Da(o)wn on the Chinese wall (Beijing)

It is the one building, that is seen outside of the earth while cruising on a spaceship: The Chinese wall! But despite its extension of 6400 km it’s not, like many people thing one continuous building, it has never been.

It is the one building, that is seen outside of the earth while cruising on a spaceship: The Chinese wall! But despite its extension of 6400 km it’s not, like many people thing one continuous building, it has never been.

In the beginning the several emperors of the great Chinese empire built parts of it at the very spots were they had to fear attacks of the current enemies. For building the wall it needed many millions workers and approximately 2 million died during the thousand years it was built from the 6th until the 16th century. It is beautiful, but I very much doubt the use of it all. Even though it was at some times guarded by more than a million guards I have to doubt its effectiveness. It is on the biggest northern mountains, so if you have managed to climb up a little wall won’t stop you. As I mentioned it is not continues, so there ways to slip through and that brings us to the very location I am talking about.

The Wall is in some regions a mess, pieces are missing and it is at some times quite dangerous to walk on it, hence you could slip down to nowhere. But all this adventurous style gives you the opportunity to have an amazing experience. I was hooked up with some language students in Beijing, some being as afar as Kazakhstan and some as close as Japan, to have one memorable night. The idea was to sleep on the wall! We had our sleeping bags and jackets along and tried to find the right place for hours. There is quite a big chance, that you walk and walk on the wall and you will find a remote piece which is hardly reached by any guards. And after all, they will finish work at some time. So you can unpack, sing a lullaby and snore the best sleep. In the morning you just pack your stuff and walk out. But you shouldn’t miss the sunrise at the wall, which gives you nice shadowy impressions of one of the greatest buildings in the world. And you should truly enjoy the scenery I witnessed myself being unhappy, because the weather wasn’t nice and photo-pleasant. Common! I had to slap me in the face and just repeated the words. It is about the experience, not about the exposure, at least sometimes.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

written by wil6ka on 2008-08-12 #places #culture #history #landscape #location #beijing