In Marco Polo's ancient footsteps

Documentary maker brings 62-year-old ambition to life by finishing explorer's fabled route, Xing Yi reports in London.

It's a story about pursuing one's dream, a story of collaboration between China and the United Kingdom, and a story of cultural exchanges and mutual learning — all contained within the new documentary film In the Footstep of Marco Polo, which had its world premiere in London earlier in July.

Marco Polo was an Italian merchant and explorer who traveled through Asia along the ancient Silk Road in the 13th century, ending his journey in Dadu, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), which is present-day Beijing.

His observations and details about his route were recorded in the book The Travels of Marco Polo, which was later translated into many European languages and that inspired generations of Western travelers to go East.

Stanley Johnson was one such follower of Marco Polo.

An author, environmentalist, and former member of the European Parliament, he is also the father of the former United Kingdom prime minister Boris Johnson.

Last year, Stanley and his youngest son, Max Johnson, participated in a China-UK documentary project that showcased the country's astonishing landscapes while featuring engaging interviews with locals and capturing the hilarious banter between the 84-year-old father and his 39-year-old son.

Following part of the ancient route, their journey covered more than 5,000 kilometers, starting from a land port 5,100 meters above sea level on the China-Pakistan border at the Khunjerab Pass and crossing the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, through the Taklamakan Desert, through Gansu province to the Mogao Caves, traversing the highlands of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and concluding in Beijing.

Start of the dream

As an undergraduate at the University of Oxford in 1961, Stanley Johnson, along with two friends, Tim Severin and Michael de Larrabeiti, embarked on an ambitious adventure through Turkiye, Iran, and Afghanistan as they inched closer to the Chinese border.

The trio was traveling on motorcycles and found they could not cross the Pamir Plateau between Central and South Asia on two wheels.

Forced to give up, they vowed to return and complete the journey together one day, but the dream did not come true for de Larrabeiti and Severin, who passed away in 2008 and 2020 respectively.

In 2023, accompanied this time by his son, Stanley picked up the unfinished journey he began six decades earlier and continued.

"This is the realization of quite a long-held ambition. I've been to China a lot of times, but I'd never done the whole route that I wanted to do," Stanley said at the premiere of the documentary film about his journey. "Sixty-two years ago, I first set out to try to follow Macro Polo's way to Beijing and didn't succeed. Sixty-two years later, we got there, we made it!"

Ref lecting on the seven-week journey, Stanley's son Max said: "It was Confucius who said 'a good son is an obedient son'. I am neither one nor the other, but I do try. And it was just great fun."

He added that the journey meant he got to spend cherished time with his father.

Max has also been to China before, and the first city he visited back when he was 20 happened to be Kashgar, in Xinjiang, which he got to visit again during the filming of the documentary last year.

"This time, I went back and to see the development was just incredible. And then obviously, I've been to Beijing. I live in Hong Kong. But to me, to see how much China developed, how quickly China developed, is very fascinating," said Max, who had previously studied in Beijing and who can speak fluent Mandarin.

"When you watch this film, just remember it was something in the spirit of let's do something. Let's make a film, go to China, and see what it's like for yourself," he told the audience at the premiere.

Nature, culture and people

In the documentary, Stanley and Max take the audience to see some of the most breathtaking landscapes in Northwest China. Driving a 4x4 SUV, the two slowly descended 1,000 meters by going around more than 600 turns on a mountain highway called pan long road, or twisting dragon road, near Kashgar.

They also board an overnight sleeper train from Hotan to Ruoqiang, the latest leg of the world's first railway loop line circling a desert that opened in 2022, which crosses China's largest desert, Taklamakan, with ease. "This is the modern version of the Silk Road," Stanley exclaimed in the film.

Standing on a hot-air balloon, they catch the morning rays shining over the Zhangye National Geopark, creating the sight of a "rainbow mountain" out of the unique petrographic landform in China.

In addition to seeing magnificent scenery, the Johnsons meet various people along the way.

They watch a performance of Xinjiang Uygur Muqam, which includes songs, dances, and folk and classical music and that UNESCO put on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.

During their journey, they also learned with a master chef how to make Lanzhou lamian, or the hand-pulled noodle that originated in Lanzhou, Gansu province, which was arguably China's most widespread noodle dish across the vast country and abroad.

And they got to grapple with Mongolian bokh wrestlers, try archery, and listen to khoomei, an ancient throat singing performed by ethnic Mongolians.

They also had the chance to talk to historians at sites in Xanadu, the northern capital of the Mongol Empire, and in the Forbidden City, which was built during the Yuan Dynasty, tracing Marco Polo to the places he must have been, and the things he could have seen.

"We've met people, and we've been entertained by people, and we've had experiences which I will never forget," Stanley said at the end of the documentary.