A Man Spent An Entire Year Walking Across China - This Is What He Looked Like Afterwards
Christoph Rehage started walking on November 9, 2007 and stopped in October 2008, traveling 2796 miles from Beijing to Ürümqi completely on foot (via Facebook).
He documented the trip by talking a photo of himself every 20 or 30 miles.
He started to look different as time went on.
Vimeo
On his website, Rehage writes about what he loved most about the walk.
I remembered being on the road, thinking: Where will I sleep? What will I eat? There were no metaphysical questions, no big worries, just pragmatic problems to solve. It felt good, and it felt meaningful.
He continued to walk the entire way. He says there was only one instance where he had to jump on his brother's bike for a few minutes.
Vimeo
He decided to stop walking on October 25th, 2008.
When he was asked why he stopped walking, Rehage said, "I wanted to gain back my life. I had to regain control over myself." (You can read all of the questions Rehage has answered regarding his adventure here.)
This is what he looked like at the last leg of his trip.
And this is what he looked like after he took a trip to the barber.
You can watch the entire time-lapse video here (and below), and read about Rehage's full recount of the adventure here. The video was created shortly after Rehage finished his walk in 2008, but is seeing a resurgence of popularity on Facebook.