No Pain, No Gain, On the Great Wall of China

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On the bus the day before, Arnold told us that we would be getting an early start for our trip to the Great Wall. When someone asked “How early?” Arnold told us that he’d let us know later. When we got back to the hotel he told us that breakfast was at 6am, and that we would be leaving at 7am sharp. There were groans of course; but, Sharon and I have been getting up by 4am almost every day this trip so far so no problem for us. Everyone was on the bus by 7am, and we were on our way. It was actually a bit chilly, and those dressed in just shorts and thin tops were cold. We were glad we wore our jeans and we both got our light jackets out of the backpack.

Arnold told us some of the history about the Great Wall on the bus, about how it was built to keep out the invaders from the north: the dreaded Mongolians. This man made structure is an incredible engineering feat build at a huge human cost. Arnold told the story of a young Chinese couple who had gotten married. The son’s father was the patriarch of the family, and when two people marry in Old China, the wife goes to live with the husband in his family. As part of the ritual, the son calls his new in-laws “Father” and “Mother”, and his new bride does the same to his parents; and, she goes to live in the household of her in-laws with her new husband. After the wedding for this couple, many eons ago, soldiers came to the house in the evening, demanding one male present himself in the morning for service to the emperor to build the Great Wall. In the morning, the new husband presented himself, leaving his bride and family behind, knowing full well that this was in all likelihood a death sentence. As this legend goes, after some time the new bride had a dream that her husband was very cold; and, in the morning she departed taking with her a warm winter coat for her husband. Back then of course, there were no photographs she could show people at the Great Wall, to find out if any had seen her husband; but, she did have piece of jewelry that was the matching half of a piece her husband carried. Still, no one recognized this either. In despair she wept, and the gods were so moved a part of the Great Wall was caused to crumble, revealing the bodies of so many workers who had toiled to give their lives to the emperor, including the body of her husband. She at least had closure, and the emperor was so horrified by the cost of building the Great Wall that he ceased to forced conscription of workers to build it. But as Arnold noted, “No pain, no gain.” Today there is this incredible tourist attraction so many people want to come to China and see, keeping people like him employed. Arnold grinned and smiled wryly as he’s done more than once on our tour of China.

The Great Wall was successful for quite some time at repelling the northern neighbors. The wall is built about ten miles from the border with the Mongolians. On the northern side of the wall, the wall is built above the stone walkway higher than a man is tall. Along that side of the wall are slots for an archer to fire upon the enemy, making it nearly impossible for an invader to breach the wall. Evenly spaced along the wall are tower battlements that allow archers to shoot directly along the wall itself, attacking any invaders that should actually make it to the wall. These are place to allow an archer to easily reach with a shot anywhere along the wall. Other ways of repelling attacks would be to cut ropes of grappling hooks that anyone might sling onto the wall, once an attacker is high enough to be severely injured or killed by the fall, or by pouring boiling water on attackers below, or using oil and lighting it on fire. War is a brutal thing. It wasn’t until Kublai Kahn that the Mongolians breached the wall; but, they didn’t do it by force, they did it by bribery. Kublai Kahn bribed the general responsible for the defense of one section of the wall to allow his army to enter China unopposed, promising the general wealth and the title of king in a small province. Kublai kept his word to the general, making him the king of a province in southern China. King is just one step below emperor, to this gives him quite a bit of power to wield. But Kublai kept a very close eye on him from then on; because, no one likes or trusts a traitor.

Just out of college, Arnold went to work for the Chinese Tourist Bureau back in the 1990’s. One of his first assignments was to serve as the escort for some Scotsmen who came to the Great Wall to earn money for a charity for each mile of the wall that they were able to walk. Arnold said that they didn’t get to stay in any of the fancy hotels in Beijing, because that wasn’t what their visa said that they were there for. And you can forget about any “Happy Rooms”. Even today, there are less than once dozen places foreigners may visit without an escort. But slowly, China is changing and becoming more open. At that time the Great Wall had not been restored. Today, there are a few places where the wall has been restored for tourists; but, mostly the wall remains in places in a state of disrepair. This was the condition of the Great Wall for the Scotsmen escorted by Arnold. Arnold was surprised at the strength and rugged determination of his charges. At one very steep section, Arnold waved them on telling them he’d catch up. They reached the top and needed his help with something and called down in their distinctive Scottish brogue, “Ah-nald”. Arnold said the looked up and saw a sight he hopes never to see again. The man above was the Scottish expedition leader, in his kilt, and nothing underneath.

When the Mongolians took over, they implemented a tiered society. At the top were the Mongolians, then the Manchurians, then the colored-eyed people, and then the Han or Chinese. This latter group was little more than slaves. The Mongolians and Manchurians, at one time mortal enemies, kept things peaceful by marriages between the two to cement decent relations.

We arrived at the Great Wall and one of our first things was to get a group picture of all of us on the Great wall. I was standing on a step behind Sharon, and Arnold was standing on the side next to Sharon. For 100 Yuan we purchased the book with many pictures of the Great Wall in it, and with our group picture at the front. On our last full day in China, Arnold signed the book for us. Most people bought the book, but not all. We were then given about 2 hours to explore the Great Wall and take pictures. Looking towards Mongolia, if you go to the right, you find the easiest path. It gets progressively steeper until you get to the fourth tower, which Arnold recommended as the turnaround point for most people. There are another three towers but to do these in the two hour time frame is pushing it. And there are no “Happy Rooms” atop the Great Wall (of any kind). This is the direction Sharon and I started out. If you go to the left there is one extremely steep section, and Arnold indicated that it required climbing down on your hands and feet and holding on for dear life. It was an easy and short walk to the first tower, which was quite close to our starting point on the wall. People were streaming through the narrow archways of the first tower. Sharon and I made the mistake of trying to get a picture out of one of the windows in the tower, and it was hard to find a break in the stream of people to get back in line to get through that tower. There was a nice view of the Great Wall from here, seeing it meander over the ridgeline. It was still flat cobbled walking, but getting steeper as we approached the second tower. This one had more room and there was an open courtyard for this tower so the people congestion wasn’t as bad as at the first tower. On the other side of that tower Sharon found a place to sit, and decided she didn’t want to risk injuring her knee by continuing. It was getting steeper, and soon there would be steps. I decided to go on to the fourth tower.

As Sharon waited below several people asked to have their picture taken with her. Unfortunately I had the camera so she wasn’t able to get pictures of them. It’s a big thrill for the Chinese to have their picture taken with westerners. Even I got requested to be in a picture on the Great Wall with a young man and his son. There were many Chinese families on the Great Wall for a weekend outing, and quite a few elderly people in their eighties as well!

The final steps approaching the fourth tower were quite steep, and the normally wide walkway atop the wall became much narrower. But I made it. It was very windy on top, and I decided I’d better take my hat off and put it inside my coat. I saw one man’s hat blow off his head, but it blew into the crowd behind him so he did get it back. The view was quite breathtaking from this tower; but, the narrow walkway and steady throng of people makes the going slow. On the way down I relied on the handrail through the steepest sections, and during this top part where it got wider, there was also a hand rail in the middle. People were hanging on to just about anything to get through these parts. Unfortunately for me, the handrails aren’t made to be used by someone who is six feet tall, and I found myself leaning backwards to use the rail when coming down. I took it slow and didn’t have any problems. I made it to the fourth tower in about forty-five minutes, and decided it was time to head back to give us enough time in the store to buy some souvenirs. I had my eye on a baseball hat and Sharon was thinking of getting some jade earrings. I spotted Sharon from near the third tower and she spotted me. I took her picture. She had started getting worried and started asking people form our group if they’d seen me. We still had over an hour before it would be time to get on the bus. We made it back to the store and “Happy Room” place. And I got my “Great Wall” baseball cap for about $5 and Sharon got a very nice pair of gold and jade earrings, each with a dangling rectangular piece of light green translucent jade. Arnold had said that all prices are negotiable, and dickering is expected, and you should be able to get the prices reduced by 10% to 20%. It was still more than Sharon had wanted to spend; but, we got the 20% discount.

On the way to lunch, Arnold told us an interesting story of the “Uncle Emperor”. When the emperor died, leaving his young son in line for becoming emperor, his uncle became his guardian and served as the interim emperor until the boy was old enough to assume power. Of course, when that day came, the uncle didn’t feel that there was any compelling reason or urgency to give up his power. After all, he was running the empire, he had taken his brother’s wife as his own, and he was in fact the patriarch of the family: Why should he give up all of this to a mere “boy”? Tensions began to rise between the two and when the “boy” was 26, already eight years past when he should have become emperor, they came to a head. The young heir apparent was plotting to depose his uncle, but his uncle was one step ahead of him. There was a terrible fire, and it appeared that his young nephew had perished in the fire. But soon rumors began to circulate that someone had seen a monk emerge from the fire, and the uncle feared that it might be his nephew who had shaved his head in an effort to slip through his deadly grasp. The uncle spared no expense to hunt down his nephew, sending out the Chinese fleet seven times, starting in 1421 AD. The fleet charted the world, even reaching the Americas, but the nephew was never found. On the seventh voyage of the fleet, the admiral leading this expedition died, and the emperor decided to stop all exploration. The fleet was destroyed. The shipyards in Nanking were destroyed. And the emperor closed China. Convinced that his nephew was not in China, he wanted to make sure that he never returned.

After the wall we went to a jade store and manufacturing facility where various jade pieces were being manufacture. One popular item was a round object with many large holes in the surface, symmetrically placed about the sphere. Inside is a smaller sphere that is free spinning from the outer sphere. Depending on the overall size of the object, there are three of more total spheres, all free rotating. These are expertly carved from a single block of jade. These pieces signify happiness for the family whose members are all interconnected and held together by the outside sphere or patriarch (matriarch). Arnold had said that if you wanted jewelry, then the gift shop near the Great Wall was the place to shop, but other objects or figurines were probably best found here. This also is where we had lunch. We noticed that several in our group had bought the inexpensive souvenir hats. A couple bought the army style hat with a red star and one guy bought a hat with Chinese writing on the front, and broke out laughing when he read the label “Made in U.S.A”.

Lunch was another Chinese round-table Lazy-Susan affair, and one is pretty much identical to another. But this one had bottles of Coca-Cola on the Lazy-Susan as well, and a container with ice. I prefer my beverages ice cold when I consume them, something I haven’t enjoyed on this trip yet. I know that I probably should have heeded Arnold’s advice to avoid ice, except at the 5-star hotels or ships where they have water purification systems, but that ice looked awfully good. Some others were using the ice as well, and I guess I figured they wouldn’t put it on the table if it would harm us. There were some in our tour, including in Arnold’s group that had “digestive issues” following the dumpling dinner. Problems seem to last about a day to a day and one-half. I started to feel “different” shortly after lunch with a stomach that was very upset with me.

After lunch we did the Sacred Walk by the Tombs, a walk down a beautifully landscaped lane lined by many statues. At first there were statues of officials of the emperor’s court, but then there were various real or mythological animals. There were horses and lions and sphinx’s all in fours (a pair of two standing animals followed by a pair of resting animals). The purpose of these creatures are to guard the tombs. One pair is to guard the tombs by day, while the other pair rests; and, by night they switch places and the other pair goes “on duty”. Near the end of walk, there was a public happy house, and at least the handicapped stall was western style. This was the first “Happy House” I’d visited that was BYOTP (Bring your own toilet paper). Fortunately, I had some as my stomach was really not happy with me.



Tonight was our optional Peking Duck Dinner that we had signed up for, and Sharon was thinking that I might want to skip this; but, I assured her I’d be fine. The ducks don’t yield a lot of meat, so three birds are needed to serve a table of ten. The birds were expertly carved near our table. We took pictures, but with my cell phone, so we won’t be able to post them right now. The hostess demonstrated how to take the pancake wrap, put on a piece of crispy skin, then some duck meat. She suggested to first try it with a couple thin slices of cucumber, scallions and the plum sauce. And you roll and wrap the whole thing up. Arnold may be right, the Chinese invented the burrito! In addition to the plum sauce, there was a lighter colored sweet and hot sauce that I preferred. Sharon enjoyed the crispy skin and duck meat, but she didn’t tarnish that with any other condiments. I didn’t eat a lot at the dinner, but I enjoyed what I did eat. I thought it probably best for my stomach not to try the duck soup, which is made from whatever is left after carving the duck (the bones and carcass). People who did try it said it tasted like a rich chicken noodle soup.

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Comments

[James Booth]

Great Blog
We have been following your blog with interest. You have done an excellent job. We are going to take the Viking China Trip from Beijing to Shanghai June 15th. We saw that you are from Ohio, also. We live in Beavercreek. Hope you have a safe trip home and thanks for sharing your experiences with us.