It was time to face the Great Wall and find out if it was a ruin like I found in Abhayagiri, tainted by the past or the future like in Xi’an, or something worse. What if it was a true wonder, choked by a ceaseless tourist torrent? Deluged by a wretched wave. Drowned of any possibility for enjoyment or appreciation.
I should, by now, have become accustomed to China making it all of these things at once and simultaneously none. Yin and Yang. Death and darkness. Light and beauty.
Foundations of Bone
There in the foundations of the wall lay the bones of a million slaves. Worked to death, their backs splintered like the heavy wooden joists that levered each stone block into place in this impossible jigsaw.
Yet there on the windswept peaks of Badaling, away from the tourist torrent, very little imagination is needed to see that jigsaw complete in your minds eye.
Before you the spine of the world is laid out, snaking at unbelievable angles, defiant to the forces of nature.
Invading Mongols, enthused by how easily they had traversed China’s mountains to the north then faced this. Such obstinance in the face of its surrounds must have given them pause.
Warning Song
Even now, at sunrise, 1100 metres up, the wall it seems, is not undefended. For a second I hear singing, as if a thousand men call to tempt their enemy’s courage. Perhaps it was some sound echoed from the mountains, or wind whipping up through the battlements. Or maybe those countless soldiers who served their seven year service for the rest of their lives, still patrol that ancient wall. They call to all as a warning, even the rising sun.
Now the wall falls silent again. The rising sun turns the higher towers a soft red rose colour. The trees already bare for the coming winter, leave nothing but these great bones as far as the eye can see. Its design is a mystery, engineering unfathomable, it fills you with wonder.
Greatness
I’m reminded about our guide Luna’s story at the bottom of the wall. Three things she said made the Great Wall great. At over 8000km for just the Ming dynasty sections, the wall is truly great in length. All the slaves and soldiers for which it is a tomb make it one of China’s greatest tragedies. Finally, with over 2000 years of construction it is a great example of the ingenuity of man.
For me though, none of these say what the Great Wall was and still is today. It is a great wonder, that – staring out over the misty peaks – is impossible not to feel. Like so much of China and indeed myself, it was not light nor dark. It was all things at once and through it all amazing to me. A reminder that not all the world is there to be understood, but sometimes just experienced instead.
The wind chilled my bones as the sun finally crested the peaks to the east. I picked up my bag and scrambled the steps back toward the coach. My time in China was at an end I realised, but I didn’t look back at the wall again. That I knew would be coming with me wherever I went in life from here.
