China's Great Wall: Where Men Are Made
A proud father carries his wide-eyed son up the steeply stepped Great Wall near Beijing.
After all, with a total length of 35,000 miles the Great Wall(s) can fairly be said to be the greatest feat of engineering in the world. Much of it has been reconstructed and without this section’s recently installed railings it would be even more daunting. The fascinating Discovery Channel doco “Secrets of the Great Wall” identifies four distinct walls that traverse both deserts and mountains. Much of this has been damaged and remains under threat. A devoted few like Cheng Dalin continue to pore over ancient texts to unlock such discoveries as an earlier forgotten wall. William Lindesay is another. (See “The Great Wall Revisited” China Pictorial 3/2007)
Wall building is a fundamental feature of China and the Chinese have long surrounded their homes and cities with protective walls. Indeed, the Chinese written character for “wall” is also that for “city”. But the challenge of walling off such a huge country awaited the drive and vision of China’s first emperor and the man who gave China its name. Emperor Chin commenced work at Lintau in 200 BC and within 12 years the 35 foot high wall stretched 4000 miles to Korea. Not for nothing has the wall also been called “the world’s longest graveyard”. Peasants were taxed to fund the work. But how else to defend from plunder the new country from the savage nomadic invaders from the North?
Fortunately, a visit to the Great Wall nowadays is an almost festive occasion for those who have pitted their stamina against its arduous ramparts and their nerves against its vertiginous ascents. There are plenty of rest stops along its more popular sections.
Also, there is another reason for celebration. Mao Zedong has here written in stone of the importance of visiting the wall.
The Lonely Planet Beijing City Guide, for example, translates this as “he who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man.” But I am informed “brave man” is a more literal translation and that “climbed” is too specific and a more general “go to” is more apt. So it seems that the little boy I pictured above being carried by his father also qualifies as a “brave man”!
After all, with a total length of 35,000 miles the Great Wall(s) can fairly be said to be the greatest feat of engineering in the world. Much of it has been reconstructed and without this section’s recently installed railings it would be even more daunting. The fascinating Discovery Channel doco “Secrets of the Great Wall” identifies four distinct walls that traverse both deserts and mountains. Much of this has been damaged and remains under threat. A devoted few like Cheng Dalin continue to pore over ancient texts to unlock such discoveries as an earlier forgotten wall. William Lindesay is another. (See “The Great Wall Revisited” China Pictorial 3/2007)
Wall building is a fundamental feature of China and the Chinese have long surrounded their homes and cities with protective walls. Indeed, the Chinese written character for “wall” is also that for “city”. But the challenge of walling off such a huge country awaited the drive and vision of China’s first emperor and the man who gave China its name. Emperor Chin commenced work at Lintau in 200 BC and within 12 years the 35 foot high wall stretched 4000 miles to Korea. Not for nothing has the wall also been called “the world’s longest graveyard”. Peasants were taxed to fund the work. But how else to defend from plunder the new country from the savage nomadic invaders from the North?
Fortunately, a visit to the Great Wall nowadays is an almost festive occasion for those who have pitted their stamina against its arduous ramparts and their nerves against its vertiginous ascents. There are plenty of rest stops along its more popular sections.
Also, there is another reason for celebration. Mao Zedong has here written in stone of the importance of visiting the wall.
The Lonely Planet Beijing City Guide, for example, translates this as “he who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man.” But I am informed “brave man” is a more literal translation and that “climbed” is too specific and a more general “go to” is more apt. So it seems that the little boy I pictured above being carried by his father also qualifies as a “brave man”!
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