Most people will remember the scene in the film Forrest Gump where he just suddenly starts to jog, ending up with a huge following. Well, Li Gangbo had a similar moment, setting off from Yangzhou city in the Jiangsu province of eastern China with just a small backpack, his camera and a Chinese flag. That was 10 years ago!

Li has walked for thousands of miles and claims to have used over 1,000 pairs of shoes.

“It has been an amazing experience and I would never have swapped it for the world,” he explained.

“I had thousands marching with me at all times,” said Li, referring to the huge following he has built up over the years on the Chinese media site Weibo.

“People who were not able to come with me were, nevertheless, with me every step of the way,” he said.

Li feels he has done just about enough walking for one decade and intends to stop for a while, in order to write a book about his experiences and maybe even film a documentary.