Day 3: Another Brick in the....

Crappy picture of the very cool Bird' Nest Stadium taken through a bus window.

Even crappier picture of the even cooler Water Cube Arena

The Juyong Pass portion of the Great Wall of China





Sign declaring that all who walk on the wall become Chinese heroes.


One of the protectors on the Sacred Way.

Some are less threatening than others..




By the third day, I was feeling decidedly better, which is fortunate, because the day's group outing included a visit to one of the newly named seven world wonders (my 4th of the list). We were heading to The Wall, the famous one that gets all the press, the one you can allegedly see from outer space (only, you really can't)...the fricking Great Wall of China. To get there, we had to drive about 37 miles outside of Beijing, passing two of the landmark stadiums being built for this year's Olympics along the way. We saw them without the benefit of any lighting, landscaping or final flourishes that are sure to come and already, they are stand-outs. By the time the games come around, they are bound to demand attention like a pair of Hollywood starlets. Just simply gorgeous architecture.

A short while after passing the Olympic village, we arrived at a restored portion of the Wall, known as the Juyong Pass. It is not known exactly when this portion of the wall was originally built since defensive walls in China date back to the 5th Century BC. It was not until the Qin Dynasty conquered the various warring states and united China for the first time in 221 BC that it was decided to connect the smaller regional walls into one continuous east-west perimeter, extending a total length of approximately 4000 miles. Today, it is the "must-see" in China, a fact reflected by the number of vendors you find as you climb along the wall. However, it is hard to by cynical when you see such a monumental achievement of man and what it means to the Chinese people, even today. There was a delightful guy in our group, who was travelling with his mother. They were of Chinese descent, but he had grown up in the Philippines. On the final day, when we were discussing what part of the tour had appealed to us the most, he spoke of Mao Tse Tung's famous proclamation that in order to be truly Chinese, to be considered a Chinese hero, a person had to walk on the wall. That day had been way more than a day of sightseeing for him, it had really helped to define him.

It is hard to top a wonder of the world, so Michael did the only sensible thing and did not try to outdo what we had just seen. Instead, he varied from the pre-determined program and took to us to the Sacred Way, a meandering path, beset by statues of mythical animals and fearsome warriors, which as part of the Ming Tombs, was intended to lead the emperor back to heaven. The walkway, along with the atmosphere provided by soothing piped-in music, gave us a welcome respite from the crowds of the Great Wall and a good opportunity to enjoy an increasingly gorgeous day, as we reflected on the marvel we had just experienced, all of now Chinese heroes.

Comments

  1. Really good picture of you becoming a Chinese hero, and are those the designer sunglasses you bought earlier?

    ReplyDelete
  2. You mean my Luis Vitton shades? Um, yep..that's them, but outside of this blog, I'll deny it to the death.

    As always, thanks for the comments.

    ReplyDelete
  3. OK, color me an American but what about the pollution by the Olympic venues? What was it like? You read so much about this (and my read I mean hear on NPR) and yet I've no handle on what it is like? Horrible? Deal-able? Just like LA? Enquiring friends wanna know!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, it's bad! For the first couple of days, I thought we were just getting some bad weather and eventually it would clear up, but I finally had to accept that Mother Nature had nothing to do with all that grayness and it was not going to go away. I imagine the Olympic athletes with their highly attuned bodies are going to be dropping like flies. The streets will be littered with the prone carcasses of sprinters and pole vaulters. And someone will still be trying to sell them a "Rolex".

    ReplyDelete

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