More did Wu Qi think that William would fall in love with her atfirst sight. When talking about his first impression to Wu Qi， Williamsaid， English was very poor， but she was very pretty. As a result， Williamspent all his energy as he did in super cross-country race of theGreat Wall， and started his love chase. He made inquiries everywherefor Wu Qi’s information and when he learned that she worked at DaivaSecurities Ltd.， in the same building with TMT he was advertising，he went directly to her office on the 27th floor from TMT’s officeon the 11th floor， and invited her to dinner. After he finished the GreatWall journey， his love chase also came to an end. Wu Qi， who is oneyear younger than William， finally agreed to marry him.
In December 1987， William’s brother and sister-in-law flew toBeijing to congratulate his victory of the great journey， and see theiryounger brother’s wife-to-be. What looked a bit ridiculous is that thetrip Wu Qi accompanied William’s family to climb the Great Wall washer first time， while the British young man William was more qualifiedto be the tourist guide for this Chinese girl.
Pick Up Litter on the Great WallWilliam became famous when he returned to Britain. He went to98 give lectures everywhere， published articles， made TV programs， anddelivered lectures. His book Alone on the Great Wall was an instantsuccess. Anyway， it was incredible for one to tramp on the Great Wallfrom one end to the other. So people were excited， curious and greatlyrespected him for his feat.
In 1989 when he was doing a live show at a broadcast station， anold woman listener told William that in the beginning of the 20th centuryWilliam Gerll had been to the Great Wall and took some photoswhich she collected at home. She said if William was interested， shewould like to give them to him. When William saw those old photos，he was overjoyed. Many places in the photos were as familiar to himas he’s been to those places. Some of the photos were taken from thesame spot， same angle， but while in the earlier picture a beacon towerwas visible， whereas in his picture it was missing.
In the last hundreds of years， the Great Wall had suffered damagescaused by erosion of wind and sand and also human elements.
William discovered during his journey that at many sections only dilapidatedwalls remained while at some places the walls were missing altogether. The beacon tower disappeared totally in last few decades.
After William got married and lived for two and a half years inEngland familiarizing the people about its existence， location and size，he returned to China with his wife and started working as an Englishpolisher at China Daily. In 1994 his eldest son Jimmy was born.
Thereafter he went along with Wu Qi to her hometown Xi’an， andtaught English at University of Technology.
Before William embarked on his journey he had known of the“Long March” of Mao Tse-tung along with his Red Army which was asource of great inspiration for him to get over all hurdles and obstaclesenroute. In celebration of Mao Tse-tung’s 100th birth anniversary heundertook to traverse the long and arduous journey undertaken manyyears back by the Red Army， over snow capped mountains and marshlandsbreaking up the entire route into sections. And covering theentire route in his vacations in 1991 and 1992， he acquired the name“Foreign Red Army” given to him by the veterans of Red Army as amark of their appreciation and affection.
In 1996， William was invited to work as an English polisher atXinhua News Agency， and went to Beijing with his family. To himneither teaching nor his proficiency in English was as important as hislove for the Great Wall. It was his passion and dream. He would setoff with his bicycle， camera and sleeping bag whenever he got an opportunityand return after two or three days， spending the nights in thehospitality of the farmers or under the cover of becon towers.
With money power improving many Chinese people started outdoorexploration activities and thronged the Great Walls. Some amongthem became sources of pollution， while others defaced the Great Wallby scribbling and chiseling on the wall surface. William was greatlydisappointed. Once when he protested against pollution of environmenthe was humiliated with remarks： “This is our Chinese matter. It’snone of your business. Having seen the damage of the Great Wall caused by both nature100 and human beings， and the prospect of greater damage due to developmentof tourism， William became visibly worried and anxious. TheGreat Wall was not only the greatest architecture of the world， but alsothe most precious treasure of the mankind. It was an epitome of man’sspirit. He often wondered， “Why these Chinese people don’t love theirown Great Wall. He was often depressed and heart-broken as no one seemed tocare about the great archeological heritage … once when he mentionedabout people’s apathy he was snubbed by his wife either to shut upor do something concrete about it and not just grumble. He began anawareness campaign， claiming， “We must learn to walk by this openairmuseum quietly， and not scribble our names or words … we wantto save the 500-year-old bricks”。 He wrote in his article， “The GreatWall should be protected not only as a legend， but well protected inphysically， including its architecture and surrounding environment. On April 18 of the same year， he took 120 volunteers to pick uplitters on Jinshanling Great Wall， which evoked a great response in theChinese society. Foreigners picking up litters on the Great Wall forcedevery Chinese to examine their own conscience and determine the partthey needed to play in the great effort.