Q&A: Colin Legerton

A: The idea was China is a much more diverse place than people really realize. There's 120 million people who are classified as minorities (non-Han Chinese). The things that are written about them are usually scholarly works about one group.

So we spent this time in China wanting to get more of an idea of what China was like, these people we knew nothing about. The idea was to get out there, to get to the villages and towns especially, and to get to meet these people. To see what their lives were like, to see how changes were affecting them, what their relationships were with the government, what their relationships were with other minorities. And we heard a lot of good stories along the way.

Q: How long was your trek?

A: The trek was about four months, and it was all on buses and trains and occasionally a taxi. We covered about 14,000 miles. But I've lived in China about three years, and Jacob's lived there a couple years too.

Q: Did anyone you know question why you went over there?

A: At that point, everyone had kind of gotten used to it. I'd already spent a couple of years in China, and a lot of it was really bare-bones trekking around places where my family wouldn't hear the story until weeks later because I didn't want them to worry. So no one was against the idea.

Q: Did you ever get into situations where you felt like you were in danger or lost?

A: We used to like to go mountain hiking a lot in China, and we got ourselves lost a few times. But along this trek we were pretty safe the whole time. China on the whole is very safe. I never really have had problems where I felt uncomfortable.

A couple of times we did run into issues with the military with the government. Very small issues that we got out of easily, but it was worrisome at the time.

Q: Speaking of issues, how were your interactions with the Chinese government?

A: Well, what helped us the most was just flying under the radar. There are a lot of foreign backpackers in China, so as far as anybody knew we were just more foreign backpackers. We just happened to be going to places that foreign backpackers didn't usually go.