I'm sitting here watching a Discovery Channel special about the Great Wall and remembering what an amazing experience it was to be "climbing" the wall. And yes, it is a climb. The incline is very steep in places and we were groaning and panting while Chinese men and women decades older than were sprinting up with hardly a whimper. The Chinese are people of great fortitude and endurance. It took over 2,000 years to build this wall - which is not one continuous wall as most people think, but many walls built over many centuries. Peasant laborers were used, but no modern-day machinery. Instead, bricks were laid by hand. Just to give you an idea of how many bricks and stone were used in just the Ming Dynasty portion of the wall, they could circle the earth at five feet high. Millions of Chinese died during the construction of just the portion of the wall built during the Qin Dynasty. During that time, 70 percent of the population was involved in building the wall.
It's amazing to think about how crucial the wall is to the identity of China and its people. Everyone knows that it was built to keep people out of China...now the wall brings people into China. It truly is a wonder. Alison, who has never seen the wall, always tells people it is her favorite thing about China. I don't know what it is about the wall, but it seems to embody everything that is amazing about the Chinese people and their complicated and magnificent history. A group of us are going back in 2010 to bring our beautiful Chinese daughters back to their birthland, and yes we will climb the great wall again. I want Alison to see it. Tonight at dinner she said, "China is such a cool place," and I agreed with her as I always do because I want her to be proud of her birth country and the Chinese people. But I have to wonder what China really means to her, this place that defines her in so many ways, yet a place that is lost to her memory. This place called China is a mystery to her...as it is to all of us.
These photos of us at the Great Wall were taken in 2001, two days before we held Alison in our arms for the first time. The next time we climb this wall, she'll climb it with us.
4 comments:
Gotta tell you, when I first saw the pictures I wondered when they were taken!
I'm ready to go back.
Seems like yesterday doesn't it? Also seems like a long time ago.
Grace says to tell Allison she needs to take a nose clip to China. Unfortunately - thats what Grace remembers the most from our last trip there - how bad it smelled in some areas!!
Interesting to know.
Post a Comment