner of slow journalism, which encourages reporting news with close attention and in-depth exploration, Salopek, a National Geographic writer, conducted the decade-long experiment in slow journalism, named the "Out of Eden Walk." As the introduction from the website of the National Geographic, "Along the way he is covering the major stories of our time - from climate change to technological innovation, from mass migration to cultural survival - by giving voice to the people who inhabit them every day."
"To build an island of quiet thoughtfulness, people will swim toward you," Salopek remarked.
Heading northward together with Salopek from Chengdu in 2022, Luo Xin, a respected Chinese historian, has long been inspired by Salopek's "slow journalism" approach and, in 2017, published his own book
Cong Dadu Dao Shangdu (lit: From the capital to capital).
The book documents Luo's 15-day journey starting in Beijing, the capital of present-day China and ending in Xilingol, Inner Mongolia, which was the location of the ancient Yuan capital.
Luo told the media that history is "moving with time" and the best way to understand the past is to always look toward the new.
"I hope my stories are deeper, more meaningful, remembered more, and accessed more by people across cultures and languages," Salopek said at the seminar.
Before embarking on the extensive trip, Salopek earned his reputation as an accomplished journalist, winning the Pulitzer Prize twice in his decades-long career, and his background in biology equipped him to document these invaluable stories on foot throughout the years.
Salopek's journey through China has attracted a number of travel partners from across the country, including outdoor guides, educators and students. Inspired by his approach, some domestic scholars, like Luo, have followed in his footsteps, walking to connect with locals and record their stories.
"The old Confucian saying goes, if you walk along a street and bump into three people, one of them will be your teacher. I say all three of them can be your teacher," Salopek said.
As Salopek continues his expedition in China, he is expected to reach the Chinese-Russian border in autumn, completing an impressive total of approximately 7 million steps.
