Countdown: 5 Days to the Great Wall

I was 55 before I ever gave thought to traveling to China and the Great Wall. Never crossed my mind. Then an extraordinary series of events unfolded in 2008 that changed my world and expanded my horizons.

What Awakened my Great Wall Interest in 2008?

I’ve told this story at length on my website so I will only skim the surface here. In 1908 my adoptive grandfather became the first person ever documented to have walked the full length of the Great Wall. His name was Dr. William Edgar Geil. He was an evangelist and explorer who traveled China, Asia, Africa, the Holy Land and more.

For reasons too lengthy and complicated for this writing, we were raised in my family to disregard “Uncle Edgar” as we referred to him. We rarely thought of him, and when we did he seemed oddly eccentric, peculiar and unimportant. We knew he had been to Africa and China, and had walked the Great Wall, but we just didn’t attach that much importance to it. Neither did the rest of the world it seemed. You won’t find him in the Encyclopedia Britannica or the World Book Encyclopedia.

This all began to change in the early 1990s. A second William walked the Great Wall in 1987, this being William Lindesay from Great Britain.

William Lindesay in 2019. Photo courtesy of Scott Bohme.

Several years after his traverse, William Lindesay was sent a copy of our grandfather’s book, The Great Wall of China, published in 1909. Looking through Geil’s book William saw Great Wall scenes taken in 1908 that he recognized today. He subsequently rephotographed many of these scenes to show side-by-side comparisons nearly 100 years apart. He published The Great Wall Revisited in China (2007) followed by editions in the United Kingdom and United States (2008).

2008 was a big year! A new chapter in Great Wall history opened in January when William Lindesay searched for and found Geil’s descendants in the United States, the Laycock family — my siblings and me. Six months later, in June, William led a small delegation to Pennsylvania to mark the centennial of Geil’s journey 100 years before.

Now I was interested in visiting the Great Wall! But…

…fate required that I wait just a while longer. Last year my brother John died in February. Sad though it is, his death has opened yet another new chapter in Great Wall history, this one particularly exciting. It has fulfilled some of William Lindesay’s fondest hopes and set in motion events culminating at long last in my personal journey to the Great Wall.

Rewind to 1959

Our grandfather died in Venice in April 1925. Our grandmother, Constance Emerson Geil, was so grief stricken she locked up his study and papers. They remained closed to the world gathering dust until her death in 1959 — over 30 years later. This helps explain how he was forgotten to history.

I was 6 years old that summer when our family went to Pennsylvania to close down the Geil mansion. My brother John was 14. Somehow at that young age John had the presence of mind to understand there was significance to our grandfather’s stuff. No one else seemed to. So John took it upon himself to assemble some 22 trunks and boxes — which he then hauled around his entire life!

Jump Forward to 2025

William & Wu Qi visit John’s grave with my brother, Brad.

John died on February 22, 2025, at his home in Presque Isle, Michigan, way far up north. Now came time to unpack all those 22 trunks and boxes from 1959 — the contents of which hadn’t been examined to any real extent for a hundred years!

Meanwhile, 2025 was the centennial of Geil’s death and William Lindesay wanted to observe it in some meaningful way. And it seems that fate was poised and ready to oblige.

My other brother Brad and I knew the trunks and boxes would be deeply important to William so we invited him and his wife Wu Qi to come to Michigan and take charge of their opening. There was so much material they had to come twice, in June and again in November.

History owes a deep debt of gratitude to our brother, John. While he never visited China or the Great Wall, at age 14 and again upon passing at the centennial of our grandfather’s death, he has played a pivotal and irreplaceable role in Great Wall history.

Our brother John in 2009 in Pennsylvania with Piao Tiejun, a longtime friend and associate of William Lindesay — and also a valued friend of our family. Piao and his wife Shu named their children after our grandparents, Constance and Edgar.

William and Wu Qi arrived for their first visit on Friday, June 27, 2025. They flew into Detroit and took a bus north to their hotel in Alpena, Michigan, near Presque isle. Brad and I drove up from Cleveland to John’s house that same day. The next morning at 9:00 AM we picked up William and Qi at the Ramada Inn, then drove the half hour north to John’s house. What followed was a wonderful whirlwind weekend.

The Entire Photographic and Written Record

June 2025

After first visiting John”s grave in a cemetery across the street from his house and then catching up a bit over coffee, William and Qi set to work opening and examining the 22 trunks and boxes. We didn’t know what would be in there or what its condition would be, but it didn’t disappoint! What William found, carefully and successfully preserved, was the entire photographic and written record of Geil’s exploration of China as well as Africa, the Holy Land, Greek island of Patmos, and more.

That weekend was a glorious experience for William. He wrote about this last February in England’s The Observer. At one point he stopped as we worked in John’s basement, reflecting for a moment. He said he’d always dreamed he might find this lost archive of William Geil, but said that hope had faded as the years passed by. Yet here, in John’s basement after some 30 years of searching, his greatest hopes were finally fulfilled.

Brad and I donated this entire Great Wall trove to William and his organization, the International Friends of the Great Wall. It will be used for books, films and exhibits. William estimates this work will consume most of the rest of his life.

Upon William and Qi’s arrival, my brother Brad showed them just some of the trunks and boxes in John’s basement. There was more in a room on the other side.

William and Qi poured meticulously through the materials.

I don’t think William would object if I observed that Qi was the organized one. He talked about this in his memoir. She kept everything carefully logged and in order.

Qi examining one of the glass slides William Geil took, which was the state of art in photography in 1908. Geil took hundreds of photos for which we found most or all of the original negatives.

William was thrilled that Brad was wearing a t-shirt from the International Friends of the Great Wall.

A card promoting a talk on the Great Wall that Geil would deliver to the American Geographical Society on January 24, 1911. There were so many items like this! There were also letters and journals and more!

We had fun too…

We visited the Presque Isle Light Station. L-R: William, Brad, Qi and yours truly.

We walked out along a walkway in Presque Isle Harbor at Lake Huron.

William studies one of the displays at the harbor.

And we ate out — mostly at Woody’s on Grand Lake. It is pretty much the only place around to get food, certainly the only sit-down restaurant. John loved living out in the wilderness!

November 2025

There was so much to go through and take back to China that a second trip was required. William and Qi returned in November, this time along with their youngest son Tommy and his girlfriend Jesse.

On this trip, Brad and I were interviewed on video for use in documentaries that will surely follow.

Tommy prepares his iPhone for the interview.

William sat in for me as Tommy framed the picture for the interview.

And we had more fun again on this trip starting with another visit to the Presque Isle Light Station, this time in the snow. That’s the newer of two Presque Isle lighthouses. Next we drove over the Old Presque Isle Lighthouse. The grounds were closed, but why should that stop us? We walked through the snow to the lighthouse and rang the huge bronze bell. Click here to watch our little adventure.

William (L) and Tommy (R) with Tommy’s girlfriend Jesse.

William and family stayed at an AirBnB in nearby Rogers City. On Friday night during their stay they invited Brad and me to dinner. The highlight was Qi’s signature dumplings, which I’m looking forward to enjoying again in China.

In Rogers City, (L to R): William, me, Brad, Tommy, Jesse and Qi.

Honorary Members of the Laycock Family

At dinner Brad & I presented a plaque to the Lindesays making them Honorary Members of the Laycock Family, and by extension Honorary Descendants of Dr. William Edgar Geil.

William, Brad and me. (Ignore the embarrassing typo if you spot it. It’s being fixed!)

And So… Now to China!

While examining Geil’s material in John’s basement I mentioned to William that I had basically given up the idea of ever traveling to the Great Wall. We talked and he encouraged and nudged — ending with a handshake agreeing that I would make the journey! Brad and I talked, and subsequently agreed he would stay back. I would go alone with David, my husband.

This is definitely not for lack of interest or desire on Brad’s part, but two long 16-hour flights and a packed 15-day itinerary will be pretty arduous. I regret he won’t be along, and even more so as the date approaches. But he’s 10 years my senior and frankly I’m having some anxiety of my own at 73! I could write a separate post here listing my various ailments. (Mmmm. Maybe I’ll do that!)

Finally after two days of work, fun and great conversation it came time for us all to part. The Lindesays left Michigan with their rental car packed to the gills with Geil treasures. Brad and I tied up loose ends, locked up the house, and returned to Cleveland.

Willam, Qi and Jesse returned to Beijing but Tommy, amazingly, was off to Africa where he had yet another project. On their previous trip in June, William and Qi hadn’t returned immediately to Beijing. They held back in New York City where William delivered a talk at The Explorers Club on July 1 st. You can watch his presentation at YouTube.

Follow Our Trip Each Day Along the Great Wall

I plan to blog throughout David’s and my 14 days in China, hopefully everyday (God and the Internet willing). You can find my posts each day right here. Save or bookmark this link and mark your calendar to visit me here each day from September 14 through 28.

Title Image shows photos of William Edgar Geil and a newspaper report found in the boxes at John’s house.

Bob Laycock