I have always dreamt of going to the Great Wall of China as a kid and there I was today. Absolutely incredible!
The wall was built thousands of years before the Qin dynasty. The Ming dynasty, which lasted from 1368-1644, is the dynasty credited with really improving the wall. The wall was built to secure the northern frontier from invasion by the Mongols. The Ming didn't allow the Mongols to trade freely with them. There was a tribute system and the Mongol leader Esen would abuse that system. He would over report gifts that he gave to the Ming in order to receive more goods. The Mings stopped trading with the Mongols so the Mongols decided to simply invade.
The Great Wall was not really a symbol of China until Sun Yat Sen. He helped create the sense of nationalism and used the wall to unite the people. Sun Yat Sen was one of the early revolutionaries in the early 1900's. By the way, the Great Wall of China can not be seen from space. The peoples republic of China has renovated it, especially under Deng Xiaoping.
Some of us when getting to the wall decided to climb the difficult portion of the wall. It was a ton of climbing but so worth it. We even walked past the allowed area to see dilapidated portions of the wall. It is hard to believe any sizable force could've attacked this portion of the wall but the Mongols did.
After our wall climbing we went on a Hutong tour. We first walked around the surrounding neighborhoods. Sam and I walked around and had an awesome experience in a tea shop. A woman invited us in and made us various varieties of tea for free. We offered to give her money at the end but she refused. We then went to the Hutong which is an alleyway in Beijing. There are courtyard houses where various families live. It is very traditional and unfortunately many if the Hutongs have been demolished for high rises. We were taken to someone's home and fed a home cooked meal. The cooks family has lived in the Hutong for 100 years. His father cooked these amazing carrot balls, which we had, for the last emperor. This meal was by far our favorite. The cook was so gracious and friendly that we all were blown away by his hospitality.
After dinner we were then taken around the Hutong on a modern version of a rickshaw. What an amazing day!
Yes we took the toboggan down!
The traditional Hutong is being destroyed : (
No comments:
Post a Comment