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Great Wall - Mutianu Section
Entry 9 of 11 | show all | print this entry |
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Sunday finds us at our final hotel near the city's center. If Shanghai is candy to the eyes, Beijing is Peking Duck for the soul. Here, extravagance meets quality in an environment of wise planning. Broad, tree-lined avenues afford space for the opulence and activities of the capitol city (which is still called Peking by many locals as is the airport). The nuevo architecture is more in harmony here where there is less crush and a mix of traditional and historical structures.
Unlike the squeeze and chaos of burgeoning Shanghai, this city makes sense while all we have seen feels comfortable. Grand embassies are scattered among a nice mix of local businesses and opulent shops. Sections of the city are devoted to specific governmental or commercial enterprises germane to each sector. Where is the Red Guard and all the communist restrictions? Gone. I asked Kane how the government views capitalism and what the relationship between it and Communism is. "The government just wants everyone to pay their taxes." Sound familiar? "They also look out for laborers' rights and welfare in the workplace," he said. So you really get the impression that this is a typical country that is doing very well and people are satisfied. Yesterday, CNN quoted the Chairman speaking openly about China's global intensions, military aspirations and the challenges the country has been facing in growing economically so quickly without adequate planning. We will visit a Tiananmen square where memories of a tank and rioting students are a relic of a bygone era. Personally, it feels somewhat of a letdown to not see the face of the Red China burned into my memories since the 1950's. You come this far to see that stark oddity of a Communist oppressive separatist regime, but it died with Dung Chow Ping. Our window overlooks a heartwarming sight, a Starbucks! Common also are KFC and McDonalds
That is Monte just leaving after enjoying an Italian Roast. A few steps ahead of him are car dealership showrooms for Maserati, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Rolls Royce.
Hotels everywhere seem awash in marble and incredible quality. They are very nice to stay in at quite affordable prices through promotions on Expedia.com. The beds are curious, however. Where Americans are used to a box spring and mattress on top, Chinese use a wooden box, with a box spring on top. Try out sleeping on your box spring and you will see what "all" beds here are like. No backache, but not much sleep either. We've had an actual mattress once, on Friday night and it was heavenly.
Here is a painting that hung in a Chinese restaurant hinting at what Mona Lisa might have looked like had she liked all the seafood and pork.
Today we headed 50 miles out of the city to see a particular section of the Great Wall of China, called Mutianyu. It was an especially important section with extral armaments to protect Peking. Thundershowers were around us but we only experienced light rain once.
The first emperor who brought together the seven warring factions that eventually made up a united Chinese Empire also began connecting ancient existing sections of the Great Wall. Emperor Qin Shihuang joined them together to fend off the invasions from the Huns in the north after the unification of China. The entire thing winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching 4,163 miles from east to west. Some of its sections are now in ruins or even entirely disappeared. This section was added in 500's AD and has been kept intact all along. We hiked along most of what you see in these photos, but in the distance in each direction its surface is overgrown with trees.
These photos don't really give a sense of what most of the Great Wall in this area is like. I shot video that does a much better job. Imagine tall, razor eged mountain ridges bouncing around the skyline. Then look very closely in the distance and the Wall goes along those up and down narrow-edged ridges, sometimes branching off in several directions. That is why the Wall is only 12 feet wide since the mountain's ridge is only that wide. This section restored for tourism is not in nearly as steep or jagged terrain as what is around it in the distance. Nearest to Beijing it was extra fortified with army posts every 100 yards. Downward looking port holes in the wall afforded archers excellent vantage points on both sides of this section, indicating that warfare from both sides was imminent. Even small cannon are in place along it reminding us who invented gunpowder. Sometimes the mountain ridge is very steep, and therefore so is the wall. In fact, very little of this section is without steps some of which are formidible to climb.
We climbed up and down for over two hours and were exhausted and soaking in sweat. We chose to take chair lifts to and from the Wall rather than also climb up the mountain to it. Afterwards our little tour bus took us back to Beijing. Along the way bees began swarming over the freeway for several miles. They were thickest at this toll booth where the friendly staff were working outside amongst them. Thankfully, they didn't seem to be bothering anyone. It is surprising that they don't appear in the photo as there were so many of them flying around.
There we toured a silk factory. Silk comes from a caterpillar that winds a single one-mile-long thread of silk around itself to form its cocoon. People pick the cocoons from mulberry trees, boil them to kill the insect, locate the end of the fine thread of the little silk ball. They then take eight of the threads together and wind them onto spools that will be woven into fabric. In this photo you can see the little white cocoon balls floating in water and spinning as they unwind up and onto spools overhead.
A silk factory also has a lot of silk goods for sale. Every kind of clothing article for men and women and every imaginable bedding accessory was both on display and on sale. As we drove back to our hotel we passed by a huge area being developed for part of the 2008 Olympics to be held here. One of the more famous landmarks will be Beijing's "Bird Nest" stadium which is already a quite a famous feat of architecture in the making. [PHOTO_ID_L=olympic-birdnest-stadium.jpg
Winding back through the city on a Sunday was enjoyable. Our tour guide told us that most Chinese don't have any religion, "Just like the Russians." Marxism eradicated that "opium of the people" and they are left with a sad lack of purpose for life, in my estimation. They certainly are an enjoyable people (when not at war) and we hope God will call many here in His timing.
We concluded the evening with our first meal of the day, dinner. The pasta and halibut were nice diversions from the normal fare. Monte is fast asleep and that is sounding good. I just hope our legs will let us walk tomorrow after all that steep climbing today. See you then.
Latest Comments (1)
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Great blog! (reply)
Sep 5, 2007 15:27 EST by rogersma
Thanks so much for sharing your travel blog with us. We really enjoy your excellent writing skills, that bring such a vibrant picture to mind when you describe things.
We hope your flight home is a good one.
The Nettles Family
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