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- <a href="china.html"><IMG ALIGN=RIGHT BORDER=0 WIDTH=213 HEIGHT=102
- SRC="gw10pt.gif" ALT="Great Wall"></a><font class="times"><H1>The Great Wall</H1></font>
- <HR>
- <BR><BR><BR><BR>
- <font class="verdana" size=-1>
- <P>Ever since she was a girl, Beth had dreamed of being able to touch
- the Great Wall. It is a symbol of China's greatness and of the ability
- of man to achieve. It functioned for hundreds of years to spare the
- villages the random raids of tribes from the north, lending a stability
- to life and continuity to the culture and government. It marked the
- boundary; China -- not China and its defense and maintenance for the
- common good united the feudal states as well as costing them wealth and
- untold lives. It is a wonderful dream Beth had -- to touch history.</P>
- <A HREF="gwgd1s.jpg"><IMG ALIGN=RIGHT BORDER=0 WIDTH =200 HEIGHT = 457
- VSPACE = 10 HSPACE = 20 SRC = "gwgd1s.gif" ALT="Great Wall"> </A><P>The Great Wall is difficult to comprehend -- to photograph, impossible.
- At one time it stretched 12,700 li ( a li is a third of a mile) across the border
- between China and the Hun territories in the north. I've read that if
- you dismantle it and rebuild it, it could go around the entire world;
- probably if you stretched it by molecule it could reach Andromeda.
- Different guide books give different dimensions, poetically the Chinese
- call it the Wall of 10,000 li. The point is, it's big. It isn't one
- place but many. It's size is better seen on a map or from an aerial
- photograph. Its beauty is caught in glimpses through the mountains and
- clouds, its human cost is experienced through climbing it step by step.</P>
- <P>It started as earth works thrown up for protection by different
- States. The individual sections weren't connected until the Qin dynasty
- (221-206 B.C.). Qin Shihuangdi, First Emperor of Qin, began conscripting peasants,
- enemies, and anyone
- else who wasn't tied to the land to go to work on the wall. The
- tradition lasted for centuries. Each dynasty added to the height,
- breadth, length, and elaborated the design mostly through forced labor.
- </P>
- <P>There is a traditional story about Meng Jiangnü . Shortly after she and her
- husband were married he was
- conscripted to work on the wall. Meng Jiangnü worried that he would suffer
- from
- the cold in the north and began to make a padded cotton jacket. After
- it was sewn she began the long walk from her home in the south to the
- site of the Great Wall. When she got there and finally found the other
- men from her village, she was told that her husband had died. She went
- to the wall and began keening and mourning with such pathos that 20 li
- of the wall collapsed and in the pit at the center, she found the body
- of her husband. Meng Jinagnü threw herself into the sea to join her
- husband. Her suicide personalizes the losses due to the Great
- Wall.</P>
- <P>It was during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) that the Wall took on its
- present form. The brick and granite work was enlarged and sophisticated
- designs were added. The watch towers were redesigned and modern cannon
- were mounted in strategic areas. The Portuguese had found a ready
- market for guns and cannon in China, one of the few items of trade that
- China didn't already have in abundance. The Ming Emperors, having
- overthrown the Hun dominance and expelled their Mongol rulers of the
- North devoted large portions of available material and manpower to
- making sure that they didn't return.</P>
- <P>Since the
- 1600s, parts of the Wall in some areas have been either dismantled to provide
- building
- materials in the area or have been buried by silt. We visited a restored
- section of the Wall at Badaling. When you stand on the Wall
- and look to the north you see the beginning of the great desert
- flatlands of the Hun. The view to the South is like a Chinese painting
- of layers of rolling hills covered by short brush and trees. The
- terrain is rough on both sides, and even today it is only accessible by
- a narrow road.
- </P>
- <P>Throughout the centuries, armies were garrisoned along the length of
- the Wall to provide early warning of invasion and a first line of
- defense. Great piles of straw and dung used to build signal fires have
- been found during excavations. There must have been small garrison
- towns spotted along the length. There weren't many farms or trade towns
- to provide ease, relaxation and food. The supply trails were over
- mountains along narrow paths. To bring supplies to the top, ropes were
- slung over posts set in the Chinese side of the wall and baskets were
- hauled up hand over hand. Supplies must have always been short and
- chancy, particularly in the winter. </P>
- <P>The Wall served well. Only when a dynasty had weakened from within
- were invaders from the north able to advance and conquer. Both the
- Mongols (Yuan Dynasty, 1271-1368) and the Manchurians (Qing Dynasty,1644-1911)
- were able take power, not because of weakness in the Wall but because of
- weakness in the government and the poverty of the people. They took
- advantage of rebellion from within and stepped into the void of power
- without extended wars.</P>
- <P>The Wall extends from peak to peak. The height of the
- mountains is used to command a greater view and for its advantage in
- defense. Always take the high ground, particularly if you are going to
- use bows and arrows and javelins. It's steep. Most of us settled for
- climbing part of the restored section and returning, but Fred was easily
- able to circuit between the two major gates and return by road. </P>
- <A HREF="gwbeths.jpg"> <IMG ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0 WIDTH =200 HEIGHT =177
- VSPACE = 10 HSPACE = 20 SRC = "gwbeth3s.gif" ALT="Group sitting on Great Wall"></A>
- <P>There is a holiday atmosphere on the Wall. Beth met an English teacher who had brought some of his students for a day of climbing.
- They had a good long talk while people climbed around them. We saw
- young women wearing high heels (and doing well) who were probably on
- dates. Some families took advantage of the availability of video
- recorders to document their climb. Young men and women stood at the
- entry to the base of the wall and for a fee would climb with you, taking
- your picture and pictures of the surrounding countryside. </P>
- <P>Souvenir shops are abundant and provide a cross-section of the
- handcrafts available in the north. Quilts, porcelain, enamels, hats, and
- bright toys added color and movement to the atmosphere. While we were
- waiting for the others, Fred had a seal carved with his name in Chinese
- characters. We watched several painters at work and of course bought
- T-shirts proclaiming that we had "Climbed the Great Wall."</P>
- <HR>
- <H1><font face="times new roman">The Ming Tombs</font></H1>
- <HR>
- <P>We skipped lunch to spend more time at the Wall, but moved on for a
- short visit to the Ming Tombs in the afternoon. All but one of the Ming
- emperors are buried here. One emperor is buried outside Nanjing.
- Most of the outside statuary and
- buildings surrounding the tomb in Nanjing have been destroyed during the wars and
- revolutions
- in this century. The thirteen Ming tombs outside Beijing have been better
- preserved, benefitting from their remote location. Only the Ding tomb of
- Emperor Wan Li (Zhu Yijun) and his two wives is open to the public.
- <P>The tomb was built below ground in a great vaulted brickwork cavern. The
- story is that
- the workmen repeatedly set fire to the timber tomb which had been originally
- planned to
- put off the day of completion once the rumor spread that they would be interred in
- the tomb when they finished. A good plan, but then the designs where changed to
- use stone. The vault must be at least thirty feet high and supports a rather
- large hill on its roof.
- You enter from the top and it there seemed to be about five or six full
- flights of stairs to the bottom. (Fortunately, there are only two
- flights up to the exit -- the archaeologists provided a pleasant surprise for
- tourists and went through the side of the hill.) This photograph is of
- the Ming Archives in Beijing (to the east of the Imperial City) but the
- vaults bear a striking resemblance to the design used in the tomb we
- saw.</P>
- <P>While the tombs are impressive, the real attraction is outside.
- There are wonderful gardens of recent vintage and a feeling of being
- inside the hills of China. There are pagodas on the top of distant
- hills remind you that you are in China. They are placed for prayer,
- contemplation, and remove from the life of the ordinary.</P>
- <P>When a Ming emperor died, it was the death of a Son of Heaven. To
- provide a proper setting for the entombment, a concourse was built to be
- used only for the funeral processions leading to the hills in which the
- tombs were built. Great stone beasts and figures of ministers and
- warriors lined the path on either side. Their brooding presence gave
- stiff attention to the event. The gate at the end marked the passage
- to another life and the assumption of the Mandate to Rule by the new
- emperor. The Sacred Way is about 4 miles, measured from the gate to
- the entrance of the central tomb. The concourse or promenade built for
- the funeral processions was closed for renovations, the pictures I have
- included are from an earlier trip. </P>
- <P>It was about 20° F and windy when I first walked the
- concourse. This gentleman gave my friend and me a ride for the return
- trip down the length of the concourse. I got the
- side car. I smile whenever I see this picture, it's a nice memory.</P> </blockquote>
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