On November 9, 2007, Christoph Rehage walked out of his apartment in Beijing with a plan that would take him thousands of miles from home.
The 26-year-old German traveler wanted to walk from China all the way to Germany.
He also decided not to shave his beard or cut his hair during the journey.
Nearly one year later, he had walked 4,646 kilometers (2,887 miles) across China. His appearance had changed dramatically, and he had taken thousands of photographs along the way.
But his adventure ended before he reached Germany.
The remarkable images eventually became a viral video called The Longest Way.
A 26-Year-Old Set Out to Walk Home From Beijing
Rehage began his journey on November 9, 2007, his 26th birthday.
Walking long distances was not entirely new to him.
In 2003, he had walked approximately 800 kilometers from Paris toward his hometown of Bad Nenndorf, Germany.
That earlier experience helped inspire a much more ambitious idea.
He spent about a year preparing for the trip, researching routes and organizing equipment.
The plan was to cross China, continue through Central Asia and eventually make his way home to Germany.
Cities such as Samarkand and Istanbul were among the places he hoped to see.
One Unusual Promise Changed His Appearance
Before leaving Beijing, Rehage decided not to cut his hair or shave until the journey was over.
He began taking photographs of himself as he traveled.
At first, he usually took one picture each day.
Later, he started capturing multiple images and short sequences to show more of the landscapes and people around him.
His face gradually changed.
Short hair grew into long, tangled curls. A thick beard replaced his clean-shaven appearance.
The changes were visible in the photographs, but they were only one part of the story.
He Walked Through Snow, Dust and Desert
Rehage's route carried him across northern China.
He passed through cities, villages, mountains and dry landscapes.
Some days brought snow and bitterly cold temperatures.
Other sections meant walking through dust storms and intense heat.
He generally covered about 20 to 30 kilometers on walking days, according to his own account.
But he did not walk every day.
He stopped to rest, organize supplies, meet people and handle practical problems along the route.
For desert sections, he eventually used a specially built wheeled cart to carry his equipment.
A Journey Filled With Unexpected Encounters
Rehage documented far more than the distance he traveled.
His blog recorded the people who welcomed him, the landscapes he crossed and the challenges of traveling alone.
In one memorable encounter, children in a small desert village decorated his hair with flowers.
He also met Xie Jianguang, a Chinese long-distance walker who had spent decades traveling on foot.
Rehage later dedicated his famous video to him.
These moments became an important part of what he remembered about the journey.
The walk was physically demanding, but it also gave him opportunities to experience places he might otherwise never have visited.
Why He Stopped After 4,646 Kilometers
On October 25, 2008, Rehage reached Ürümqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang region.
He had traveled 4,646 kilometers in nearly a year.
Germany was still more than 10,000 kilometers away along his planned route.
Yet he decided to stop.
In his personal account, Rehage wrote about a painful breakup that affected him during the journey.
He later explained that he had also begun feeling trapped by his own goal.
What started as an expression of freedom had become something he felt compelled to continue.
Rather than keep walking simply because he had promised himself he would, he chose to return home.
He later described learning not only how to walk, but also how to stop.
His Before-and-After Photographs Became a Viral Video
After returning to Germany, Rehage reviewed the thousands of images he had captured.
He edited them into a time-lapse showing his changing face and the journey happening around him.
The result was The Longest Way 1.0, released in 2009.
The video combined photographs and short clips to show nearly a year passing in just a few minutes.
His beard grew longer as the backgrounds changed from streets to villages and remote landscapes.
But the video also captured changing expressions, exhaustion, excitement and emotional moments.
It quickly attracted viewers worldwide.
In December 2009, TIME ranked the film eighth on its list of the year's top viral videos.
The Journey Did Not End Forever
Although Rehage stopped the original walk in 2008, he later returned to China.
In 2010, he continued from Ürümqi toward Usu.
He resumed again in 2012, walking farther toward Khorgas near the China–Kazakhstan border.
These later journeys became part of a second video, The Longest Way 2.0.
His wider travel project grew to include photographs, books and extensive written accounts.
But the original 2007–2008 journey remains the one most people recognize.
The Bigger Story Behind the Changing Face
The before-and-after pictures offer an extraordinary visual record of one year.
Yet Rehage's experience was not simply about a dramatic beard or covering a vast distance.
He began with a dream of walking home.
Along the way, he discovered unfamiliar places, formed connections and faced personal disappointment.
Eventually, he decided that continuing the journey was no longer the right choice.
He walked 4,646 kilometers without reaching his destination. But the photographs captured something else: how much a person can change along the way.
Editor's note: This story concerns Rehage's original walk from November 9, 2007, to October 25, 2008. He later resumed sections of the route in other years. Any promotional before-and-after image should be distinguished from Rehage's original photographs unless its authenticity is established.
Sources: Christoph Rehage — Frequently Asked Questions; Christoph Rehage — The Beard: Stop in Ürümqi; Christoph Rehage — The Longest Way 1.0; TIME — Top Viral Videos of 2009; South China Morning Post — Losses and Life Lessons on a Walk from Beijing to Germany.