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The
Wall has tears: Beijing blooms Badaling, just 70 km from China's capital Beijing, is one of the easiest points to view the Great Wall. And it was on a misty September morning that we found ourselves heading for this first 'must-see' on a visit to China. Like in most Chinese sites of historical interest, the entrance to the Great Wall at Badaling is orderly and clean. You need to buy a ticket and then cross a large open courtyard to set foot on the Wall. It is surprisingly broad, large enough for ten people or six horses to walk abreast. Sections are alternately a gentle slope and then uneven stone steps leading to turreted watchtowers, where, in the days of yore, armed guards would survey the rolling valleys and hillsides for any hint of enemy presence. Built in the 7th and 8th Century BC, there are stories aplenty surrounding the Great Wall - of the million Chinese who toiled to lay these stones with their bare hands sans any help from machinery and of the tragedies that some of them faced. For the Great Wall originated as individual fortifications built by warring emperors to guard their kingdoms before Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, unified the country in 221 BC and decided to join up the separate sections of the Wall, building new parts to bridge the gaps. And so it came to be that the Great Wall zigzags its way from Shanhaiguan in the east to the Jiayuguan Pass in the west, passing through the provinces of Liaoning, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Gansu. The present Great Wall in Beijing is mainly remains from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). The most famous legend often retold at the Great Wall is one which has been the inspiration for many books and musicals. The story is of a young woman, Meng Jiangnu, whose husband was forced to work on the Wall on their wedding day. She broke her jade hairpin into two and gave him one half as a token of her love as they parted. After five years of futile waiting, she dreamed one night of him and walking a great distance over mountains and valleys went to the Wall, only to discover that he had died. Distraught, she wept for days at the foot of the Wall and her wailing is said to have made the Wall fall, whereon she saw her husband's bones. The Emperor was furious and ordered that she be punished but when he saw her beauty he asked her to marry him. Meng Jiangnu could not refuse but agreed on condition that her husband be given a grand funeral. Still determined not to wed the tyrant who had caused her husband's death, she committed suicide by jumping into the sea. Today there are two black rocks there said to mark the spot and a statue to her memory stands at Shanhaiguan Pass. These and other
poignant stories give you a palpable sense of history as you make
your way up the Wall, touching the time-worn stones with awe. The
steps too are hollowed in places worn down by the tread of millions
of feet. After all, there is an old Chinese saying, that you are
not a man if you haven't been to the Great Wall. If the Great Wall affords a glimpse of China's famed past, of this land of Confucius, the Silk Road and those historic dynasties like the Tang, Ming and Qing, then the city of Beijing symbolizes China at the crossroads. On the one hand, visitors are struck by the rapid pace of development, modern boulevards, huge straight highways, impressive overpasses and state-of-the-art skyscrapers side by side with the hutongs (old courtyard complexes). Yes, the bicycles are still there; for Beijing's population of 13 million, there are 10 million bicycles, but lest you be misled, China is also a huge market for mobile phones and cars. Beijing today is a city on the move, busy people in western dress with briefcases and laptops, women on motorbikes and trendy young couples enjoying a bite at McDonalds and Pizza Hut. The fascination of Beijing then is in this intriguing mix of old and new. Side by side with the bustling face of contemporary China are landmarks like Tiananmen Square, the largest city square in the world where the People’s Republic of China was officially proclaimed by Chairman Mao on October 1, 1949. The Square is surrounded by other well-known buildings, the Mao Mausoleum, Great Hall of the People, the graceful Heavenly Peace Gate and Qianmen (Front Gate), the latter built as gateways to the city. All these are impressive, but none can rival the Forbidden City, the world's largest and best-preserved Imperial Palace. First built as the palace of the Mongols between 1406 and 1420, the Forbidden City has 9,999 rooms and for five centuries served as the administrative centre for 24 emperors and their court where no lowly mortals could set foot. Teeming with tourists like us, wandering through its halls, shrines, gardens and courtyards, it was awe-inspiring in both architecture and grand design, most of it created by artists and craftsmen of the Ming dynasty. The Forbidden
City was also incidentally the setting in recent times for Bernard
Bertolucci's 1987 film epic, The Last Emperor, which told the story
of Po-Li, the boy-king and last emperor to have lived within its
red walls and golden roofs. What we did have time for was the Chinese cuisine thanks to the lavish hospitality of our Chinese hosts. It was an initiation into the delights of many-course meals where the food just keeps coming and coming, a tempting array of dumplings, soups, noodles, spicy meats and green vegetables, all accompanied of course, by green tea. And then, there was the Peking Duck, that world-famous speciality of Beijing which is served ceremonially at your table. Thin slices are placed on your plate, all golden crisp on the outside, tender inside. Peking Duck, specially raised on a diet of grain and soy bean, is best eaten rolled up in thin wheat pancakes accompanied by scallions and a dark sauce. For shoppers too, Beijing is a delight. Plush department stores abound with designer names at Wangfujing Street while the quaintly named Silk Alley or Xiushujie is a Chinese World Market, crammed with goods, silk blouses, ties, shawls and shoes - all sold by noisy hawkers who have to be fiercely bargained with. Beijing is a city on the fast track. And on our first evening as we emerged after a delicious meal of, you guessed it, Peking Duck from the typically Chinese Lao She teahouse, there was a woman selling caps waiting by our bus. These we had to buy for they bore an emblem of the future: Beijing 2008. That's when this fascinating city will host the Olympics and all eyes will be on modern China. |
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