At 8 a.m., the tour bus arrived on time to take us on the day
“ski lift” was more scenic and saved our energy for the Wall. And we needed it! The top of the wall is about 20 feet wide built with massive stones on the bottom section and large paving stones on the top, including the parapets and guard towers. There were places where the stairs were a 4” rise with a 12” tread and there were other places so steep you could hardly imagine climbing them. In that case, the steps were of chiselled rock and 8” tread with a 24” rise. Just 6 of us did the climb to a prominent guard post. Anyone who climbs the Great Wall is considered a hero. The view was somewhat obscured by the smog from Beijing City, but as the morning wore on, it did clear up some with the slight breeze. The architecture was amazing, considering the lack of modern tools to fashion some of the features. The walking area between the notched protective walls is designed to carry away water out to stone gutters that protrude past the wall to carry water away from the wall and prevent corrosion. The towers are broken up into very small rooms with openings to view the country-side. The canopy of trees beneath is so thick that it would take a pretty skilled eye to see anyone approaching the wall, let alone breaching it. To think that the stones were manually carried to the site and placed individually is staggering. So is the number of people who perished during its construction. We heard of numbers upwards of a million. It was hard enough carrying our own carcasses up there, let alone paving stones or the impossibly large main rocks. They were chinked together with shards of quartz to level them. I could carry a few of those for sure. It gives new perspective to the term “hard labour”. Coming down off the Wall, you could choose to return by the ski lift or take the luge. It’s a metal trough winding down the mountainside and you sit in a sled outfitted with a brake stick. You can rocket down the chute, but must brake for some of the sharp corners. It was fun watching from the lift as some of the lady tourists launched down the chute. Screaming all the way, but interspersed with gales of laughter. All 18 members of our group went down on the luge, 4 men and 14 women, one celebrating her 70th birthday!
Our next stop with our group of 18 was the Great Wall. You could walk from the parking lot up steep hills and deep gullies to get there, but the
’t see the whole zoo as it is quite massive, but we did see some interesting animal specimens. The hour was getting late, but we thought we could still squeeze in the Acrobatic Theatre. The traffic was horrendous during rush hour. I think we waited close to 25 or 30 minutes in 1 block just to make a left hand turn. Lots of stop and go traffic. Rules here are very different. From the right hand lane, a car made a U-turn left in front of our bus and across our adjacent lane to go the opposite direction and merging with oncoming traffic! It was wild, but apparently, the different rule applies here in China according to our interpreter. Because we missed the first show at 5:30, we got a stop at a Starbucks near the Swiss Hotel and enjoyed a break at the sidewalk café tables.
After lunch, we boarded our bus again, this time for the Beijing Zoo where we particularly wanted to see the Panda exhibit. We didn
’t tell you yet how many more motorcycles entered the cage, but it was unbelievable! Truly. There were a lot of other amazing stunts performed with real class and it was a show worth seeing.
Then we were at the Acrobatic Show. Well, it was a treat to say the least. Matthew and I were debating as to whether to buy the DVD they were selling of the show until after the intermission. The highlight was a motorcycle entering a steel ball cage and riding inside what was about a 30 feet in diameter sphere. The rider went round and round the perimeter in horizontal and vertical directions. We certainly thought that was amazing, until a second rider appeared and entered the cage. They chased each other around and round and then a third and fourth rider entered. I won
’s adventures. It took us two and half hours to get to the Great Wall area. First stop, though, was a Ming vase factory. You may think of a factory as a large industrial building, but in fact, it can be a few tiny shops linked together around a courtyard with 2 or 3 artisans in each section. The making of a vase takes six steps. First, shaping the vase out of copper and getting the right thickness. Then, they apply fines strands of wire to outline the shapes and decor, much like making a paint-by-number design. Each “number” area is filled with a coloured rock powder that has been ground to a very fine flour-like consistency. It is fired to set the colors which never fade because it is rock. Then comes the polishing with various grades of stone, right down to charcoal. The vase is put on the end of a rotating spit and spun at high speed while the artisan polishes the surface by hand until you cannot feel the copper strands. A final process glazes the outside of the vase. Very intricate, pains-taking work. The show room was the selling point. I found vases about 3 feet in height worth $480,000RMB or C$80,000. I left it there! There were many varieties of creations made in the same way as described above. Hours and hours of manual labour.
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