Losses and life lessons on a walk from Beijing to Germany
Adventurer's walk from Beijing to Germany cost him his girlfriend but gave him a lot of joy
Christoph Rehage definitely took the path less travelled - all 4,646 kilometres of it. The 31-year-old Hanover-born university student started walking from Beijing, across deserts and mountain peaks, to Xinjiang in the autumn of 2007.
There his journey ended - when his girlfriend in Germany, his original destination, called him to say goodbye. It was a crushing blow after such an arduous trek.
Having grown a mighty beard, he stood in the woods, surrounded by white birch trees in late autumn 2008 and said farewell to the loyal followers of his blog: "I had always believed that I would be able to figure out some things during this walk … but now I'm not so sure anymore. I think I have to go and think for a while."
He took a train home to Hanover and continued his China studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Later, he went on to document his adventure in a book, The Longest Way, which was translated and published in Chinese this month. At a coffee house in Beijing, Rehage opened up to the Post about his joys, pains and love.
When I was a 21-year-old high school graduate, I worked at McDonald's and various bars and museums in Paris. The novels I had read since my childhood sparked my aspirations of living an unconventional life, instead of following the traditional path: seeking a university degree, joining a big company, and then climbing the career ladder to a senior position.