China's Great Wall Of History.

INTRODUCTION:
It is probably safe to say that when many people think about China,
they think of the Great Wall. I was certainly happy to gather some
facts about this historic monument when I visited the site some years
ago. I had been teaching at a Teachers' College in the south of China
and the mid-summer vacation presented me with the opportunity to visit
many sites of great antiquity, including the Great Wall.

I made my visit to the wall at an entry point adjacent to the outpost
of Badaling. It runs through this area on a mountain ridge seventy-five
kilometres north-west of China's capital, Beijing and it stands today
as it was restored by the thirteen Ming emperors who ruled China from
1368 to 1644. That Dynasty restored the wall, but its construction was
begun in the seventh century B.C.

After Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of the Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty brought
about the unification of China in 221 B.C., he linked up the existing
fortifications of the Qin, Zhao and Yan kingdoms, thus forming a
continuous wall. It now starts from the Shanai Pass in the east and
ends in the west at a pass called Jiayu. On the way it crosses many
mountains and valleys in five of China's northern provinces and two
autonomous regions to cover a distance of six thousand
kilometres.

These historical facts were ambling through my mind like a mobile,
horse-drawn library; but as I walked towards the wall I was jolted back
into the twentieth century by the sight and sounds of hordes of people
selling memorabilia and a park-like enclosure containing a shop called
"The Great Wall Souvenir Store". However, I was soon on top of the wall
with other excited tourists, admiring the breath-taking views of the
surrounding country side.

Coming from a country such as Australia (we recently celebrated two
hundred years of European settlement) it was an awesome experience to
stand and slowly walk along its lofty paths and to meditate on the
three thousand years of history embedded there. The meditation was made
more magnificent by the vision of the wall streaking off into the
distance through a truly beautiful green panorama only now emerging
from a mixture of mist and sunbeams.

As I walked and climbed, I gave a thought to the hundreds of human
beings who had died here so that succeeding generations of people from
all over the world might walk on this Great Wall of history. I felt
overpowered by the sheer weight of that history and the train of moving
and tragic events that went into its gradual creation; and it struck me
that the China of today is a very different country: a nation of
unpredictable dynamics; a testing ground of open policies and emerging
political tensions; of open windows and free economic zones and
attempts to stem corruption; of student and civic demonstrations in the
pursuit of greater freedoms and "more democracy"...whatever that may
mean!

As these thoughts circulated in my mind I had a vision of the Great
Wall nodding its head knowingly as it watched China marching towards
its destiny in the twenty-first century.

After I descended and walked towards the bus which would take me back
to Beijing I turned and took one last look at the ancient icon I had
just traversed. As I mounted the steps into the bus I wondered what
epic tales it could hand down if it could talk to us about the great
sweep of human history in which it has played such a crucial
role.

(c)Patrick Talty 2003