For all the spectacle, what moved Beck most was the generosity. Along the route, volunteer kitchens set up in village after village and hand out free food to anyone walking — noodles, rice, fruit, tea. He described it, grinning, as "like one massive buffet!"
He tried to give back. He brought cookies and drinks to share with the devotees around him — and they answered by pressing boxed lunches into his hands. The hospitality ran both directions. He also turned his camera on the volunteer teams who sweep the streets clean once the procession has passed, the quiet labor that makes the whole thing possible.
After five years on the road, Beck sums up what the pilgrimage gave him in one line: "Although my skin is white, my heart is that of a Taiwanese!"