“Thirteen inner gates, eighteen outer ones, the bolts of the city gates thrust outward… How high are the city gates? Thirty-six zhang high. Ride a big horse, carry a sword, and walk beneath the city gates.” Who knows how many people have been moved by this folk rhyme, dreaming of walking the city walls and counting the gates—but Shao Kan, a senior at Nanjing University, turned that dream into reality by hiking the entire length on foot.
Shao Kan had actually been “plotting” this city wall hiking plan for quite some time. At the end of last semester, he was inspired by an online account of a girl’s long-distance walk, which gave him the idea. “I made up my mind to do it alone,” Shao Kan said. He chose February 25th, and simply set off on his own with his backpack.
Shao Kan had actually been “plotting” this city wall hiking plan for quite some time. At the end of last semester, he was inspired by an online account of a girl’s long-distance walk, which gave him the idea. “I made up my mind to do it alone,” Shao Kan said. He chose February 25th, and simply set off on his own with his backpack.
“I walked along the city wall, and when there wasn’t a wall, I found another way.” At 7:10 a.m., Shao Kan set out from Yijiang Gate, passing through Yifeng Gate, Central Gate, Shence Gate… Grassland Gate, Dinghuai Gate, Hua’yan’gang Gate, and finally returned to Yijiang Gate at 6:45 p.m. After 11 hours and 35 minutes, Shao Kan finally completed his nearly 40-kilometer journey along the Nanjing City Wall. “The wall itself is about 35 kilometers long, but including the detours I took, it came to around 40 kilometers,” Shao Kan said. At every existing or legendary gate along the way, he took photos to commemorate the moment, carefully counting more than 20 “gates” he passed. “Some of the gates no longer physically exist, but they live on as place names. For example, I used the Central Gate Bus Station as a landmark for Central Gate; Shuixi Gate is also gone, so I used the bus stop sign as a reference.”
During this one-day hike, Shao Kan gained a lot—even if not in the sense of “tempering his will,” he definitely experienced “hunger and exhaustion.” To save time, Shao Kan brought just two packs of compressed biscuits and two cans of Red Bull as rations for the trip. “By the end, I was limping through the darkness, utterly exhausted and starving. Luckily, I bought some oranges along the way to fill my empty stomach at the very end.”
At the same time, he also drew some life insights from this hike: “Starting from Yijiang Gate and eventually returning to Yijiang Gate is just like life—coming into the world bare and leaving it the same. What we gain are just the sights along the way. Maybe I could’ve taken the subway at Hanzhong Gate during the toughest part, but then I might have missed the beautiful views at Qingliang Gate and Stone City, and even the chance to finally see the Ghost-Face City I’d always wanted to visit. No matter what, your own path is something you have to walk slowly, on your own.”