The Forever Walk: China (2022) s01e01 Episode Script

1
Some people think I'm crazy.
Fair enough.
My name is Paul Salopek.
I'm a biologist by training,
a foreign correspondent
through long experience,
and a National Geographic
writer and explorer.
Since 2013, I've been walking continuously
from the human species' birthplace
in Africa
all the way to where our wandering
ancestors ran out of horizons
at the tip of South America.
Except, my trek is about more than
ancient migrations and survival.
The journey I'm on is about slowing down,
taking the time to listen,
to learn,
and to interact with humanity
in the most immersive way possible.
People are my destination.
Regardless of who I encounter,
it's the daily lives
of the individuals along my trail
who offer windows
into the big issues of our time.
Their stories form a mosaic of meaning
that can connect us all.
Now, my journey is taking me
and my local walking partners
deep into China.
Who will we encounter?
Where are they from
and where are they going?
The answers always
are revealed one footstep at a time.
-Not too many people get this view.
-Yeah, for sure.
How do you walk across China?
I mean, it's
It seems like an absurd proposal
to begin with because it's so diverse.
Since setting foot in the Middle Kingdom,
I've been following the Hu Line.
It's an imaginary boundary
that divides East and West China,
and it'll steer me some 6,000 km
across ten provinces.
It starts in the mountains
of Yunnan province
in China's southwest.
When I was in Myanmar
before coming to China,
I was reading books about Yunnan
and I would come across this phrase
over and over again,
"It's the most physically beautiful
landscape I've ever been to."
And, you know, I've seen a few places.
I've been to I don't know
how many countries around the world.
And I When I read that, I kind of
I dismiss it as being too enthusiastic,
maybe Maybe the words
of a novice traveler.
But Yunnan is one of the most
beautiful places I've ever been through.
GAOLIGONG MOUNTAINS, YUNNAN
This is the Gaoligong range,
some 600 km long
and topping over 4,000 meters high.
It's an ark of life.
More than 5,000 species of higher plants
carpet the Gaoligong Mountains.
This botanical richness
crammed into a tiny proverbial space
the size of Rhode Island
equals a third of all the native flora
in the United States.
When we passed through a Haushan pine
forest at the top of the mountain
that pine forest was extremely beautiful.
All the pine trees
were about 20 centimeters
to 30 centimeters in diameter
and they were very straight.
Paul said that everyone should not talk
and feel the chirping of cicadas
in the forest.
Then he bent down and quietly took
a picture of a balsam flower
and I filmed him from behind.
That scene was absolutely wonderful
absolutely beautiful.
I won't forget for at least ten years.
For years I've been hiking continents
emptied of wildlife by humans.
The Gaoligong represent
a last chance for solace.
They are one of the planet's
few remaining vaults of biodiversity,
a glimpse into a teeming earth
that once was.
We've been doing 40,000 steps everyday
for about 3 to 4 days.
-That's great.
-Yeah.
So, across all of China,
it will be more than
seven million footsteps.
Seven million.
One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand
one hundred thousand, one million
seven million two hundred thousand steps.
My legs are gonna be 10 cm shorter
by the time I reach Siberia.
That's okay.
The growing community
that surrounds the walk,
that becomes involved in the walk
becomes like a cross-cultural family.
Mine isn't a solo journey.
In fact, I couldn't even conceive
of doing it alone.
For good reason.
I have a problem with my feet.
Is it urgent?
Do you need me to get you some medicine?
The only times
I've gotten injured on this whole trip
is walking these kind of roads.
That's the only time.
Based on the physical strength
of the average person
their feet would blister when
they've walked for about 40 kilometers
and then after they've walked for
about 100 kilometers
it feels like they suddenly develop
a kind of padding on their feet
that's what it feels like.
And after walking for a few more
kilometers they may start to feel numb.
As a storyteller, almost every person
that I meet along my way
helps me make sense of the world.
Something about walking
creates especially powerful bonds.
But eventually,
I do have to part ways with them.
And this includes those who walk with me,
my walking partners.
After 50 or 500 km,
they go back to their lives.
So there's a cost,
a sadness that comes
woven into my walking trail.
To be honest, after nine years,
it's not getting any easier.
In fact, it's getting harder
to say goodbye.
The only thing
I can console myself with is,
I say so many goodbyes because
I'm also constantly saying "hello."
From Dali to Lijiang,
my new walking partner joins my journey,
28-year-old photographer
and Yunnan native, Marina Zhang.
My first impression was
that he was really cool.
At that time, he was in the desert and
there was an ancient ruin in front of him.
He was lying on his stomach.
Seeing him being so close to the ground
I totally understood what my
backpacking journey would be like.
We pass a small village
by the name of Runanguo.
It's a remote place.
Sleepy, almost forgotten.
But here, we've just hit
our first milestone in China.
The idea is to systematically record
what I see and what the world looks like
exactly every 100 miles along the pathway.
I basically shoot a panorama photograph.
I take a picture of the sky,
a picture of the ground,
and I also record some audio
and some video.
And then I talk to the first human being
that I meet
near this milestone recording.
If you could you explain to him, Marina,
that I'm walking across Yunnan,
and I'm stopping every 160 km
to talk to the first person I meet.
Hello uncle, Paul came here
step by step from Tengchong.
He would like to invite you to participate
in a brief interaction with him.
He's going to ask you three questions.
Just answer them honestly.
Are you willing to participate?
Yes.
So the The first question is,
who are you?
I am the head of the village and a ranger
for the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.
And where do you come from?
I was born right here.
And where are you going?
I am going on patrol to protect
our native forests.
Mr. Lu, can I take a picture of you
right now?
Okay.
I record milestones every 100 miles.
I ask these same questions at each one,
no matter where they occur.
They're questions about human identity,
human migration, and belonging,
the core questions of the walk.
With these snapshots,
the hope is to assemble a global picture
of what the human family looks like
and is thinking about
in the the 21st century.
Along my journey, I invite people along
even for shorter periods,
because they bring a very specialized
perspective of each landscape.
And Lukasz Madryzynski is one of them.
I attended Tongji University in Shanghai.
I did my masters and doctoral degrees
in ecotourism.
I often come here as my research
is focused on ecotourism in Lijiang.
You know, you're saying
the forest is coming back
with good forest management practices.
What about wildlife? Have you seen
any increase in wildlife?
Oh, too many wild animals.
He says there's a lot of them right now.
Countless of them.
There are wild boars, bears, jackals
a variety of animals in the mountains.
Are there wolves?
No wolves.
So, when you were a young man,
they were less
because they were being hunted?
Back then in Yunnan,
hunting wasn't prohibited
and people would hunt animals.
Now the animals are protected
so people can't hunt them
otherwise they will be held accountable.
All right.
What's his surname?
What's your Chinese name?
Your Chinese name?
Just call him Paul.
Mazel tov.
So they totally have a Humor.
Humor.
Take that to grab that
After lunch,
we head towards our next stop,
a village by the unlikely name of Shanghai
Ranger Lu offers to lead us
along his patrol trails,
a shortcut across the mountains.
This is also an opportunity to get
a taste of a forest guard's daily life.
Believe it or not, this is Lu's office.
So much of this flora and fauna
I'm seeing for the first time.
So it's a Chinese protected plant.
-What's its name?
-Chinese Yew.
-Chinese Yew.
-Yew?
Chinese Yew.
On the bark, it has chemical components
that are used in western medicine
to treat cancer.
The tree grows really, really slow.
There's There's trees that are over
1,000 years old in Laojun Mountains.
I slowly getting to know about
this alpine ecosystem.
This botanical handbook is edited by me
and all the photos have been taken by me.
Lukasz told me,
"I've found my place in the world.
"You know, I've found the place
that I know I want to be, and it's here."
It's maybe one of the few places
in the world
where resources are being put into that
at the scale that it is in
That it is in China, right?
I mean, it's a It's a massive scale.
He feels there's enough, kind of,
institutional awareness and support,
he can get up in the morning
and go to work in good faith.
Only particular to Lijiang.
It's called Lomatogonium lijiangense.
Yeah.
It's It's specific for this.
And its Latin name comes after Lijiang.
-Is it a gentian or no?
-It's related.
It's within the gentian family, yes.
You're putting your body out into nature.
You're putting your body out
into the climate, into the weather.
You're putting your body out
onto the road.
You're not locked away
inside of any kind of a bubble,
of steel or glass.
Yeah!
And that automatically
puts you on equal footing
with the people that you meet on foot.
What a view.
-Not too many people get this view.
-Yeah.
An hour into our trek
through the mountain range,
we look for a place to catch our breath.
And here, forest guard Lu Wanjiang
shares a story from his past.
A yak died ahead.
A black bear then ate the yak
and became full, and slept right here.
Right where you're standing.
Where we're standing is
where the bear once slept
and you sat here as soon as you arrived.
Communication doesn't mean
speaking aggressively to a person
in order to gain information.
If you can communicate with this person
in a very selfless state
if you are willing to listen
with an open heart and an open mind
then this person will be more willing
to continue a conversation.
After three hours on foot,
this shortcut through the mountains
is starting to feel endless.
But it's too late to turn back now.
We need to get
to our next destination: Shanghai,
by nightfall or risk sleeping outside
in the rough.
Behind that mountain is Lizige.
For me, it would be 2 hours walk.
2 hours walk to Lizige
3 hours walk to Shanghai Village.
But for you guys
it will take 4 to 5 hours more.
Really?
We still need 4 to 5 more hours?
Yeah.
That much?
It takes an hour for me to reach this spot
whereas it took you guys 2 to 3 hours.
He He said that we spent
two to three hours arriving here.
This distance,
he only needs to walk for one hour.
Yeah.
Are you laughing at
the fact that we can't carry on?
He's got an evil glint in his eyes.
No, he likes
He's shaking his hand Head.
"What a bunch of wimps?"
As day softens into night,
the darkness envelops us.
And there is still no village in sight.
That's the sign that you've come back
to civilization, right?
You hear a chicken or you hear a dog
in a wild landscape like this.
When the dog was barking, I knew that,
okay, we were getting close finally.
Walking opens your senses,
it opens your mind.
Walking strengthens your body.
Walking strengthens
the power of curiosity.
Walking is a big, long conversation
with the world
and with the people who live in it.
That, in its essence,
is what this project is about.
It's an accumulation of listening.
It's a listening tour.
It's listening across continents
to what people are saying,
what people have in their heart,
what people have in their mind
with the hope of coming out of the walk
with some meaning and some answers.
Mr. Lu, how long will it take us
to get there?
Just keep walking.
Dazzling lights are here.