Legwork

The distance between France and China varies depending on the route and mode of transportation. By plane, the distance is between 8,000 and 8,300 kilometers.

By road, traveling between the two countries would take more than 10,000 kilometers, and by sea, it’s even farther at 24,000 kilometers.

Frenchman Killian Le Guyader, 24, covered a distance of 18,000 kilometers using another mode of transportation. He left home in Rennes in January, and by early this month, he was at the Great Wall of China in Beijing.

“Mum, I made it. I rode from France to China, covering 18,000 km and crossing more than 30 countries. This is the highlight of my life,” said Le Guyader in his social media post captioning a video showing him at the Great Wall, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

Guyader pedaled from Rennes to Beijing and dedicated his feat to others suffering from Lyme disease like him, according to SCMP. He recently returned to France by plane.

Meanwhile, Karl Bushby of Hull, England, is still on his own round-the-world journey.

The 56-year-old former British Army paratrooper has reached Hungary, and he is expected to complete what he dubbed as The Goliath Expedition in September or October next year.

Bushby, who took off from Punta Arenas in southern Chile in 1998 at age 29, has spent 27 years walking in a bid to become the first person to go around the world on foot, News24 reports.

He initially calculated that he would finish the 49,900-kilometer trek in 12 years, but extended this after he encountered difficult terrain, war zones, and other obstacles. From the South American continent, Bushby reached Asia by crossing the Bering Strait over ice and water, between Alaska, USA, and Siberia, Russia in 2006.

Denied permission to walk on land, Bushby swam across the Caspian Sea from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan in August 2024. Resting in support boats at night and resuming the swim the next day, he finished the crossing in 31 days, according to News24.

With his life consisting only of getting up and moving forward every day, Bushby admits that he is anxious to reach home, as it would be hard to adjust after he abruptly stops walking.