The Five Foot Road: In Search of a Vanished China

This book documents a journey across China and Burma commemorating the 100th year anniversary of George Morrison's walk over the same route in 1893. McDonald, an Australian journalist, photographer, and adventurer had become fascinated with Morrison's life and expeditions after stumbling across his books in a library. After walking across Australia and taking a near disastrous detour in Papua New Guinea as a youth, Morrison had gone on to spend the greater part of his career as a statesman in China. On his journey across China, Morrison had met up with a Danish photographer named Jensen, who provided a collection of black-and-white images to illustrate Morrison's book, "An Australian in China." McDonald was particularly enamored with Morrison's journey on foot across China, and determined to recreate the journey as much as possible 100 years later. He also gave himself the goal of recapturing the scenes provided by Jensen by determining as best as possible Jensen's exact vantage points for the original photographs and reshooting the scenes as they appear in the late twentieth century. These pictures, some juxtaposed with Jensen's originals, as well as many other twentieth century scenes, are included in this book. Jensen is a skilled traveler. He knows how to negotiate public transit in China, and he's not afraid to stray far from the beaten path. He meets a number of interesting characters along the way, and many help him in his quest to locate the buildings or scenery from Jensen's photographs. McDonald seems to revel in the quest-Morrison's epic provided an excuse to do some hard traveling, and the backbone of a route to follow. Although the book provides some interesting information and analysis about the peoples and cultures of the region, the book isn't so much about China and Burma as it is about McDonald's personal challenge to follow in Morrison's footsteps.