How long would it take to walk across the world's most populous country? Graham Earnshaw, author of The Great Walk of China, decided to give it a go and walks from Shanghai to Tibet. We caught up with journalist to find out why.

You’re walking across China?
I started walking from Shanghai in 2004, and walking directly west a few days at a time appeared to be a good plan. I didn’t do the walk with the intention of writing The Great Walk of China–I did the walk to do the walk. But I started to come across interesting people and to see interesting things and to have interesting thoughts about China and about how Chinese culture was changing, so I started to write notes. The book sums up many of the thoughts and experiences I’ve had along the way. Hopefully there is something people can learn from this. I’m not trying to redefine China. I’m not trying to do a book that says, “China will shape the world,” or “China will not shape the world.”

How far have you walked so far?
When the book was published last year, I was on the very eastern side of Sichuan province. Since then I’ve continued and now I’m about 150km east of Chengdu.

When do you think you’ll finish?
Probably by the end of this year. I really enjoy going out once a month for two or three days to walk in the countryside. I tend to walk about 15 to 20km a day, so by August or September I could well be beyond Chengdu. My plan is to find a Tibetan village and declare victory on the original goal of the walk, which was to walk from Shanghai to Tibet. The question is, where does Tibet begin? That line has moved many times over the last 100 years, and I’m going to define it as the first Tibetan farmers I meet west of Chengdu. And then I’m going to turn left and go south to Guiyang and walk east to Fuzhou on the coast, and then probably turn south again and walk to Hainan, the most southern part of the Chinese mainland, and then walk north to Harbin.

Check out Graham's website to read more about his adventures.