Max Pearson

The team relied on letters and parcels sent from home, but it was a wrench to be so far from their families.

Oh, I was extremely homesick.

And at the time, my mom was already quite elderly and in poor health.

My wife was looking after her and our daughter all by herself.

When I left, my daughter was only one year old.

I'd sometimes cuddle the children of the villagers we stayed with, and that made me so sad.

It was really difficult for me.

When the authorities had learned of Yao Huidong's expedition, they'd encouraged him, but the team didn't know that while they'd been trekking across the wall, they'd become national heroes, with regular write-ups in the newspapers on their progress and on the ancient history of the wall.

Their newfound fame came as something of a shock to them when they finally reached Jiayu Pass in the west.

508 days after they'd started.

When we finished the expedition, we were mobbed by the press.

Everyone was saying, you are heroes, this is an amazing accomplishment.

It felt pretty good at the time, but the next day I felt a bit negative about it.

I felt this isn't the kind of life I want.

We didn't want any fame.

All we wanted was to try to help people understand its history.

We wanted to walk our own path and keep our feet firmly on the ground.

After their initial expedition, Yao Huidong and the team went back, along the extra parts of the wall and adjoining fortifications, almost another 2,000 kilometres.

Since then, he's devoted his life to studying and preserving the wall, which is now one of the most visited attractions in the country.

Even the new parts of it are 500 or 600 years old, but it dates back more than 2,000 years.