Day 14: The Great Wall, June 30, 2012

Today we made an optional field trip with the group (minus 3 with special agreement) to the biggest fortification system on earth: the Great Wall. The wall has a total length of about 6,300 km. Astronauts tell us this is the only cultural heritage visible from extraterrestrial space, what confirms the outstanding monument built during the over 2,000 years lasting reign of Chinese emperors.

The Great Wall (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Steep climbs (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The part we visited was mainly constructed under the Ming dynasty (about 1350-1650). It is a part of the Great Wall on top of a mountain range closest to the outskirts of Beijing. Today a highway crosses the foothill zone that begins about 100 km north of Beijing. This makes for an easy access for tourists and Chinese people from the surrounding areas of Beijing. And even Mao is cited with the words: “A right Chinese has to stand once in his life on the wall.”

Fortification along the mountain range (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Watch towers ensured security along the Great Wall (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The drive to the wall takes two hours, the walk on top of the wall about three hours depending on your physical condition. The forbidden town, the power center of China, had to be protected against the invasive forces from the Mongolian desert. The mountain range system may have broken the waves of mounted warriors; however, the wall was the line to definitely stop the enemies.

It took us about 3 hours to hike about 6 km (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The hilly zone leading up to the wall is scarcely settled and nowadays reforested to prevent erosion. This peripheral zone north of Beijing stands for Sinocentrism. The periphery has always paid tribute to the heart of the empire and that became clearly visible when we drove back from the impressive wall with all the towers decorating the top of a mountain range and when we reached the ever-booming and powerful metropolis Beijing.

Paul Messerli