Foot soldier

Michael Bates and his wife, Li Xuelin, on their journey in China in 2015. The 1,700-kilometer walk from Beijing to Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, was to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and to highlight the first UK-China Year of Cultural Exchange.[Photo provided to China Daily]

"Originally, the walk in China was planned from Beijing to Nanjing, but we arrived in Nanjing a little bit earlier. So my wife, Xuelin, asked: 'Can you just walk down to my hometown in Hangzhou?'" recalls Bates.

"So I walk from Beijing to Nanjing for peace and Nanjing to Hangzhou for love."

His wife, Li Xuelin, was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, and went to Britain in 1989 to study architecture. Now, her real estate business there is successful and she is also involved with charity work.

The couple met during a charity event in 2011, when Bates was preparing for his first major hike from Olympia in Greece to London, campaigning for peace ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.

Li decided to help him with the walk and the journey brought the two hearts together.

In a previous interview with Beijing-based magazine Women of China, Li said she was attracted to Bates by his perseverance during the walk and his commitment to world peace.

"On New Year's Eve, he took a day off from the walk and we went to Paris," Li said of the time Bates proposed to her. "Under the Eiffel Tower when the New Year bells rang, he knelt down."

During their wedding in 2012, they set up Walk for Peace foundation, and those invited to their party came with donations for the foundation rather than personal gifts for the couple.

The next year, they planned a walk from London to Derry in Northern Ireland and raised $61,000 for Save the Children's work in Syria. In 2014, they also planned one from London to Berlin for the First World War Centenary and raised $49,000 for the German charity Peace Village International.