Wild Wall

After William Lindesay's 2,500 km journey along the Great Wall in 1987 and marriage to “Beautiful Jade”, as told in “Wild Wall-The Foundation Years”, the couple settled in Beijing and Lindesay, born in Lancashire, remade himself as the great protector of the Great Wall of China, fending off developers and litterbugs and devoting his life to raising awareness of the mighty edifice that is the Great Wall. William bought a derelict farmhouse in a hamlet in the shadow of the Wall, at Jiankou, and for more than two decades has made a living celebrating the Wall. In quixotic style, Lindesay adopted defending the Great Wall from modern attack as his personal cause, and his initiatives and rallying call have made headlines and been remarkably successful in jolting China's national consciousness into protecting its most famous but neglected monument. “Wild Wall-The Jiankou Years is a Great Wall” reality story, told frankly, soulfully, significantly and humorously. It accompanies the first part of William Lindesay's Wild Wall memoir, “The Foundation Years”.

William Lindesay arrived in red-tape China in 1986 to try to do the impossible - a journey on foot along the entire length of the Great Wall. Wild Wall-The Foundation Years tells the story of his daring west-to-east endeavour, staggered and rerouted by multiple arrests and interrupted by a deportation from which he found a way back. He recounts the incredible hospitality he met along the way, and a whirlwind romance with the woman he was to marry. The book also takes us with William on the trail of Chairman Mao's Long March, on foot, and recounts other baffling experiences in a China then still physically and psychologically separated from the outside world, just as the Great Wall intended. Wild Wall-The Foundation Years, is an extraordinary narrative of ancient, revolutionary and reforming China.