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My dear readers, my dear friends.

This is going to be the last one: 11,9km.

For now.

My friend Uncle Shen (fire in the hole) is here, taking good care of me.

He guided me through the city to find a good place to stay.

Ürümqi street

All I had to do was keep walking, and slowly follow him through the voices and the street signs, the smells, the crowded avenues and the silent back streets in the late autumn light…

tree in the street

…it almost felt like that day when I had initially left Beijing (the first day).

Once I saw an elderly couple silently walk down the street…

shopping bag

…and I had to look away so Uncle Shen wouldn’t see me cry.



  • Freddy

    I don't know what's going on. But, my friend, you have my very best wish!

    Reply

  • Florian (Flo Li Anh,

    Christoph, nur dass Du eins weißt: ich finde es klasse, dass Du diesen Blog so ehrlich und authentisch schreibst. Gerade das macht ihn so lesens- und betrachtenswert. Eben nicht einer von diesen Reiseberichten, die nur neutral alles am Wegesrand aufzählen, sondern ein Bericht, bei dem deine lesenden Begleiter dabei sind. Weiter so! Und nimm Dir die Zeit, die Du brauchst. Dass Du jetzt dort jemanden hast, dem du "durch die Straßen folgen kannst" zeigt doch auch nur wieder, dass Du gar nicht allein bist!

    Reply

  • christopher

    kann flo da nur zustimme
    wollte als ansonsten anonymer leser einfach mal danke sagen für die tollen postings und wünsche dir alles gute

    Reply

  • Sabrina

    Viel Glück Christoph.
    Wir warten hier auf dich und hoffen, dass es irgendwann weitergeht!!!

    Reply

  • Barry aka Ba Lli

    So, muss mich leider abmelden. Bin eine Woche beruflich in Eutin und bei der Polizei ist das mit dem Internet immer so eine Sache.
    Aber, wie gerade die letzten Tage bewiesen haben, hier gibt es ja jede Menge ganz liebe Menschen die bei Dir sind. Da wird mein Fehlen sicherlich nicht so ins Gewicht fallen.

    Ansonsten kann ich nur noch einmal dem beipflichten, was hier in den letzten Tage gepostet wurde.

    Irgend wann ist auch der trübste Himmel wieder blau!

    Reply

  • Gisela

    Danke für die vielen tollen Fotos, danke für die interessanten Berichte und danke für deine Ehrlichkeit. Ich bin sicher, dass dir die Fans treu bleiben.
    Lass uns wissen wenn du den nächsten Anlauf nimmst. Es will ja schliesslich niemand den 5000er Tanz verpassen.

    Reply

  • Martin T.

    Hallo Christopher,
    aus versch. Gründen hab`ich erst heute wieder bei dir reingeschaut – und dann zurück geblättert bis zum 17.10.
    Diese 9 Tage en bloc zu verfolgen, 9 Tage in vielleicht gerade mal 15 Min.,
    da komprimiert sich was zu einer Wucht, die mir den Atem nimmt.
    Und das jetzt erst mal Ruhe braucht- und danach einen neuen Anlauf- oder auch nicht.
    Aber was würde das schon machen?
    Gerne würde ich dich weiter begleiten (einfach weil ich neugierig bin, wie`s da so aussieht & was du so erlebst).
    Aber das entscheidest du und diese Entscheidung wird richtig sein.
    Herzliche Grüße!

    Reply

  • froggyfrog

    I know it is tough, but simply dun give up!!! Everything will turn out to be right, it is juz matter of time!!!

    Reply

  • xhris

    I feel ur not ok. But still i hope always for safe journey.

    Reply

  • Benjamin B.

    Kopf hoch … vielen Dank für den Blog bis jetzt. Ich freue mich immer, wenn ich von dir lesen kann. Der RSS bleibt im Reader. Cheers from NZ.

    Reply

  • Kevin

    I wish I could help you. You have already helped me. You've let me understand the many people you have met on the way. Best thing to do is be around people for awhile and pick it up again when it feels right. My thoughts are with you.

    Reply

  • Austin

    I have to say, Xinjiang is an entirely different order of brutal.

    I once rode up to the salt lake Sarayam near Yili, only to have my horse die of hoof and mouth disease in a blizzard, and I had to drag the saddle back on my own back. The clouds would part momentarily, and the sky would pierce down to the rippling waves on the lake, and it was so beautiful, but the surface of the lake is all saltwater. There is fresh water, trapped at the very bottom, but there's no way to get any of it, and nothing to drink, and despite all the beauty, that was really all I cared about at the time. The bleakness and the beauty really do a number on your head. I know.

    But think about this: it takes time. Things sink in slowly. And as we wait for our understanding to catch up with our experience, there's this devastating gap or nothingness where there should be something.

    Or maybe this is all just bullshit. Who knows – I certainly don't. But you've impressed the hell out of me. You've also done a great service to the people of China, by shining a light on their real lives, without pretense or editorializing, or imposing some Orientalist mythology on them. In your blog you let them be who they were, not who we wanted them to be, and that is a spectacular achievement.

    I hope you take some time. Urumichi is a nice city. Tian Chi, up in the mountains is beautiful, and well worth the trip. And you might want to wait out the winter.

    But remember this – this journey you are on never ends. It just changes. It might not always be walking. It might not always be from China to Germany. By thinking up this idea you changed your place in the world. Now, wherever you are, whatever happens next, the journey is still going on.

    And I, for one, would love to read about it some day – no matter where it takes you.

    Reply

  • Steven

    Chris, enjoy your life — the actual "LongestWay" !

    Reply

  • Ina

    Hey Chris,
    vor allem die harten Phasen Deines Lebens haben Dich zu dem Menschen gemacht, der Du bist. Dadurch hast Du die Kraft, diesen Deinen Weg zu gehen und bist insofern in der Lage, vielen anderen Menschen durch diesen Weg Kraft zu schenken. Jeder Mensch gerät ins Wanken, wenn eine seiner Säulen wegbricht und manchmal sieht man den roten Faden nicht mehr. Aber vergiß nicht, wieviele Menschen Deinen roten Faden verfolgen! Wir warten auf Dich, gib Dir Zeit!
    Alles Gute von Ina

    Reply

  • Patrick

    do whats best for your heart & soul. everything else can and will wait. peace!

    Reply

  • Marvin

    Chris,
    Take a little time and clear your mind. Your very intelligent and can figure this out better than anyone else. Life is a lot like this walk that you have been on. Lots of twists and turns and not knowing where in the hell your really going and what is around the next bend. Follow your heart, it's a very good one, it won't guide you wrong.

    Reply

  • John

    Chris-
    You are by yourself, but you are not alone. We are all with you.

    Don't let go of the dream.

    Reply

  • JanRic

    Alles gute Christoph!

    Reply

  • A導

    it doesn't matter they are sad or happy, to me they are all beautiful. memories that is. can always find out my true self when i look back. be glad man, after this you ganna 脫胎換骨 (peel embryo change bone- short meaning of it is reborn.)

    Reply

  • faith

    i have just found your website and watched your video, the one with the beard–my curiosity is piqued and i plan on revisiting your journal. mainly hat i am wondering today is if you had any experience with traditional chinese medicine? from reading your last entry, it sounds like you needed an emotional boost and a rest, which you wisely sought. tcm could help restore your balance and give you strength to figure out where you stand. my guess is that if you were engulfed in the Chinese culture, you wouldn’t be able to avoid tcm, so this musing may be solely for my own info, and nothing for you. ah, well…

    Reply

  • Neil Sandage

    Did you by chance learn that Arabic speakers have traveled these same routes? Or have any new thoughts about how those lands connect to China? There is a strange force that can affect the minds of people whose actions would make peace between the Arabic nations and the World.

    The US bulldozed all the walking paths imprinted into the ground by thousands of years of people walking camels like you walked “Caboose”. The CIA noticed from Satellites in space that they could see the compaction of the earth. So for some reason the USA saw fit to bulldoze all the trails in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other Arabic nations to erase this history.

    I mention this because I saw on BookSlap.com you read a book about Christopher Columbus. But starting in 889CE Arabic people began sailing from Spain across the Atlantic and Back. A person in China who also followed Mohammed took 137 ships from China to the West Coast of California as well.

    Some say Columbus was Arrested and banned from being Buried in Europe for having reported that Arabic people were in the New World. Spain passed laws making it punishable by death for any Arabic person boarding a boat or found sailing to the New World. People Forget the Inquisitions started in 1184CE and ended in 1835CE. 700 years of killing and torturing anyone followed a different faith, had the wrong skin color, or who taught ideas that the Catholic Church did not want repeated.

    Leo Weiner of Harvard wrote a book about Archaeology and Anthropology of Africans in the New World before Columbus. title “Africa and the Discovery of America”.

    sunnah.org/history/precolmb.htm

    http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/07/books/l-did-the-chinese-arrive-before-columbus-880205.html

    There are much better sources to be found.

    As for “Caboose”, a company named Amerityre makes solid tires that go on the rims/wheels of bicycles. Let anyone planning a bike trip know. Never going flat on a tire with less roll resistance than air tires is something a lot of adventures would trade their soul for.

    And YES please. Share what thoughts you had about the Arabic lands and cultures being connected to China?

    It is a shame the Israeli Mossad infiltrated a terrorist group and helped them Attack the World Trade Center, while spreading rumors to the CIA 5 months before that IRAQ was planning to fly airplanes into the Twin Towers as really happened, but did not involve IRAQ.

    Read: Susan Lindauer’s book “Extreme Prejudice” she was a CIA asset arrested by the Patriot Act for telling Congress the CIA knew he attacks were coming and participated in scheduling military exercises to cover the approach of the airplanes not on established flight plans.

    Reply

  • Constance

    I re-found your website recently (as I’m sure a lot of people might, as it appears to be recirculating American media), but the last time I was here I hadn’t read the comments to this post. Thank you for all you have shared and documented. Thank you to Austin, who commented above back on October 27, 2008 for his/her words – I’m not quite sure how to explain it, but what that person wrote resonated with me in an important way that I did not expect to find today. Thank you both.

    Reply

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