the great wall of chinese

mum and i spent the third and final week of our tour in my hometown of beijing. despite having spent a total of more than three months there (on and off) over the last couple of years, i have never actually approached it as just a tourist, and the experience was wonderful. a city so rich with culture and character and contrasts - flying into the future at breakneck speed, makes for a perfect ending to a trip to china with your mum :)

the great wall of china - jinshanling to simatai

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though walls had been built by various chinese groups since 500BCE (to keep nasty northern barbarian people out), the original "great wall of 10,000 li" was built by the great emperor qin (of terracotta warriors and horses fame) some time around the turn of the first century. this wall later fell into disrepair and has all but disappeared. the current wall (that you can walk around on and look at with millions of your chinese friends) was built by the ming (~1500CE) as an alternative to continuous warfare with the mongols. the ming wall was much grander, used bricks instead of just stones and rammed earth, and is characterised by regular watchtowers, separated by twice the distance an arrow could be fired. contrary to popular belief, the wall cannot be seen from the moon, and cannot even be seen from an orbit of 500km.

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mum and i first headed out to jinshanling, a section of the wall that hasn't been reconstructed, and from there hiked our way along the megastructure to a part of the wall called simatai. check out the pics - it was bliss.

badaling

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still hungry for wall, we decided to join the throngs of domestic tourists out to the most famous section - badaling. this section has been completely restored, and though it's often bagged by others as being too touristy, i feel there's a reason everyone goes there - because it's so beautiful. it was may week, a golden holiday in china, and we caught one of the buses leaving every 20 seconds from a northern bus stop to the wall. i have now visited many parts of the great wall in many different provinces, but it was this final experience that made me realise that the greatest wall in china is not made of brick and stone, it is made of arms and legs, bodies and faces, and the personalities, sounds and smells that come with them. to look at the great wall rolling over to the horizon and not be able to see a single inch of its stone carriageway - just metre after metre of human body pressed together barely able to move - that is really something. i was in awe of this great wall of humanity, and it has been without a doubt my favourite great wall experience. to mum's discomfort and my excitement, we realised that if there was any sort of panic or push, an immediate leap over the edge to the rocks 6 metres below would have been our only chance at survival.

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. beijing

the rest of the week we visited various sites, lounged about in peaceful parks and rooftop restaurants, and generally enjoyed.

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it's not every day you get to tour an amazing country with an even more amazing person, and even less common for that amazing person to be your own mother. i love you mum!

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in what seems like a goethian repetition, i've just left beijing again. though i'll be back in australia soon, the adventure certainly hasn't finished - in fact (eyes twinkling, tentative grin)...

i wish you all delicious virtue.