So this Saturday we went out on another adventure to the Great Wall, and while there are still a few locations from the Study Tour that I need to blog about I figured I would do the next entry on the Great Wall, while it is still fresh in my mind. The section of the Great Wall, which is actually called the "Long Wall" in Chinese, was one which has not been heavily repaired and is not frequented by tourists, as it lies about two hours outside of Beijing and is only accessible by car or bus. We were accompanied on our trip by Dr. Lucas, one of Dr. Clark's colleagues who has lived in China for 20 years and works at Minzu as a coordinator for American international students. Dr. Lucas is giving supplementary lectures on Modern China for our classes with Dr. Clark, and will also be taking us on a four-day hiking trip through some villages in Shanxi province later this month. He is visible on the left of the first picture above.
The Great Wall was a sight to behold, snaking along the mountaintops, visible as a jagged gray line from the road. The day was shrouded in mist, which lent the wall a mysterious air even before we climbed it. Dr. Lucas challenged us to reach the end of this section of the wall, which he claimed would take almost three hours to reach and return from, exactly the amount of time we would be spending at the wall. Tom, Andrew, Erik, and I took on the challenge, and set off.
We climbed an uncountable number of steps, at first either well-maintained sections of stone stair work dating back to probably the Ming or at least the Qing dynasty, or wooden stairs put in place where the stairs were in disrepair. As we progressed further, the wall stretching out before us began to take on a green tint as the wooden replacement stairs disappeared and the entire surface of the wall gave way to a ruinous pseudo-jungle scape. What tiles there were lay broken and disconnected, and we walked on a surface of earth and rock, foliage grazing our legs. Trees that must have been fifty years old or more grew on top of the wall. At times the wall was visible as nothing more than a line of stone to our right and a line of stone to our left, its middle collapsed and overgrown. At times we balance-beamed across sections of wall less than a foot thick.
At the end of the wall lay a guard tower and a drop-off. With some time left to explore, Tom took the guard tower stairs out into the jungle, wherein the mist was so thick I could barely make him out ten feet in front of me. We also climbed the guard tower itself, and Andrew took our picture.
Visiting the Great Wall was a truly fantastic experience, my first with real ancient ruins. I enjoyed it immensely.
P.S.: Dr. Clark's 13-part television series "The Saints of China: Martyrs of the Middle Kingdom (hosted by Dr. Anthony E. Clark)," will begin airing this week. It can be watched online at http://www.ewtn.com/.
The Great Wall was a sight to behold, snaking along the mountaintops, visible as a jagged gray line from the road. The day was shrouded in mist, which lent the wall a mysterious air even before we climbed it. Dr. Lucas challenged us to reach the end of this section of the wall, which he claimed would take almost three hours to reach and return from, exactly the amount of time we would be spending at the wall. Tom, Andrew, Erik, and I took on the challenge, and set off.
We climbed an uncountable number of steps, at first either well-maintained sections of stone stair work dating back to probably the Ming or at least the Qing dynasty, or wooden stairs put in place where the stairs were in disrepair. As we progressed further, the wall stretching out before us began to take on a green tint as the wooden replacement stairs disappeared and the entire surface of the wall gave way to a ruinous pseudo-jungle scape. What tiles there were lay broken and disconnected, and we walked on a surface of earth and rock, foliage grazing our legs. Trees that must have been fifty years old or more grew on top of the wall. At times the wall was visible as nothing more than a line of stone to our right and a line of stone to our left, its middle collapsed and overgrown. At times we balance-beamed across sections of wall less than a foot thick.
At the end of the wall lay a guard tower and a drop-off. With some time left to explore, Tom took the guard tower stairs out into the jungle, wherein the mist was so thick I could barely make him out ten feet in front of me. We also climbed the guard tower itself, and Andrew took our picture.
Visiting the Great Wall was a truly fantastic experience, my first with real ancient ruins. I enjoyed it immensely.
P.S.: Dr. Clark's 13-part television series "The Saints of China: Martyrs of the Middle Kingdom (hosted by Dr. Anthony E. Clark)," will begin airing this week. It can be watched online at http://www.ewtn.com/.
JUST AWESOME! I love this blog post. You put so much heart into your descriptions that I feel I am there with you. Clearly, you enjoyed this immensely - and I am so thrilled that you had this experience. I will check out Dr. Clark's show! Can't wait!
ReplyDeleteVery cool pictures Jeremy and I agree, you write so well I feel like I'm right there.
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