Day 4 - Monday, Sept 16 - Great Wall and Tiananmen Square


When we came down for breakfast a little before 6:30 (the restaurant doesn’t even open until 6;30), it was almost completely full already. Apparently there were a number of groups that were leaving early for the Great Wall. Our group didn’t leave until about 8:30.

It took us a little under 2 hours by bus to get to the Wall which is about 65 miles northwest of our hotel. Our local guide said that our driver was very good at avoiding the traffic. When we got to the wall, he said that we were lucky that it wasn’t nearly as crowded as it usually would be.

The wall was initially constructed from about 700 BCE and was largely completed by the first emperor of China who conquered and united the prior warring kingdoms. It was initially made of layers of dirt or dirt and sod but the wall we now visit was constructed of brick and stone in the 1500s to keep out the Mongols. There was a total of about 11000 miles although much of it is in disrepair. As we drove closer, we could see parts of the wall that were crumbling and covered with vegetation but the sections visited by tourists are well maintained and we could see these sections snaking along the mountain tops.

There are stone observation towers every few hundred feet along the wall which is 20-30 feet high and 20-30 feet wide with ramparts along the side to fire arrows or guns against attackers. Much of the wall is quite steep and could be quite slippery if wet or snowy. It was quite crowded on the wall and while there were a number of Western visitors, probably 95% of the people were Asian.

Adlers at the Wall

Crowd at the Wall

We had a scrumptious Chinese lunch at a restaurant near the wall. Chinese meals are typically served on large round tables that seat 7-8 people and have a large “lazy Susan” in the middle. It was completely filled with plates of food including duck, chicken, pork, beef and vegetarian dishes. We were uncomfortable that we only ate about half of the food and left the rest – this was typical of the dinners that we had as well. All of the food was delicious.

After lunch we took the bus back to the city center, passing the Olympic “birds nest” stadium and the Olympic village. In many areas, flowers were being planted and intensive cleaning done in preparation for the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic on October 1.

The bus let us off and we walked to Tiananmen Square, going in through heavy security. The security in preparation of the anniversary is causing roads and subway stations to be closed with a heavy military and police presence everywhere. The government doesn’t want any possibility of terrorist attack or a repeat of demonstrations that in the past resulted in large massacres or bad public relations when people immolated themselves. Viewing stands were being setup for the thousands of invitation-only guests.

Tiananmen Square is the largest public square in the world with Mao Tse Tung’s mausoleum at one end and the large Heavenly Peace Gate with the image of Mao at the other end. Workers were busy scrubbing all of the surfaces in preparation for the anniversary. There was an incredible array of surveillance cameras and other devices. There are cameras everywhere in Beijing. Our bus driver had to be careful not to stop where he shouldn’t as he could get “social points” taken away that could make it harder for him to travel or to obtain government services.

Tiananmen Square

We came back to the hotel and rested for a couple hours before another sumptuous dinner.

After dinner, there was a performance of Peking Opera in a theater in the hotel. Before the performance, one of the actors was on the stage putting on the very thick traditional makeup and getting dressed in an ornate outfit. We thought we would see him later in the performance but didn’t which seemed a bit strange. During the main performance, there were screens along both sides that described in both English and Chinese what was going on. The opera is difficult to describe, having many dramatic stylized dancing gestures and high-pitched singing. Our local guide said that Chinese people can not understand the language that is being sung.

Actor putting on makeup



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