Man sets out on 5,000 mile hike throughout Asia to raise money for charity

by Jessica Festa on

Winston Fiore, a 26 year old Marine from Bloomington, Indiana, has set out on a 5,000 mile journey, by foot, throughout Southeast Asia and China. Fiore arrived in Southeast Asia on September 25, 2011, for what is called “Smile Trek”, and is projecting it will take him a year to walk the entire route, which begins and ends in Singapore.

The goal of the journey is to raise $50,000 or more for the International Children’s Surgery Foundation, a not-for-profit that provides children in developing countries with free corrective surgery. Through fundraising efforts, such as giving presentations at rotary clubs across the United States as well as having help from the CouchSurfing community who have helped organize benefit dinners, charity walks, and media interviews, Fiore has been able to raise over $28,000 for the cause.

Fiore’s inspiration for Smile Trek stems from an experience he had when training for the Marines in a very poor region of Lingure, Senegal. When he returned home, he read a newspaper article about a successful plastic surgeon in the United States who gave up his career to perform free surgeries in developing nations for children with cleft palates and lips. From there, the idea began to grow.

To follow Fiore’s Smile Trek or donate to his cause, visit his blog here.

Video of the Day – Hong Kong Honey

by Stephen Greenwood on

Having spent six months in Hong Kong in 2009, I thought I knew the city fairly well at the end of my stay. I could navigate the night markets, had committed the sleek metro system to memory and even attended a few local weddings. But there was one facet of the city that I was completely oblivious to; Hong Kong’s beekeepers.

Hidden among the thousands of rooftops that comprise Hong Kong’s iconic cityscape, there are nearly a dozen beehives that are being cared for by a community of beekeepers, artists & designers. Their aim is to harvest the honey for use in local cafés and design products that relate to the growing trend of urban beekeeping.

This vivid portrait, produced by Sean Mattison, features a short interview with Designer / Beekeeper Michael Leung & sheds a little light on a practice that, at first, seems out of place.

Have you encountered a surprising community or practice on your travels? Share it with us! Leave your video suggestions in the comments below or submit photos to our Flickr Group. There’s a good chance we’ll choose your picks for our next Photo / Video of the Day!

The Great Walls of China

by Sean McLachlan on


There was more than one Great Wall of China, a Chinese archaeology team has discovered.

Several portions of the wall are actually double, triple, or quadruple walls running closely parallel to one another. This was a common feature in many ancient fortifications because it made the position harder to take. Often the troops would be garrisoned between the walls for protection against surprise attacks from the rear. The land between the walls also offered a protected area for flocks and farmland to provision the troops.

The Chinese team found that the main wall was larger than the others. The investigation continues.

Several walls were originally built starting in the 5th century BC or perhaps earlier. Under the Emperor Qin Shi Huang in c.220 BC, the earlier scattered walls were linked together to make a continuous fortification to protect China from nomadic tribes to the north. The Great Wall was lengthened, added to, and rebuilt several times in later centuries. During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) there was a major expansion during which 5,650 km (3,511 miles) of wall were built. A recent survey found the entire wall, with all of its branches, runs for 8,852 km (5,500 miles). This figure will have to be reassessed now that parallel walls have been found.

[Photo courtesy Francisco Diez]

Photo of the day – Red lantern in China

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Sometimes it’s the simplest images that reach out and grab the viewer. Take today’s Photo of the Day, snapped by Flickr user Bernard-SD, of a red lantern snapped in Yunnan Province, China. The lantern’s glow is almost magical. Though Bernard-SD took this photograph in July, the image’s deep warmth strikes me as particularly appropriate for early September, as summer’s slow turn into fall announces itself more fully.

Eager to share your simple, straight-forward images with a broader audience? Submit your images to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr and we might just pick one of your images as a future Photo of the Day.

Photo of the day – Butcher at work

by Meg Nesterov on


Today kicks off Labor Day weekend, the last long weekend of summer. Maybe you have plans for one last getaway or at least plan to explore your own backyard. However you spend the next three days, we hope it doesn’t involve real work, er, labor. This fellow photographed by Flickr user Bernard-SD in Lijiang, China is working diligently on stripping the meat from this sheep carcass. While we may prefer to see a butcher work in a nice clean shop and not the street, he seems to be a professional hard at work. Think of him when you grill your lamb (or ham-) burgers this holiday, and all the other people whose labor make your day off better.

When you’re back laboring next week, upload your favorite travel photos to the Gadling Flickr pool and we may choose one for a future Photo of the Day.