THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA R.N.Bishnu In our childhood, we read about Great Wall of China in our history book and a small black picture, might be hand drawn, was printed by the side of the description. At that time China was an Iron curtained country and today I feel, even the history book writer did not have a clear idea about the great Wall. I had no interest for this Great thing! I knew only that there is a Great Wall in China. Finally, I had forgotten that history with the days as those were not my cup of tea and I was sure that I have never to face this giant one-day! It was an accident that I landed to China’s capital Beijing in August 1993 in connection with my office work. I did not know where was this Great Wall and how far it was from Beijing. I also did not know whether we would be shown it, as I had no interest till then! Our 7-member team was invited by one of the Chinese Minister for this 15 days visit. So, we were taken care of well and on a Sunday we were planned to take to Great Wall about 80 Kilometer from Beijing. Naturally, I was unprepared for this visit. During this visit I was only interested to take photographs standing on the Wall and collected few souvenir and literature on it. Subsequently, when I was traveling to China several time, I started to study history of monuments wherever I was visiting. What little knowledge I could gather, with that my first effort to write about THE GREAT WALL is here. Let me start with explaining what is the Great Wall? I think, let us start like: To the northwest and north of Beijing, a serrated wall made of stone, brick, staffed mud etc zigzags its way to the east and west along the undulating mountains. This is not an ordinary wall as we see everywhere, it is quite wide, 5 Meter (16.5 ft) and height 7.8 meter (25.6 ft). Five horse riders or ten solders can walk side by side. Every after certain distance, there are watchtowers which were used to house women and troupes. Armed solders will keep watch on enemy from the top of the wall and send smoke signals to Barracks and Administrative Centre at distance at larger interval. In those days, enemy could invade only traveling over the surface using small arms like swords, spears, bow & arrows etc. and if their movement could be resisted, state was safe! This is the great wall, which is said to be visible from the moon! Let us discuss on history now: Construction of Great Wall started in the 7th century BC. The vassal states under the Zhou Dynasty (11th century-221 BC) in the northern parts of the country each built their own walls for defense purposes. After the state of Qin (221-207 BC) unified China in 221 BC, it joined the walls to hold off the invaders from the Xiongnu (Hun) tribes and Donghu nationalities in the north and extended them to more than 10,000 li or 5000 KMs. This is the origin of the name “10,000-li wall”. (Chinese unit of length is li, which is equal to half kilometer). P-1/4 P-2/4 It is quite natural that about 3000 years old wall could not stand for so long. We know from history as below: The Great Wall was renovated from time to time after the Qin dynasty. A major renovation started with founding of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) in 1368, and took 200 years to complete. The wall we see today is almost exactly the result of this effort. With a total length of over 6,000 KM, it extends to the Yalu River in Liaoning Province in the east, what lies north of Beijing is but a small section of it. Why the Wall is a Wonder? About 10 million people were forced to work by Ming Dynasty for construction of Great Wall and more than 20% of that died during construction/renovation! It is a myth that stones of Great Wall is hiding human bones & blood. The mighty of Wonder what we see , is not all. I think it is one of the seven wonder of the world because of sacrifice made by those 2 million people who died during construction ! Some interesting information related to GREAT WALL: China’s school children have long been taught that the ancient fortification is one of the few man-made structures that can be seen from orbit without any viewing aid. Last year (2005), however, China’s first man in space, disappointed the nation when he said he had failed to spot it. Now, an official News Paper has published a picture taken by a Chinese-American Astronaut showing the wall. Mr. Leroy Chiao took what the State-run China Daily News Paper says it the first photographic evidence using commercially available equipment. It will allow Education Officials to breathe more easily, after a dilemma over whether to change the school textbooks. China’s pride may be a bit blurred because lots of other things, such as, Egypt’s Pyramids and even various Airports can be seen too. A good portion of Great Wall remains of much older remnant of Ming Great Wall, dating from the Sui Dynasty (531-618 AD) at about 500 AD. A radar images found remains of the Sui Dynasty wall that has been buried by the desert sands for generations. It helped archaeologists to map a major cultural feature. This images were taken by the space shuttle “Endeavour” on April 10,1994. Certainly one of the world’s greatest tourist attractions in China is Great Wall. From our childhood, we know Great Wall is one wonder (out of seven) on earth. After visiting Great Wall in August, 1993 and now in October, 2006, I thought I should share my thinking with others who may have dream to see and walk on Great Wall. The best-known and maintained portion of Great Wall is Badaling, 80 KM (50 miles) north Beijing. One can climb or take cable car to the top the wall. This section was built during the Ming dynasty and 7.8 meters high, 5.8 meters wide. It is wide enough for 5 horsemen to ride abreast or 10 people to walk parrallelly along it. While ascending the wall to look into distance, one may find bright mountain flowers in full bloom and green trees looked fresh. When the weather is clear and fine, one can look over Beijing from “Stone of viewing Capital” about 50 KM from that view point. Badaling is to pronounce like “Pataling” as in Chinese “B” is “p” and “d” – “t”. Likewise, Beijing to pronounce as “Peijing”. In Chinese there is no “B” or “D” as in English Language. This time I found tour operators are not taking to Badaling due to heavy crowd. It is fact that in 1993 in a weekday I saw about a lac of people on the Great Wall or in it courtyard and I was lost from our group and it took more than an hour to find them. Most of us we visit China once and so he may visit and walk over Badaling to know real Great Wall better. Among the high mountain ranges in northwest of Beijing, there is gully, namely Guangou Gully, stretching from northwest to southwest. The city of Juyong Pass was built along the gully, which is 15 KM in length. For its strategic location and difficulty to access, Juyong Pass has been the gateway to Beijing in ancient time. Distance of Juyongguan (at Juyong Pass) is the same like Badaling from Beijing. A diversion road from Badaling leads to Juyongguan. Now-a-days tour operators take tourists to “Beijing Juyongguan Great Wall” for easy operation. This time in October 2006 we were taken to Juyongguan. This Great Wall is also well maintained and 2008 Olympic opening ceremony will be held here. If you ask me, I liked Badaling better, though I was lost there. When you visit China, you need to enquire with tour operators, how many days are for Beijing. My recommendation is that keep a whole day from morning till evening for Great Wall and walk on it as far as possible. It is a lifetime experience. Carry water bottle and some food with you. Another full day for Tiananmen Square, People’s Hall and Forbidden City. I shall write on those and other places separately. After visiting seven times and speaking a little Chinese, I felt, those who will go to China once, need to know a little about that country before they visit. Now I shall tell you something more about the Great Wall. Booming tourism, along with unauthorised development and erosion, has caused the destruction of two-thirds of China’s Great Wall according to Beijing’s official State-run News Agency Xinhua. The Great Wall is most famous landmark, as our Taj Mahal, drawing millions of tourists each year. In 1987, the UNESCO listed it as a “World Heritage Site”. The World Monument Fund listed the Great Wall as one of the world’s 100 most endangered structures in 2002 for the same reason. It is understood that it takes more than a year to restore 1 KM structure and is very costly. P-3/4 As the 2008 Beijing Olympic is approaching now, the Chinese authorities step up programmes of restoration and modernisation. In August 2005, the Chinese Government introduced regulations prohibiting the exploration of underdeveloped sections of the Wall, effectively banning tourists, such as, hikers from so-called “wild” sections. My Chinese language teacher explored the “wild” portion of wall about 20 years back. He travelled by by-cycle from Beijing and visited portions unknown to tourists like us. He experienced the “dream land” feeling during his venture. Badaling was restored in 1957 and around 10 million tourists visit every year now. Despite the devastating impact that the Sars virus had on foreign travel to China during 2003, China forecast to become world’s top destination by 2020. World Tourism Organisation(WTO) estimates that by then China will be welcoming 130 million visitors a year. We need to remember that China opened its doors to tourist only in the year 1980. China was unknown to us, Indians, and I consider China is my second home country. So I love to speak about China. I know, within a few years from now, China will come to tourism map for Indian travellers. I shall end up with a Chinese saying. Many Chinese celebrate their marriage on the Great Wall. It is said after marriage, a chain locks bride and groom and the key is thrown to the wild nature of Great Wall so that the lock can never be opened throughout the lifetime. They live happily for life long. I dream that in future newly wed couple from India will travel to the Great Wall and would throw the key in wildness after getting them locked in marriage. I hope that they never get back the key! Incidentally, this time I travelled with my wife, but alas, could not lock her on the Great Wall! Calcutta, India. November 2006 P-4/4
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 09:26:58 +0000
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