As one of the first few persons to walk the entire Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Great Wall, Norwegian Robert Loken knows that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step but in his case it was a sojourn¹ of 6,000 km. On Dec 2, 601 days after departing from the Wall's westernmost terminus, Gansu province's Jiayuguan, the 42-year-old stomped² over the final brick of the final eastern watchtower, Liaoning province's Hushan.

为少有游览完整个明朝（1368-1644）长城的人来说，Norwegian Robert Loken 知道千里之行始于足下，而且这是一段6千米的长途路程。从长城最西端的甘肃嘉峪关出发，经过601天的长途跋涉，这位42岁的终于在12月2号到达长城的最东段辽宁省湖山，完成他的长城之旅。

I had converted a 21-year-old dream into living moments, moments in life," Loken says."It's not about being the first, or walking the farthest or the fastest. It's about the experience of following my dream."

“游览长城是我21年以来的梦想，我时刻都想着要完成长城之旅。”Loken说，“这不在于做第一位游览全长城的人，也不在于游览有多远或者多快，而在于我的梦想是体验长城。”

Fulfilling his life's goal required surmounting³ the treacherous⁴ distance of about 140 marathons before reaching the final pass, at the border of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. On one of the final days, he walked more than 40 km "without sitting down", he says.

他需要在到达终点之前克服重重阻隔，到达朝鲜民主共和国的边境，以完成他游览全长城的梦想。在最后几天里，他几乎每天都不休息，跋涉40公里。

While about a dozen foreigners and even more Chinese have followed the Ming Wall from Jiayuguan to the end of the existing bulwark⁵ in Hebei province's Shanhaiguan, Loken was the first to continue on to retrace⁶ the Ming-era maps' original route - the stone of which centuries have mostly ground away - to Hushan. He conquered those final 1,370 km through Liaoning in 41 days, pushing to finish before his visa expired on Dec 5, he says.

Loken说：很多的国外游者和中国游者沿着明长城从嘉峪关到达终点，即河北省山海关现存明城墙遗址。他是第一个沿着明朝古地图路线-很多的城石都磨上几个世纪之久的痕迹-到达湖山。他在41天里战胜了辽宁境内最后1370公里的险阻，使他的梦想之旅在12月5号之前完美结束。

"When I reached (Hushan), I could finally let my shoulders down and relax for the first time in a year and a half," Loken says.

“当到达终点（湖山），我终于如释重负，也是我一年半以来第一次感到如此的轻松。”

The adventurer had spent nearly two years dealing⁷ with snakes, scorpions⁸ and wild dogs. He ran out of water in the Gobi Desert and nearly passed out in a blizzard⁹ in Central China. He broke his left big toe in Shanxi.

这位探险家在这一年多的旅途时间里和蛇，蝎子以及野狗打“交道”。穿越戈壁沙滩，经历中国中部的大风雪天气，在山西还弄伤了自己左脚大脚趾。

Loken was happy to return to his parents' home in Oslo, after an airline strike canceled his homecoming flight, postponing¹⁰ his return by a day.

完成旅途后，航班取消了他回家的班机，推迟了一天回家，但是Loken 很高兴回到奥斯陆（挪威首都）父母的家里。

"We were relieved and joyful at having him safely back home after 20 months," says his father, Tor Loken.

他的爸爸Tor Loken说，“经过20个月的分离，他终于能够平安的归来，我们都感到非常的欣慰和高兴。”

His mother, Jean Loken, adds: "So much could have gone wrong, but it went much better than we could have hoped for It's an incredible achievement for Robert, and we are very proud of him."

他的妈妈Jean Loken：“我们之前认为他的长城之旅的决定是不现实的，但是结果却比我们期望的要好很多。这是Robert Loken的一次惊人的成就，我们都为他感到非常的自豪。”

Loken says what he has done has not yet "sunk in", and he is looking forward to "processing" it while recuperating¹¹ in his homeland.

Loken说现在他还没有从这次旅途中恢复过来，他正在试图在家乡康复期间慢慢的改善自己的心态和身体状况。

"Physically¹², I'm at the peak of my life. But I'm tired in the top floor," he says, tapping his index finger against his temple.

“在我这个年龄段来说，我正处于精力茂盛时期，但是我却感到精疲力尽。”他边说着边用食指轻敲太阳穴。

"I'm tired of all the experiences, tired of being on the move for such a long time. It's not the uncertainty¹³ of life, but rather, it's the ever-changing. I wake up in the morning, and I don't know who I'm going to meet, what I'm going to see or experience and where I'm going to sleep that night."

“我对所有的经历都感到疲劳，也不想去进行长时间的旅游。这不是生活的不确定性，而是生活在不断的变化。每天早上醒来的时候，我不知道要去见谁，不知道要去看或者体验什么，也不知道今晚我要投宿哪里。”

In addition to spending long stretches of time alone, he never saw the same person more than once on the Wall - that is, except for one woman in Hebei province's Panjiakou, whom he had met when he and his brother were hiking along the Wall 12 years earlier.

因为长时间独自游览长城，他几乎没有见同一个人两次，除了河北省潘家口的一位女士，这位女士是他和他哥哥在12年前登长城时遇到过的。

"I remembered where she lived and knocked on her door, and this fantastic woman opened the door," Loken says."She took my hands and led me in, and showed me a picture of my brother and I with her and her husband she'd put on her wall."

Loken说：“我记得她住的地方，当我去她家敲门的时候，这位神奇的女子打开门，”“牵着我的手把我带入她的家里，她还给我看挂在墙上的那张照片，那正是我哥哥，我，她以及她丈夫的合影，”

"It was an intensely emotional moment, "he says."I'd been going for a year and a half without being recognized by anyone I met, and that does something to you mentally I was always moving on. I'd say, 'hello' to someone in the evening and 'goodbye' the next morning."

“当时真的是一个非常感人的时刻。”他说，“这一年多的旅途中，我见过的人没有一个认出我来，晚上我会对人说：你好。第二天离开的时候我会对人说：再见。”