German photographer's epic journey continues on weibo
German's lone walk from Beijing to Urumqi gained a following that has expanded with his series of short videos and popular weibo commentary
German photographer Christopher Rehage, 33, has made a name for himself in China - as "Lei Ke". His travel journal and a video, The Longest Way, published on his weibo using the nickname "Lei Ke", or "Thunder Overcome", attracted 430,000 followers. It tells the story of the year Rehage spent walking from Beijing to Urumqi in 2008, after studying photography at the Beijing Film Academy. Most recently, he produced a series of short videos, German Self-paid Fifty Cents Party, on Chinese social media, imitating the tone of patriotic rightist comments about controversial social issues, which sparked hundreds of thousands of online comments.
Watch Rehage's short video 'The Longest Way':
I had grown timid. After living in Beijing for a while and getting comfortable, I didn't like to change where I was living - to just stay alone at home - or try other new things. Then I became fearful that I'd miss all the interesting things going on out there. So to take the journey, to walk to Urumqi, was to change myself. My original plan had been to walk from Beijing to my hometown in Germany. But China is too big: it took me a year to travel across almost 5,000km, after stopping off on the way at interesting places and making new friends. So I finished at Urumqi, with a huge beard that I barely trimmed during my journey. Then I got cleaned up and took a flight home.
I started to feel so free and so young. I tried to write as truthfully as possible about my thoughts, even the times when I lost my temper and cursed when someone tried to cheat me during my journey. I think it's the authenticity that has drawn so many readers. I've seen things many people have never seen. When entering Inner Mongolia I had to pass through an unpopulated area. I eventually got myself a little cart to carry food and water so I could survive there. I attracted about 200,000 weibo followers after the first part of my video and book came out. I published the second part of the video last year and my new video series, which started to drive a lot more followers.