Review for Radio Southland First Pass Under Heaven by Nathan Hoturoa Gray Penguin Books 2006 Five men who have become interesting by virtue of the fact that they have chosen to do interesting things decided to walk the Great Wall of China. Just like that. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find a corner of the world which has not yet been tramped over, had a documentary made of it, a book written about it, or been the subject of a radio interview. Now that China is opening itself to western influences it must have been irresistible to such adventurers to go there. China is still little known. It is a huge country, with a huge population and is becoming highly influential economically. Any book or documentary is bound to interest us – particularly in New Zealand as China is nearly our next door neighbour. Nathan Gray could have inserted more photographs – the ones he has are very interesting and only whetted my appetite for more. He writes well with good little tit bits of human interest and historical information. His anecdotes about the people he met and the descriptions of the countryside are highly readable. He includes all sorts of unexpected information - how it is almost impossible for a Chinese to get a passport, how they are only allowed to visit one country at a time if they do, how AIDS is a big problem (drug users and blood donors infected from unsterilised needles), the cold at night and how to combat it, and the heat during the day, the ease with which one can catch diarrhoea and the misery of the Chinese toilet, the quaint childishness of Chinese people, and many, many other little anecdotes which hold one’s interest, including numerous descriptions of the type of food eaten. The men carried little or no food and relied on the generosity of Chinese peasants to share their food with them – which they did. Westerners are still unusual and highly visible in China due to their height and colouring and the men were in great demand as exotic distractions. Gray’s book is written as 256 diary entries. He walked a total of 4,000 kilometres. This is the stuff of young, fit men, but from the reading I doubt he would want to do it twice. For those who have an interest in other countries, this travelogue is equal to the best of writers and that includes Laurens van der Post. For such a young man (Gray was twenty eight at the time) his powers of observation and discernment of what will interest a reader is unsurpassed. This is a book which will easily give much reading pleasure as well as useful information about China.