A Walk Across the Middle Kingdom

Join us!

Over the past eight years, the Out of Eden Walk project has spanned two continents on foot—some 11,000 miles so far—following the pathways of the greatest human exploration ever undertaken: the original Stone Age discovery of our shared home, planet Earth.

Why walk?

• Because by slowing down our lives to a more human pace, we bring to light the vital connections among people and the natural world that are missed by moving too fast—insights that can help guide us through a challenging new century of climate crises, income inequality, and conflict.
• Because in an age of shallow media that often polarizes and divides, our deepening trove of cross-cultural ‘slow storytelling’ offers audiences a more humane, meaningful, and inclusive alternative to today’s angry narratives of nativism, intolerance, and xenophobia.
• Because walking reawakens wonder. And wonder is what unites us: We are building a storytelling community across borders that shares its own rediscovery of the Earth at three miles per hour.

One of the most innovative storytelling projects of our era, the Out of Eden Walk journey began in 2013 in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia, a cradle of our species, and will conclude in 2027 at the tip of South America—the final horizon reached  7,000 years ago by our common ancestors. Led by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Paul Salopek, the project celebrates the work of local creatives along its route, and has built an enduring philanthropic legacy that combines meaningful people-to-people storytelling, civic literacy and education programming.

We are funded in part by our readers. Please support our efforts as we set off across our nineteenth country—an unprecedented foot traverse of China.

Traveling at the pace of his own footsteps, Paul Salopek will ultimately trek through a total of 31 countries. China is a crucial member of that family of nations.

Walking Across the Heartland of the Middle Kingdom

Before us stretches a panorama unseen by most outsiders: Some 3,600 miles and 18 months of walking across ten Chinese provinces: Yunnan, Sichuan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. Along the way, we will encounter tropical forests, industrialized coal belts, pristine snow mountains, and mega cities—not to mention the hearts and imaginations of millions of ordinary people.

Your donation to the Out of Eden Walk project will support:

Shanghai—the staging point for the long south-to-north walk across China.

‘Slow Storytelling’ Workshops: The Out of Eden Walk offers a unique and free curriculum of mindful storytelling for university-age students across all disciplines of the sciences and arts. By sharing the tools of close observation, we hone critical thinking and cultivate empathy among all participants. We plan to host workshops in Chengdu, Xian and Beijing. This will augment the creation of new Out of Eden Walk coursework shared with our partners at NYU Shanghai. Previous storytelling workshops in India generated narrative outputs that reached an estimated 25 million people.

Storytelling Camps: We are collaborating with WildChina Education and VisionWorkshops to host a series of innovative field trips for young people along the walking route, with a focus on personal empowerment through photography and writing. The mentored students will come from diverse backgrounds, ranging from urban youth to rural children. Youngsters are encouraged to tell their own stories via topics such as local identity, environmental conservation, and more. Students’ work will be published online and in book form.

‘WALKED MIDDLE KINGDOM’ art exhibition: Local creatives across media—artists, craftspeople, filmmakers, musicians, writers, dancers—will be invited to join the Out of Eden Walk trail to draw boot-level inspiration from home. The Institute of Contemporary Arts at NYU Shanghai will help us co-curate the participating artists’ work in a public exhibition. This will serve as a prototype for similar art events in other nations along the global trail, each aimed at identifying and elevating the work of emerging artists in every transited country.

Out of Eden Walk founder Paul Salopek with schoolchildren in Shanghai.

The Out of Eden experience harkens to the oldest traditions of human narrative: roaming West African griots, wandering Greek bards, and rambling Confucian scholars.

We invite you to contribute to this storytelling journey as we cross China and engage with the largest netizen population in the world. Help us share with an expanding community of readers, educators, and online followers the diverse culture, history, and natural environments of the Middle Kingdom.

CONTRIBUTE THROUGH A DONOR-ADVISED FUND

Our goal is to raise $200,000 for our programs in China. A detailed program budget is available on request.

Note that it is easy to make a gift through a donor advised fund (DAF). If you have an account with Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, BNY Mellon or Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, access this DAF Direct link to make a gift from your account. Fill in the designation (how the funds are to be used) and the gift amount. We appreciate and thank you for your support. The link provided is for convenience only, and is not an endorsement of either the linked-to entities or any products or services.

A traditional herbalist in his garden of medicinal plants in Kachin, Myanmar, near the Chinese borderlands that will serve as the starting line for the 6,000-km walk across the Middle Kingdom.

Forests carpet the foothills of the Himalayas in Myanmar, near the border of Yunnan, China, where the walk will start.