Today I walked as far north in the Liaoning loop as I had planned. As I made the turn southwards, I got the sun in my face – a nice change. Heading straight for the end point of the walk, I started thinking about Norway and all the people I am longing to meet again after almost two years in China. It was fitting that the landscape changed to match that of Nordmarka to the North of Oslo. A fairly soft landscape with hills covered with pine trees. All with a generous sprinkle of snow on top today.

I chose to follow small roads, and for many kilometres I was balancing in the tracks of a single vehicle that had used the dirt road. About 7-8 cm’s of snow. It was wet and slippery. The walking sticks came in handy.

As you can see, I have passed a small section of the Great Wall route today. The green line on the map in Liaoning depicts an educated guess on where the Great Wall used to go during the Ming Dynasty. The findings are few and far between, but confirm the general layout of the route I am following, which is based on a map from the Ming Dynasty. Thanks again to Kim of the Great Wall Forum for sharing his knowledge about the Great Wall in Liaoning.

Following the route closely in this section would have added a day or two with walking (this part is mountainous) and I decided to save time. I need to attend a newspaper ‘do’ this Friday.

Started walking early today, and kept going till an hour after the sun had set. At this time of year, it isn’t easy to get much more walking crammed in to a day. Time to wash socks now, and take a shower. I am very tired.

46 kilometres today