Beijing 110

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Doug, Jim and I are flying from Beijing to Xi’an aboard Shanghai Airlines. It’s been a busy 3 days in Beijing…amazing how the time flies.

On Wednesday we visited the Summer Palace, a vast enclave that was built in the late 1700’s during the Ming Empire for the pleasure of the emperor. It covers about 3 sq km, and includes a large lake, an opera house, Buddhist temple, multiple residences, meeting halls, and courtyards, and the first large residential gardens in China. (Makes Bill Gates’ place seem ho-hum.) Lovely traditional Chinese Imperial architecture. The photos do not do it justice. Hard to imagine the number of laborers and artists that would be required just to paint the ceiling tiles in the 50 or so buildings. Most fascinating to me were the beautiful fired clay tiles and decorative peaks which serve as roofs on these buildings. Each roof corner is adorned with a certain number of “roof animals” (# depending on the status of the occupant) which protect the inhabitants from illness or evil. I took so many pictures of these various gargoyles that Jim promised to get a few for our house. (in hopes I would stop with the photos, I think!)

The Great Wall

Thursday we took a 4-hour stroll on the Great Wall from Jinsahnling to Samitai. This area is about 100 km NE of Beijing. We hiked 10 km and gained about 700 meters in elevation. A bit of background: this portion of the wall was built during the Qing Dynasty along the border of Inner Mongolia (now a part of China) and China, to keep out the invading Mongols. According to the guides, it followed the border quite accurately, and thus goes up and down the various ridges, rather than through the passes. (My quads and gastroc muscles can certainly attest to this!) The “wall” is really an 8-foot wide stone road enclosed on both sides by 2-foot thick walls varying from waist- to shoulder- high. Made of large formed bricks, it includes towers and/or larger castle-like buildings at each peak. It was first built in the 1600’s and was repaired several times. One can easily make out the different color of stones representing different eras, and see multiple layers of construction in the road.

The portion of the wall we traveled has not been restored in modern times, thus was quite treacherous in many of the steep portions. Many steps are missing or crumbling…scarier on the way down than up. In order to gain and lose altitude quickly, the builders formed steps about 18” high and not quite 4” deep. The steepest and longest single climb between peaks counted 106 such steps. (I definitely do not need to do any lunges for a few days…nor would I be capable!)

The local guides also pointed out the various holes built into the wall. The older defensive holes are decorated, while newer ones are plain. These appear on both sides of the wall. Every 20 meters or so was a large round hole down low where the wall met the road. The holes were used to dump the chamber pots….and are all located on the Mongol side of the wall.

The mountains were enveloped in clouds and mist for our climb, which lent a wonderful mystical feel to our journey. Sometimes we could barely make out the next tower, and at other times several peaks and towers emerged through the mist as we walked. Very ethereal and magical….though it made for marginal photos. The mist turned to rain as we reached our terminus. Perfect timing for a catered Chinese lunch with the 40 or so English-speakers in our tour group. We met many Europeans and Canadians, but I think we were the only Americans in this group. It was nice to chat for an hour and not have to struggle with understanding and making ourselves understood.

Oopps, landing now. More later

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Comments

[Mary]

Climb is the important word
Pat and Jim, Again your commentary brings bake such vivid memories. I never realized the Great Wall ran along to the tops of the ridges and you literally climbed the wall until I actually saw it. You go to see a much more authenic area than I. Can't wait to see you pictures of Xian. Love Mary

[Alice]

Thanks a lot!
Pat, I appreciate your hard work, both in seeing and traversing the points of interest AND in writing it up for us to read! Great photos! I'm looking forward to the next one. Keep it up! - Alice