William Lindesay

Name: William Lindesay
From: Liverpool
Living in: Beijing

"Fascination, surprise and friendliness have kept me at the Great Wall, and in China for so long. It's been an amazing journey, and I plan to continue seeing, learning and contributing more to this great country's future."

William Lindesay was eleven when he first saw the Great Wall in his school atlas and immediately announced his intention of exploring it.

Studying geography and geology at Liverpool University, he became well equipped intellectually to undertake this unwavering ambition. A London marathon proved useful physical preparation and in 1987 he succeeded in traversing the Wall’s entire 2,470 km. That journey took 78 days and by spring 2009 William estimates he will have spent more than 1,500 days on the Wall.

Tenacity is a requirement of any venture, but William’s exceeded the norm as he persevered, alone, through a tentatively opening China, being arrested nine times and deported once en route. ‘You don’t know someone until you have fought with them’ is the Chinese proverb William cites when telling the tale of revisiting police officers who deported him from Yulin, where he now holds honorary citizenship.

His adventure resulted in the book, Alone on the Great Wall and following a promotional radio appearance, William received an intriguing book of photographs published in 1909. This triggered another odyssey documenting changes, leading to The Great Wall Revisited and exhibitions promoting conservation on ‘the world’s greatest open-air museum’. The term ‘Wild Wall’, coined by William, has been absorbed into the Chinese language to describe the ruins. In 2001 he inaugurated the NGO, ‘International Friends of the Great Wall’ of which he is DG, thus continuing his career “doing various things related to the Great Wall of China”, including documentary filmmaker.

[Teaching children.]

The Great Wall proved William’s match in another sense. In 1987, while being deported, he met Wu Qi, marrying in 1988 and living now with their sons, Jimmy and Tommy, in Beijing. William’s endeavours have won recognition from China’s Central and Beijing Governments, plus popular accolades. “Outside Buckingham Palace in 2006, having received the OBE, was a great family moment– I said to Qi that she deserved half of it.”