There is an old Chinese saying that "he who does not visit the
Great Wall is not a real man". However, William Lindesay, a
British, has changed the saying as "he who does not love the Great
Wall is not a real man". His saying truly reflects his destined
affinity for the Chinese Great Wall, CCTV international channel
reported.
William Lindesay gives a
speech.
William has settled in China for more than ten years now and it
seems that there is only one mission for him to do in China -- to
research and protect the Great Wall.
For once, he walked through the Great Wall with only a hat, a
backpack and a camera.
To him, the Great Wall is a large outdoor museum. It traverses
through grasslands, deserts, and mountains, and the only way to
understand the Great Wall is to observe it with one's own eyes.
In 1986, William came to China for the first time. At that time,
he was still in his twenties. Unaccustomed to the Chinese climate,
his first efforts to conquer the Great Wall ended in vain. Five
months later, he recovered from his illness and started his journey
again. This time, he walked for 2,470 kilometers on the Great Wall.
He felt excited about this breathtaking ancient engineering
project. At the same time, he also felt regretful that in many
parts, the Great Wall was seriously damaged.
In 1996, he launched a series of actions to protect the Great
Wall. He established the Association of the Friendship of the Great
Wall, collected funds from society and invited volunteers to
collect garbage on the Great Wall. In addition, he spent three
years revisiting some sections of the Great Wall, taking their
pictures in order to show people how the Great Wall had changed in
the past one hundred years. He found that of all the twenty years
he stayed in China, one-seventh of his time was spent on the Great
Wall. He once said that the Great Wall was like his home and the
Chinese government awarded him a Friendship Medal. To William, this
is a prize given for "foreign model worker."
William married a Chinese woman Wu Qi and they now have two
sons. In order to support her husband's work, Wu has quitted her
job and begun to do work related with the protection of the Great
Wall.
(Chinanews.cn March 1, 2007)
