193: The Great Walll of China

There have been a few things I have seen on tv and thought…. “Cor blimey that looks cool. Have to try that.” And the luge is one of those. Racing at speeds up to 140 km/hour with a 5 G-force down a shiny tube seems like a heap of fun. And so it was with some surprise that I clocked that the alpines seemed to have been moved to the Great Wall of China- my 193rd place to visit in the 1000 places to see before you die book. The choice of going up to the top of the Great Wall (or indeed down) using a ski lift…or coming down on a toboggan in a shiny steel tube, seemed rather surreal given I was in the sticks of China and there was cherry blossoms in the fields rather than snow.

Suffice to say, after climbing the Great Wall, I mounted one of these black, tiny sleds with a rudimentary brake in the centre and wound my way down some rather steep bends. I was half expecting to pass under giant golden arches and have vouchers for McDonald’s given to me by the guards monitoring the speed on the tube.  At the least however, upgrading to the luge as my new adventure sport seems not to be my forte given some rude tourist in the ski lift above my head screamed out “use the accelerator” at one point.

Anyhow, to the Wall. An ongoing engineering feat that started from the 5^th century BC and continued to the 16^th century to protect China from those Mongol Huns. It is rather a sad state of affairs to think the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (who also commissioned the Terracotta Warriors) left such treasures for subsequent civilisations….whereas the last Emperor of China, poor Puyi, left to the world a few gardening gloves.

Anyhow, a bit like the broken warriors, not much of the Wall that Huang built remains, the majority remaining is from the Ming Dynasty. It roughly stretches from the sea all the way along the northern edge of China for some 6,200 km- in fact given natural barriers such as rivers and a few trenches- it hits 8,851 km. It sad to think that a good portion of the Wall has gone- removed for expansion, graffitied, covered by sandstorms, or used as a source of building materials.

Over a million workers died building the wall and you can see why given that each stone was over 2 feet in depth and length and had to be hand cut and lugged up to the top of the very extreme mountain range.

In the end, the Wall proved to be of little deterrent when a Ming border general opened the gates at one section as he was disgruntled with the Chinese rulers. And so the Manchu invasion swept in, overthrew Beijing, defeated the ruling Shun Dynasty, and started their own Qing Dynasty. At that point, the Wall fell into disrepair as there was no need for it. Reminder in life that there is always someone who decides to piss inside the tent!

There is about seven sections of the wall most tourists go to- I went to the Mutianyu section which runs for about 2.25 km, as I was intrigued to see the nearby Ming tombs- two only of which had been excavated.

Now to remove a myth- the Great Wall is not visible from space. This rumour started in the 1700’s but the problem is- local materials were used. So in fact, the Wall is this rather disappointing shabby grey, indistinguishable from the grey soils of the mountains that it sits. It is highly unphotogenic- as most walls are. Given that the widest sections are only 9m wide, it is invisible from space as reported as it would appear about the same width of a human hair viewed from 3.5 miles away…. so the web tells me. It is barely visible- and even then only under perfect conditions- at a height of 160 km …but then so are many other man made objects at this height.

Anyhow, I have walked the Wall and like all tourists who have done so…yes I bought the t-shirt saying so as well!!

Should it be in the 1000 places to see before you die book. Well its not much to look at, its a bit of a schlepp to get there, but given that there will never be a wall built like this in history again....yes!

192: Imperial Palace, Beijing

Yes, yes, yes…loved it so much I went back twice!! Why wouldn’t you when next year the Chinese Government are putting restrictions on the number of tourists- first 100,000 apparently will get in after that no….and this is a place that in peak season has 150,000 tourists a day.

My first thoughts was to rush through all the various palaces to get to that massive courtyard that has been used…largely as a simulated backdrop…in a number of movies. But…Id purchased an electronic tour guide thing so off I set.

And, being China…what fun the electronic gadget was. It had a map with little coloured buttons that showed you where you were, blinked on suggested routes, automatically changed if you decided to skip somewhere to a new section – there must be a little GPS transmitter in there. No wonder they asked for a hefty, by Chinese standards, deposit when you rented one. Absolutely fabulous!

The Forbidden City, also called the Palace Museum is up there in my mind with Versailles, Buckingham Palace and the Kremlin. A UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Building and the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world, it was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Such was the labour force of the Emperor at the time that it took over one million workers a mere fourteen years from 1406 to 1420 to build some 8700 rooms in 980 buildings spread over 720,000 m2. It is colossal. Twenty-four emperors, their wives, concubines, eunuchs and related staff lived there and it also served as the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government.

It is called Forbidden City¸ as no one could arrive or leave without the Emperor’s permission. Trapped there in gilded splendour for the rest of their lives if they entered the palace to join the court. The museums now inside it were a treasure trove of the intrigue at palace life…It was kind of eerie standing in the large courtyard and remembering that scene in The Last Emperor of all the eunuchs being banned and leaving carrying their private parts in pots after burning down the storehouses.

The simplicity on one hand of the design- Asian- and the grandeur of the yellow tiles, red lacquer, gold leaf and dark screened wood, created a scene of extreme opulence. The only thing Id complain about would be if you were to marry an emperor- the beds in the honeymoon area where the newlyweds stayed for two weeks did not look comfortable! But then I doubt they were both 6 foot Caucasian heifers!!

As well as the incredible beauty of the buildings, the palace complex houses over a million rare treasures dotted in the palaces- holding paintings, clocks, bronze wares, pottery, jade and jewellery.

The guide was excellent- explaining all of the various halls as I lost a few hours ambling around the complex. The names of them all were very evocative- the Halls of Supreme Harmony, Central Harmony and Preserving Harmony, Heavenly Purity, Earth Tranquility, Mental Cultivation, Joyful Longevity, Ancestral Worship and Union and Peace.

The palace, after being a place of birth and death for the Emperors, ceased to be the political centre of China in 1912 when the Last Emperor- Puyi abdicated (amazing film if you haven’t seen it- he ascended at the tender age of a little under 3 years old in December 1908). He was allowed to remain in the Inner Court, while the Outer Court was used by the public, but was evicted after a coup in 1924.


The Emperor resided in the Palace of Heavenly Purity- which represented yang and the heavens. The Empress meanwhile received in the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, representing yin and the earth. Between these two palaces, lay the Hall of Union, representing where yin and yang mixed to produce harmony.

The famous Nine Dragons Screen in front of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, replete with one damaged tile that various rumours abound!

The palace is a stunning masterpiece now enjoyed by millions of people each year rather than the few thousand in the privileged emperor’s courts of the time. Slightly more for people to visit here than what the last emperor left future generations- a few gardening gloves!

However the highlight of the tour was definately the below....

Dying of hunger I entered what seemed to be the only place in the entire complex selling food or drink. It was like a little store with three shelves of food. I pointed at the above as Id seen some people eating it outside and it looked like a hot chicken noodle dish. Walking outside with my little yellow plastic container I opened it to find this rather congealed mess inside which was, to say the least, rather unpalatable. A chinese then came up to me and closed the lid of my container and motioned on his watch the second hand going around 3 times. So I sat and a minute later this little amazing thin plastic container started to shake. Next thing you know hot steam was pouring out of the little hole on the lid and the whole thing was hissing. After the alloted 3 minutes I opened the container and hey presto....hot chicken noodle dish! Amazing- it seemed to have a hidden layer in the bottom which somehow the staff had activated when I purchased it. Great idea!


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191: Terracotta Warriors

A true case of Humpty Dumpty being incorrect…with a little bit of resin, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men (well in this case actually the President of China) could put him together again!!

And so, in a remote field an hour outside of Xian, China, a team of Chinese archaeologists are painstakingly putting together pieces of pottery- some as small as your little finger, back together again to rebuild the smashed and vandalised terracotta army. To date, some 1800 have had their broken bodies glued back together to stand proud for the 3 million tourists a year that fly to this pollution smogged industrial town for the day to get their photos taken alongside a warrior or ride the chariot (all replicas of course).

Little Qin Shi Huang, the very first Emperor of China, started this project of his after unifying China for the first time when he was 12 years old. Some 720,000 workers took 38 years to assemble this incredible cast from foot soldiers to horses and chariots, archers and workers, acrobats to musicians.

All replicating what lies nearby- the Emperor’s actual mausoleum filled with human bodies of the soldiers, archers, musicians, acrobats, horses and generals he wanted in his afterlife….not to mention a rumoured 20,000 concubines and his wife. Gruesome!!! No wonder the mausoleum is actually a rather large hill to cover all those bones.

Dating from 210 BC, the army was found by a farmer in 1974 when digging for a well and 5 metres down hit terracotta fragments and called in the Government. Now this is one country where treasure hunting does not pay. The poor soul was given 30RMB by the Government for this discovery- that’s £3-which at that time was one month’s salary of a worker. Now the find would be worth 3000 RMB (£30)…still the monthly salary of a worker.

My guide told me (and she really was being straight) that “this was good- because all the ground belongs to the Government. And he is now rich from signing autographs.” When I queried just how many RMB it needed in order to be deemed “rich” in China she obliquely replied with an explanation that there is many ways to be rich. “With money you never have enough, so it is better to be rich with life.” Mmmm. Anyhow, I later witnessed the farmer signing books for the tourists…..Im in the wrong country really to say “he had a gold Rolex, raybans and was wearing Gucci loafers so must be doing well for himself.” Suffice to say the Government now has him on a salary to sign books and he’s upgraded his farmer’s overalls for a black suit and shirt and sunglasses on indoors. A celebrity!! Presumably when he passes away, his son then inherits the mantle and continues the signing tradition.

Anyhow, back to the Army.

A large number stay entombed awaiting excavation as well as the technology to better restore them given that the local unbaked clay cant be used and thus they are relying on developments in epoxy resin to put their humpty dumpty bodies together again.

No amount of epoxy however can hide the fact that a number of the soldiers do not look that happy. Turns out the Emperor demanded no two were to be alike so after the bodies and blank faces were made they were all personalised. Initials of the artist were put in the foot of the soldiers and any statue the Emperor wasn’t happy with….well…”off with his head.” Not exactly the best environment to work in never knowing if you’d be the next bag of bones consigned to “Mausoleum Hill.”

And then there is the issue that a century after the mausoleum was completed, a Chinese poet wrote about it talking of “palaces, riches and 100 rivers fashioned in mercury”. Poor misguided workers pouring that stuff in thinking they were safe from ending up in the mausoleum pile- not realising of course that they were destined to die shortly anyhow from mercury poisoning. Interestingly test work has shown high levels of mercury in the soil on and around Mount Lishan, underwhich lies the mausoleum,which remains unopened…apparently for fear of damage to the valuables buried with the Emperor. More likely no sucker wants to excavate and breathe the fumes given that mercury is completely non-biodegradable, is the most potent free radical known to humans and can only leache away. More bodies for the Emperor’s afterlife!

His afterlife of a huge army to maintain his empire proved to be a waste of time, money and energy anyhow. Shortly after he was buried vandals broke in, stole all the bronze CHECK weapons from the warriers, torched the place causing the wooden beams above their heads to burn away and bring tons of soil on their heads smashing them to smithereens.

It’s rather eerie when you first enter and look down to see an entire army- in precise military formation according to rank and duty- some in lines, some facing outwards looking for threats, in full battle regalia according to their roles. While Im sure the travelling exhibition that is currently going around the world is worth seeing on account of most people never getting to Xian….but all I can say is seeing some 20 warriors in a museum pales into significance when looking at thousands, line after line, of the real thing.

Life size, full uniform, all with different faces and exact replicas of mankind down to fingerprints. Sadly due to the fire when it was vandalised, the colours on their uniforms also disappeared and they are now a chalky and black soot covered bunch of men.

There are three main areas to see- the first being the army- some 8000 figures (about 2/3 still not excavated and glued together) stretching about 230 metres long with 11 corridors over 3 metres wide each.

The second pit a short walk away contains the chariots and cavalry riders.

And the third is the command post room with people standing around and four horses ready to gallop up a chute.

Described as the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century (and found for the price of a Big Mac meal in Beijing) it is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Talking of which, I’m off to investigate visiting another UNESCO Cultural Heritage site and a fitting tribute I think to compare to my blog on Christ the Redeemer in Brazil…….the Leshan Giant Buddha. This is the world’s tallest and largest Buddha standing at 71 meters high and 24 meters wide with a head over 14 meters long and 10 meters wide. To put this into a perspective you can understand- his toenail alone can accommodate a seated person, 100 people can fit in his instep and a dining table can be placed on one of his toes alone.

As the local saying says, "The Mountain is a Buddha and the Buddha is a Mountain."