John, Mom, SaraKay and Tim on the Great Wall
"Our next stop was the Great Wall. To call it great is an understatement. Just a few interesting facts. The wall originally was commissioned by the emperor to help the people defend against the warring nations that would come across their border and pillage and murder. Eventually the emperor decided to join all the small sections together to make the border truly impenetrable. This huge undertaking took over 10 years and involved one out of every five Chinese citizens. Millions of people worked on the wall, year round, and many of them died seeing the wall to its completion. The day we were there it was bitter cold even though we were wearing layers of coats, sweaters, long johns, thick socks, gloves, hats and scarves. The wind was blowing and the only respite from the weather was in the corners of the watch towers that were built about every 100 yards on The Wall. Our guide told us that he was taking us to one of the more steep sections of the wall since our party was young and hardy and I knew immediately that I was in trouble. The day we climbed nearly a hundred steps to a pagoda in Beijing I really felt my age and I worried that this would be more of the same. It was.
We rode a cable car to the entrance to the wall and after going to one watch tower and back I knew that I needed to send the others on without me. The steps were so steep with no hand railings and it was like a roller coaster. I stayed in the watch tower and the others struck out with Tim at the lead. I think they were all determined not to be the one to say "Uncle" because it was nearly an hour and a half before they rejoined me in the tower after climbing to the distant fifth tower. Toward the end of my wait I thought they might return to find an ice pillar encasing their mother. It was just so cold!
As for me, I was the official greeter in the tower and saw visitors from all over the world come and go. The Wall is truly an incredible accomplishment. Some of it is in disrepair but much of it is still pristine and thinking of the labor and sacrifices that it took to build just astounded me. I can't imagine surviving the winter weather let alone hauling the huge stones that it took and the logistics of feeding and sheltering all those workers. I imagine that being conscripted to work on it was a sort of death sentence.
It was interesting to me that whenever I asked our guide about certain policies of the present or past governments or rulers, he made it clear that he was not to question or comment about it. Communism still controls the citizens and in small and large ways they have learned to live with it and not rock the boat.
On our way home from the Great Wall we toured an ancient village that surrounded a beautiful lake. The lake was frozen solid and crowded with people ice skating and sitting on small ice sleighs being pushed around by their companion. Since central heating is a rarity except in the modern buildings, we learned to dress warmly to survive. Everyone we saw did the same and all the little stores had clerks who were bundled up and selling out of open air shops."
