The Great Wall

   Today I got to see and walk one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall of China. The portion of the Wall we visited is called the Badaling section, somewhere north of Beijing. I read that the Wall began as separate portions built by warring states around 7th century B.C., which were linked in 214 B.C., then repaired and extended during the Ming Dynasty between 1368-1644. No matter when you  start counting, this is very old man made stuff, built without machines in pretty challenging terrain.
   On the highway out of Beijing towards the mountains to its north, I spotted the Wall a few miles away. There is something erie about noticing on the mountain a hairline of a structure that you know mother natures didn’t put there. As we got closer, I realized that the thing crawls up the mountain sides at a very perilous pitch, and seems to cling to the top of each ridge. If you’re gonna build a wall, this is way to do it using the most material possible and in the roughest terrain around. We finally arrived, got out, got our tickets and begain our trek.
   The Great Wall is a long fortress, sort of the opposite of a moat. It is nearly 28 feet high and over 18 feet wide at the top, both on average. Every 500 yards or so, a watchtower straddles the Wall, where smoke fires could be lit one after the other to form a chain of warning all along the Wall. There are no steps to reach the top of the fortress, so I imagine warriors used ladders. Only the north side of the Wall has a brick fence, like a parapet, with narrow slits to see and shoot arrows through. This was the side intended to keep out the Huns and Mongols. The Wall is built right on the ridge of each mountain it traverses. I guess if you’re a Hun, first you have to scale the ridge, then at the top you find 27 feet of sheer brick and stone, atop of which is a parapet with arrows flying out at you. Might as well stay at home!
   Judging by all the tourist traffic on the Wall, and most of them native Chinese, I gather that the Wall is something of a pilgrimmage to make. I was amazed at the number of elderly folks climbing it. Climbing it? Yes, in the region where I met it, the Wall climbs the ridges up and down from one mountain peak to the next, however steep natures ascents and descents were to begin with. The walking surface is mostly flat stones, and only in the steepest parts do they give way to actual steps, some of them huge by American building codes. So the surfaces is constantly undulating, and is often steep. Yet the part I climbed is not the steepest; I was told there are steeper parts, where tourists have been killed trying to climb back down. Don’t worry, Mom, I didn’t go there(but I wanted to because I like climbing).
   I have trouble estimating distance and height, but we climbed out for about an hour, which might mean we walked about 3-4 miles to reach one terminus. The Wall doesn’t really end, but that particular watchtower had its passages plugged so you could not walk through it. At that point there is a sign saying that we are at 2886 feet, though I don’t know if that is altitude, or what we climbed from the parking lot. It sure seemed very high. On the other side of that watchtower, the Wall keeps going. And going. At one point, the Wall actually stops because nature provided a sheer cliff. At the bottom of this cliff the Wall starts again and keeps going. And going. I took what will probably turn out to be boring video trying to show you just how the Wall keeps going and going, till it cannot be made out with the naked or aided eye, even on full zoom. I read that the Wall is over 4000 miles. What a feat of human accomplishment.

Ming Tombs

   I learned that several of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were buried at the foot of the mountains north of Beijing. There are a total of 13 Ming Tombs. The one I visited was called Dingling, the tombs of Emperor Wanli, who was on the throne from 1573-1619. The tomb was discovered in 1956 when they found a tablet describing where the tomb is located deep under the surface. There are several chambers, in one of which were found his coffin and those of his two empresses. In others were found gold, jade and precious stones. The chambers together are over 280 feet long, and the total floor space is some 12,600 sq feet. The chambers are also tall, and are made of stone slabs with no support beams or pillars. I was impressed by the amount of excavating that must have been done to prepare these chambers underground, again, with no modern machines. There are amazing marble doors that guard one end of the chambers; they are huge. I took mostly video of the Tomb, and pictures of the pretty structures out on the surface.

   Well, that’s my report for today. I wish I could post pictures from China, but as I mentioned below, I did not bring the right cable. I also took some pictures of Beijing as we drove back into downtown. There is lots of construction going on. We passed one site with six(!) high flying cranes erecting something. A few miles later, there were more cranes finishing a building. Then we passed Olympic headquarters, finished and presumably full of people organizing the remaining year to come. This place is going to be crazy with tourists and athletes at that time.