The Mission

In early 2027, I intend to begin a solo run across the full breadth of China, from the Pacific coast to the Central Asian frontier, tracing one of humanity’s oldest trade corridors — the Northern Silk Road.

For more than two thousand years, the Silk Road carried merchants, monks, soldiers, and storytellers across the vast interior of China toward the markets and civilizations of Central Asia and beyond. It was not a single road but a living network — shaped by geography, sustained by human curiosity, and driven by the need to connect.

This project follows that same corridor on foot. Starting at the East China Sea in Shanghai and finishing at Khorgos on the Kazakhstan border, the route crosses the Yangtze Delta, the Grand Canal, the imperial heartland, the Loess Plateau, the Hexi Corridor between mountains and desert, and the oasis cities of Xinjiang before reaching the Tian Shan and the gateway to Central Asia.

My mission is to explore the people, places, food, and cultures of China on the ground, one step at a time, and to bring those stories to life through daily dispatches, photography, and interviews delivered to readers around the world.