s not good unless having both woman and son. After William understoodthis concept of the Chinese people， he used pictures of his sisterinlaw’s photo and his nephew’s photo and told them they were hiswife and son. That reduced his embarrassment of being sympathized.
Farmers treated him whole heartedly. They provided him withfood and water and refused to charge any money. William followedthe rule and did as the Romans do. He soon won the love of the loStanding cal people. They made him drink with them and cheered for gettingacquainted and for the friendship between China and Britain. Williamknew clearly that the liquor they drank was very strong， but he wasdelighted to bottom up with them. In the end， he totally got drunk andfell on the bricked bed for a sweet dream. He really experienced beingliving with Chinese farmers. He once slept in a huge bed shared withfarmers， and learned to get into the quilt naked as they did becausefarmers thought that sleeping naked is good for health. William’s actionshowed he was fully agreed to that concept.
What made William unhappy is that he was caught by the policeon the way for many times. They interrogated him， inspected him，held him up and even asked him to leave within a limited time. Atthat time China had opened its door to the outside world and practicedeconomic reform for years， but the inner land in Northwest Chinawas quite backward and out-of-the-way. The sign board “Foreignersare forbidden to enter” could be seen in many places. Some peoplewould be nervous to see foreigners， especially one alone appeared ina somewhat sensitive place taking photos here and there. They wereafraid that he would be a spy to collect information. When police sawWilliam， they would interrogate him in order to avoid being blamedfor the fault of dereliction of duty. Because of the language barriers，both of them didn’t understand each other， so the police wouldcontrol him and held him up. William was caught nine times on hisway to Jiayuguan. Sometimes he was asked and let go. Sometimeshe was warned not to go any further. But as soon as he left the policestation， he goes his own way， and let others say. Once he was caughtby a sandstorm. When everyone was looking for a place to hide， Williamhastened to run away. Sometimes he was not that lucky. Once hewas caught in Dingbian in Shanxi， and was sent to Beijing. While inYulin he had a bitter experience. He was held up in a hotel for sevendays. All his notes， camera， and five rolls of films were confiscated.
Fines were raised from 100 yuan to 150 yuan. Fortunately， most of96 his films had already been sent back to Beijing and avoid heavy loss.
When he walked 1，200 kilometers and it was only one hour’s journeyto Zhenbeitai， he was stuck. In seven days no matter how hard he triedto persuade the police to let him have a look at Zhenbeitai， which heyearned day and night， but he was refused. He was so disappointed.
However， William was not easy to give up. They didn’t let himgo， so he sneaked away. When he was expelled from China， Williamwent to Hong Kong and applied for a new passport and returned.
Luckily it was not network accessed， the Customs couldn’t find William’sbackground. He could continue his journey.
This time， he ran from Dongsheng in the Inner Mongolia towardeast. He found the Great Wall was broken off and on in many places，even gone without any trace. He then ran along the railroad makingfull use of his geographic knowledge learned in college to look for thetraces of the Great Wall. Approaching to Beijing， he saw that the signboard “Foreigners Stop Here” became more and more and he wouldn’
t want to go turning a blind eye to it. So he visited the Great Wallaround this area later in the years.
William finally had his Great Wall dream fulfilled. Though hehad some regrets， he had made a great feat anyway. Returning backto Britain， Ji Chaozhu， Chinese Ambassador in Britain gave a highevaluation to his journey of the Great Wall which greatly inspired William.
Chinese ambassador’s praise was obviously more beneficial toWilliam than police’s interrogations and made William realized thatChina would further open its door to the outside world. As expected，more and more foreigners swamped to China afterwards， like William，carrying backpacks traveling in China alone. And policemen wouldn’
t keep a close eye on these single travelers， they turned to be nice andfriendly and willing to help.
While William Lindesay measured the Great Wall with his feet，he harvested his love as well. During his rest in Beijing， he ran into abeautiful Chinese girl Wu Qi. They got married and Wu Qi bore him two pretty and lovely sons， and became an able assistant to his causeof protecting the Great Wall.
Born in Xi’an and graduated from Northwest University， Wu Qilived in Longtan Hotel in Beijing at that time. She， like other whitecollaryoung people working in foreign enterprises in Beijing， wasalways looking for chances to practice oral English. One day at thelobby she met William and started talking with him in English. Sheasked William what he did in China. William replied， running on theGreat Wall. Wu Qi’s vocabularies were very limited， so she said with aword， “You are from the desert to the sea then?” Wu Qi couldn’t imaginethat the word she pumped up with from the desert to the sea laterbecame the subtitle of William’s book Alone on the Great Wall.