英国政客在中国开始和平徒步之旅
Michael Walton Bates, a Member of the UK House of Lords and Government Minister in the Home Office, kicked off the walk at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on Monday.
迈克尔·沃尔顿·贝茨，英国上议院议员以及内政部政府部长，周一在北京天坛公园开始徒步之行。
It will take Bates 64 days to cover a distance of 1,500 kilometers from Beijing to Hangzhou, the capital city of east China's Zhejiang province.
Hangzhou is also the hometown of Bates' wife Xuelin, Chairman of a charity called The Walk for Peace Foundation.
Bates plans to visit historical sites of the War of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.
"For the past four years, I have been doing walks in different parts of the world. And I have walked through 18 countries so far. So Walking is the way I express my desire to build a peaceful and better world. "
Between 2011 and 2012, Bates embarked on a 'Walk for Truce' from Olympia in Greece to London to raise awareness of the Olympic truce. He walked through 15 European countries, covering a distance of 4,800 kilometers.
In 2013, Bates walked 830 kilometers from London to Derry, Northern Ireland to raise funds for children in Syria.
Last year he completed a 1,000 kilometer walk between the United Kingdom and Germany to mark the 100th anniversary of WWI.