Far Away Is Not Far

Far but Not Distant is the fruit of Mr. Liu Guoguang's three-year journey in his seventies retracing the Long March on foot, surveying the Northwest, and visiting the borderlands—far more than an ordinary travelogue. Its greatest value lies in a dual narrative dimension: on one hand, with the rigor of a historian, the author verifies Red heritage sites and sorts through local historical sources along the way, elevating geographical walking into a pursuit of history; on the other, with childlike sincerity he records in-depth conversations with ordinary people along the route—herders, forest rangers, rural teachers, border guards—capturing individual life trajectories amid the changes of the times. The book offers no exaggerated tales of adventure; instead, in calm, restrained prose it reveals human resilience in extreme natural environments and the concrete, minute truths of life behind grand historical narratives. This "walking historical anthropology" makes remote borderlands and unfamiliar communities tangible and palpable. Particularly rare is that the author integrates geological and ecological knowledge into his descriptions of natural landscapes and attends to economic forms and cultural transmission in his depictions of human life, giving the book both humanistic depth and intellectual substance. It is like a humanistic map measured by footsteps and sedimented by time, offering readers a quiet and abundant entry point for understanding China's border regions.