China Day 3

Today was my dream day – to see the Great Wall – and we did it! We headed out in the morning to first stop at a jade factory (an obligatory, albeit interesting, stop). Some of the carvings by the master carvers were amazing – the time and precision and patience is intense. Did you know that jade comes in various colors and only the white jade comes from the area around Beijing? Did you know that the Olympic medals from the Beijing Olympics had jade encircling the gold, silver and bronze on the medals?

On from the jade factory we went to the Great Wall. We first spied it snaking through the mountains from the highway, although the section that we saw, the Badaling section, was on a bit further. The mountains were stunning – steep peaks that looked impermeable to enemies. I can’t imagine leading an offensive army through those hills, but apparently there were some very determined enemies two thousand years ago!

The Badaling section, as most of the Wall, is high at the top of these treacherous hills, so you must take a cable car to the top. Oh boy, what a ride, better than any ride at Busch Gardens! Up, up, up we went until the cable car safely delivered us to the top.

And there it was, right in front of us, one of the Seven Wonders of the World! I’m in awe. It is amazing. It is overwhelming. It is the Great Wall!

And there are the people, thousands of them, all climbing up this one very steep section. So steep, in fact, that you have to lean forward at a 45 degree angle to balance yourself. We were so, so fortunate to have the most beautiful weather this day. Apparently, Beijing gets lots of sun, but because of the pollution, it is mostly hazy (as you can probably see from our Forbidden City photos). However today it was clear and sunny and beautiful! Consequently you could see for miles, much farther than most times, to the surrounding mountains and other sections of the wall.

I told you I was having a cupcake on the Great Wall for my 40th!  See, dreams do come true.

Here’s a little history: The Great Wall is actually composed of three sections built during three different dynasties and runs over 3,100 miles. That’s like the distance between New York and California! It began about 2,000 years ago and was designed to be a barrier against invading armies to protect the city of Beijing. There are guard towers placed about every 800 meters and the guards would patrol their particular section of the Wall. They had a system of alerting others of an invasion – either by wood fire smoke, open flame or cannon (depending on the weather). They also had a system of telling how many troops were invading – 1 shot for 100, 2 shots for 500, 3 shots for 1,000 or 4 shots for 5000+ invaders. Ingenious!

After having my “cupcake” on the Wall (thanks Mom and Dad for joining us!) we went on for a quick lunch and then to the Summer Palace. This was the summer home for the Emperor and is a large park like setting mostly composed of a lake. Since we were running late in the plans for the day, we didn’t get to the Summer Palace until late afternoon, but what a time to get there! The lighting was amazing as the sun was setting over the mountains and illuminating the lake and all the boats on the lake.

I must confess that I missed the part of the tour that spoke about this place in more detail – there’s something about a Dragon Lady that I’ll have to read about later – Emmy had fallen asleep and I was trying to hold her/wake her up. Anyways, the scenery was so serene and beautiful that the irksome feeling of not knowing the story was supplanted by an inner peace.


 

A favorite street snack - boiled corn on the cob!

We made it to the boats just in time to get a boat ride across the lake to the south gate. What a way to end the day!