And We're Back! Our Third Full Day in China Takes Us to the Great Wall of China

"He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man."
~Mao Zedong

On our third full day in China, we will travel north to Badaling to view one of the wonders of the world: the Great Wall of China. China’s mandatory, must-see sight, the Great Wall (Chángchéng) wriggles fitfully from its scattered remains in Liáoníng province to Jiāyùguān in the Gobi Desert.

The ‘original’ wall was begun over 2000 years ago during the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC), when China was unified under Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. Separate walls that had been constructed by independent kingdoms to keep out marauding nomads were linked together. The effort required hundreds of thousands of workers – many of whom were political prisoners – and 10 years of hard labour under General Meng Tian. An estimated 180 million cubic meters of rammed earth was used to form the core of the original wall, and legend has it that one of the building materials used was the bones of deceased workers.

The wall never really did perform its function as an impenetrable line of defence. As Genghis Khan supposedly said, ‘The strength of a wall depends on the courage of those who defend it’. Sentries could be bribed. However, it did work very well as a kind of elevated highway, transporting people and equipment across mountainous terrain. Its beacon tower system, using smoke signals generated by burning wolves’ dung, quickly transmitted news of enemy movements back to the capital. To the west was Jiāyùguān, an important link on the Silk Road, where there was a customs post of sorts and where unwanted Chinese were ejected through the gates to face the terrifying wild west.

During the Ming dynasty a determined effort was made to rehash the bastion, this time facing it with some 60 million cubic metres of bricks and stone slabs. This project took over 100 years, and the costs in human effort and resources were phenomenal. The investment failed to curb the Manchu armies from storming the Middle Kingdom and imposing over two and a half centuries of foreign rule on China.

The wall was largely forgotten after that. Lengthy sections of it have returned to dust and the wall might have disappeared totally had it not been rescued by the tourist industry. Several important sections have been rebuilt, kitted out with souvenir shops, restaurants and amusement-park rides, and formally opened to the public.

The most touristed area of the Great Wall is at Bādálǐng. Also renovated but less touristed are Sīmǎtái and Jīnshānlǐng. Not impressed with the tourist-oriented sections, explorative travellers have long sought out unrestored sections of the wall (such as at Huánghuā) for their more genuine appeal. The Chinese government periodically isolates such sections or slaps fines on visitors. The authorities argue that they are seeking to prevent damage to the unrestored wall by traipsing visitors, but they are also keen to direct tourist revenue towards restored sections.
The wall has suffered more from farmers pillaging its earthen core for use on the fields, and for

Our tour will take us to the Badaling Gate of the wall. In fact, most visitors encounter the Great Wall at Bādálǐng, its most-photographed manifestation, 70km northwest of Běijīng. The scenery is raw and yields choice views of the wall snaking archetypally into the distance over undulating hills. This visit to the Great Wall is truly going to be one of those moments in life you'll never forget. There are those rare moments in time when you can't believe you are standing where you are, and it will be hard to believe you actually stood there long after you left. This is one of those rare moments in time. Excited yet? You can check out the official website by clicking here. Check out the video below highlighting the Summer Palace and Badaling...