I recently had the opportunity to explore the Great, Vast Walls of China with a breadth and intensity that blew me away, and almost broke me. How best to share the spirit of this journey? As with the hiking itself in Northern and Western China, I today once again step outside my comfort zone and present my experience by Ode. Photographs of the untamed and ruined beauty in this remote part of the world and additional narrative connected with several stanzas touching on history

An introduction to China's Great Wall system — over 21,000 kilometers of fortifications across centuries.

Long walls (changcheng, 长城) were built in sixteen different Chinese Dynasties. We visited four different styles of wall built by three, different Dynasties, the Qin, Han, and Ming.

Long walls (changcheng, 长城) were built in sixteen different Chinese Dynasties. We visited four different styles of wall built by three, different Dynasties, the Qin, Han, and Ming.

The staggering cost of building and defending the Great Wall — and the legend of Meng Jiangnu's grief.

A Ming-era tablet on the Great Wall records two wall sections built in 1579 — and the imperial envoy who oversaw the work.

A trek to China's oldest Great Wall section in Inner Mongolia, dating back to the 1st century BCE.

Watching sunrise over a 2,000-year-old organic Han Dynasty wall, built from tamarisk branches, in the Gobi Desert.

Sunrise at Khara Khoto, a ruined 12th-century Tangut fortress city along the ancient Silk Road in Inner Mongolia.

At the First Beacon Tower in Gansu, where the Ming Dynasty Great Wall meets the Taolai River Gorge.

Two Williams, a century apart — William Lindesay and William Geil, both who traced the entire Ming Great Wall on foot.

Inside the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, where 1,500-year-old Buddhist art survives in sealed, rarely-seen chambers.

Three days hiking unrestored Ming Wall at Jiankou — sunrise watchtowers, sheer drops, and a section called the Face."

A grueling 7.5-hour, ten-kilometer trek through fifty watchtowers on the wild Ming Wall in Laiyuan County.