The World's Largest Steel Strcuture... Doesn't Look That Big


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Asia
May 5th 2010
Published: May 14th 2010
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This morning, we visited the world's largest steel structure, The 2008 Olympic Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest Stadium because of the decorative outer beams that were supposed to cover the retractable roof that was too expensive to finish. Oddly enough, the stadium doesn't look all that big, from the outside or the inside, and most of us speculated that our stadiums at home felt the same size; none of us ever did figure out what specific element of the structure makes it the world's biggest.
Currently, the stadium is housing the Beijing Youth Soccer Tournament, and is also used for large concerts, but still has signs and memorabilia from the 2008 games. It was fun to walk around the stadium, to sit in the seats, knowing that people had sat there since, but only two years ago people had sat there and watched arguably the most anticipated sporting event in the world. We took a lot of pictures, bought some souvenirs, and watched the apparently ever-running Olympic homage video playing on the massive screens around the stadium. As well, there was a man on a high-wire walking across the mouth of the stadium, whom we saw make the entire open-air walk without a net. We aren't really sure why he was there, but it was still very impressive.
After our tour around the Olympic stadium, we drove to a pizza buffet. The intention here was to show us what the Chinese interpretation of Western-style fast food is, and if that's really the case, perhaps we should have been a little offended. Now, looking back, it's strange to both myself and most of my peers that KFC and Pizza Hut are fine-dining establishments here, where a person can order steak and is given silverware and a fresh, white table to sit at; this pizza buffet, though, this was not fine dining. The pizza was a lot like what you might expect from microwaveable pizza products, no freezer-to-oven DiGiorno rising crusts or Freschetta crispy bases here, and gave the distinct impression that the Chinese either don't care for pizza enough to try and make it well, or they honestly think this is what American pizza chains put out, either way, it's less than flattering. If the Chinese don't like pizza, that's all well and good, but then why insist on having pizza buffets? If they really think this is what American pizza places serve, what horrible conclusions must they have drawn about the rest of our national and local cuisines, knowing that this is practically a staple of the American diet? We ate our meal, thankful for the beer on tap and wonderful fruit table, and quietly went on our way...
On our way to the world's longest running civil works project; The Great Wall of China.
Somehow, I never thought I would say that, that I walked on the Great Wall. I have now, though, and I don't think that's a novelty that I'll soon tire of. I walked on the Great Wall of China, I have a piece of the Wall, and dried, pressed cherry blossoms from the surrounding trees in the valley. Just knowing that this wall is so old that it went into a period of halted construction and repair in the 1700s, because the Chinese borders had expanded past it by the Qing Dynasty, speaks to the ancient nature and incredible strength of it. As a kid, I always hoped that one day I would visit the pyramids, walk through Roman ruins, touch the Parthenon and run through the underbelly of the Colosseum, and that maybe, just maybe, I'd get to dig up a dinosaur bone, an egg, a talon or claw. China wasn't like Rome or dinosaurs, it was the Orient, the East, it was too far for even the reaches my young imagination that wondered if I might one day sit in a submarine next to a giant squid three miles under the sea. I think I never dreamed of China because, even as an toddler, I was still American, and I was made to understand that China was sort of "off limits," I was under the impression that there were laws that kept them in and me out, and that the ancient, fallen behemoths Rome, Sparta, Egypt, and Greece were somehow more accessible.
I'm glad now that I didn't keep believing that it was never going to happen, and that I chose this trip. It's easily been one of the most astounding things I've ever experienced, and if I could ever come back, I wouldn't hesitate in the slightest. I walked on rocks today that were cut and pieced together before the existence of my home country was even noted on cave walls, in a valley supported by a dynasty which had roots in centuries of power struggles and swaps before the Mayans had even become a civilization.
All that having been said, perhaps one of the things that stunned me the most about the Wall was watching a few men in work suits start hammering spikes into a few bricks and handing the pieces to passers-by; we asked Chef Cheng what they were doing, she asked them, and their response was basically that they were performing a maintenance task. Now, I know that there's a good chance there will be maintenance performed on an ancient wall more than once every few thousand tourists passing over, but these men had just been walking by, stopped suddenly, and jammed a spike into a random brick by all accounts. I understand that repairs are necessary, but I guess in my mind, there shouldn't necessarily be more ceremony about it, per se, but at least a little more discretion? Seeing that happen, I suppose I should think that they've probably been doing this for some time, and that they can tell which brick should be replaced, but the suddenness of it all struck me, I think, in much the same way seeing someone fire a shotgun into a wall at the Colosseum might. It was rough, startling, and hard to watch. I'm glad people were so thrilled to get a piece of the wall, and I certainly can't hold it against anyone for taking a piece, but it still shook me to see it all take place. I found my piece of the wall in a small space created by the construction of one of the towers, I have no idea how it got there, but count myself lucky to have it. It's no better than any piece someone got by passing the "maintenance workers," but it jars me a little less to have not seen it ripped out of the main structure, first hand.
The Wall was a marvelous place to visit, and even the rain didn't keep up from enjoying our walk back down the rather treacherous stairs. It's one of those places you visit, and you hope you get to go back even one more time during your life, not to say you went more than once, just to know you got a little more time.

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