In the last two years, National Geographic explorer Paul Solopek traversed the Chinese countryside,

marched along South Korea's demilitarized zone, and fended off grizzly bears in Alaska.

And he's done it on foot. Now his expedition from Africa to the tip of Southern America of South America

crosses into the Western Hemisphere.

Stephanie Syke checks in on his adventures to date.

Paul Salopek is more than halfway done with his journey, dubbed the Out of Eden Walk.

His path began in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopian 2013, winding through the Middle East and Asia before crossing

the Pacific Ocean for Alaska. Salapak's dispatches for National Geographic along the way

bring readers with him stride for stride on this unprecedented trek. And Paul joins us now.

Paul, welcome back to the News Hour. The last

time we spoke was about two years ago. You're winding your way through the Middle Kingdom,

a two and a half year walk through China. What were the main takeaways, if you can give them

in a few moments? You know, it was two and a half years, more than 4,000 miles.

This is much, much longer than the distance between Los Angeles and New York.

It's like walking actually from Chicago to Paris,

from basically tropical rainforest at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains

to the snowy forests of Manchuria near Russia.

So I covered all these different landscapes, big cities, high mountains, empty valleys, the deserts,

and the sheer diversity of China really came through.

And it allowed me as a journalist to kind of get out of the bubble that many of us travel in

when we go for quick, short hits to places like China and talk to ordinary people every single day.

It was quite a privilege.

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