The Longest Way: Walk 4,500 Miles Across China and Grow a Beard

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The Longest Way 1.0 - walk through China and grow a beard! - TIMELAPSE from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.
In 2008, I walked through China - one year, more than 4500km. All the while, I let my hair and my beard grow. This is the resulting video.

Additional info:
- I never finished my original goal of walking to Germany. Instead, I walked for a year and roughly 4500km, passed the Gobi desert, and then decided to stop walking for now.
- All of the distance from Beijing to Ürümqi was completed solely on foot, straight good old walking. There are instances where you can see me in the video sitting on a plane or riding a boat, but those are during breaks I had to take from walking, either to sort out bureaucracy issues or to take care of some personal things.
- I had been planning this trip for over a year before I even started, and getting as far as I got was an experience for which I am very grateful.
- Obtaining the necessary visa for a trip like this was not very easy, hence I had to go back to Beijing a few times to resolve some issues.
- This is not a strict "1 pic a day" video, because I wanted to make it a bit more alive by adding some additional movement. Sometimes during the film you would follow me turn around, or something would happen in the background. I tried to capture these moments to make the video more interesting.
- If you liked the music I used in this video, get it here:
The Kingpins - "L'Aventurier" http://bit.ly/RXOMaz
Zhu Fengbo - "Olive Tree" http://bit.ly/UDsHT7
- The core of this project is in actually my blog where I have posted my extensive travel diary, starting from day 1 (Nov 9th 2007) and describing every single day until the end one year later.

If you have any additional questions, please refer to:
http://www.thelongestway.com/frequently-asked-questions
http://www.thelongestway.com/extras/miscellaneous-advice
and get the Google Earth file here (1KB):
http://www.thelongredline.com/TLW.kmz

Update - this weird beard video won at the following festivals:

2009 Boulder Adventure Film Festival
2010 Berlin Webcuts
2010 Banff Mountain Film Festival
2011 Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival
2011 5th International Mountain Film Festival Domžale
2011 Squamish Mountain Festival
2011 Mezinárodný Festival Horských Filmov, Poprad
2011 Vertical Film Festival, Moscow

Plus:

#8 top viral video 2009 at Time.com

Thanks to madandcrazychild (she takes a photo every day), NK5000 (Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years.) and mattharding2718 (Where the Hell is Matt? 2008) for inspiration.


Christoph Rehage started walking on Nov. 9, 2007, and stopped in October 2008, traveling 2,796 miles from Beijing to Ürümqi completely on foot.