Third in a series
All images by Greg Gross and property of I’m Black and I Travel unless otherwise identified. All rights reserved.
One is a national icon known the world over. The other is a place you almost could drive by without notice. Both are must-sees on any visit to China.
THE GREAT WALL
If you take a group tour in Beijing, there are two things I can pretty much guarantee you. The first is that you will spend some time caught in Beijing traffic. Like death and taxes, it’s unavoidable.
The other is that you will be taken about 50 miles outside the capital to Badaling to see and climb on the Great Wall of China.
Big Ben. The Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty. The pyramids of Giza.The Taj Mahal. Each is an icon that has come to stand for the country where it stands.
China’s icon is the Great Wall.
Most folks know of Tiananmen Square — even if, like me, they have trouble spelling it. Many know of the Forbidden City. But all the world knows the Great Wall of China.
By comparison, Hadrian’s Wall, built by the Romans across ancient Britain, is little more than an oversized park bench and the Berlin Wall not much more than a glorified footrest.
Since the wall is some 5,500 miles long, Badaling is not the only place you can see it. It’s just the stretch closest to Beijing and thus easiest for for the tour groups to reach.
In fact, if you plan to visit China is summer during the peak tourist season, and you really want to savor the experience of seeing it and walking it, you’d probably be better off finding one of the less visited sections to visit. Or go in the late fall or early winter, just before it snows.
You’re free to ignore the row of fast-food joints and cheesy souvenir shops that line the entrance to the wall itself. Just walk up the paved road, past the truck-sized commemorative plaque and under the arch to the ticket booth, pay your admission and start climbing.
About that climb, a word of advice: Get in shape, serious shape, before making this trip. The Great Wall is no joke. It’s like that stair-stepper machine in the gym that’s never ready to stop just because you are.
In places like Badaling, the path across the top of the wall are almost as steep at times as the mountain slopes on which they were built. I saw some folks on all fours, trying to reach the highest battlements.
If you have cardiovascular issues, don’t even think about trying to climb this thing.
But even if you don’t climb very high, or even at all, just to stand anywhere on the Great Wall is a moment you’ll keep in your memory until the last day.
You can imagine the backbreaking labor it took to build these earthen ramparts and cover them with huge, heavy breaks, all the way to the horizon, and the one after that, and the one after that.
You can scan that horizon as the ancient Chinese sentries did, looking for the telltale dust clouds from the invading armies you knew were out there, watching and wondering:
Would this be it? Would today be “the day?”
THE SACRED WAY
There apparently are several Sacred Ways scattered across China. This one is about 31 miles outside of Beijing. It’s also more or less on the route that leads to Badaling and the Great Wall, all of which make it the one you’re most likely to be shown on a tour.
Thirteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty are buried here, but only three of their tombs are open to public view. Much archeological research remains to be done here.
The Sacred Way, about four miles long, was supposed to guide their departed spirits on the path to Heaven, lined with the statues of generals and important officials, as well as guardian animals.
It’s so completely lined by trees that it’s actually possible to drive past it on the highway without notice. But throughout its history, this complex has gotten a great deal of notice, not all of it kindly.
This is one of those priceless historic treasures of China that barely escaped the madness of Mao Zedong’s disastrous Cultural Revolution, and some of its irreplaceable artifacts were destroyed in that time.
Today, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and rightly so, endangered only by the tourists who climb onto the statues to pose for pictures, heedless of the signs that tell visitors not to climb on the statues.
This may be my favorite place in China.
I’ve always been a city kid. I love the energy, the vibe of a big, lively city — the New Yorks, the Londons, the Tokyos, the Mexico Citys.
But I’m not the adrenalin junkie I used to be.
Every so often, I need to find a place where the breeze blows cool and easy, where sunlight filters down through the trees in thin strands of spun gold. The kind of place where you walk and listen to the wind, but what you really hear is your own spirit, a place where you can feel at peace, if only for a few precious moments.
For me, on this trip, the Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs was that place.
Between the expansive ancient palaces and the forests of high-rise dwellings and offices, there isn’t much in the way of green space in Beijing. If I lived in China’s capital city, I would have to find my way out here once every several weeks, just to walk and listen to the wind.
But not for long, because we’re off to Shanghai.
ALSO CHECK OUT:
IBIT in CHINA: An Introduction
IBIT in CHINA: Beijing