Craggy Great Wall
In spring, before we left for our "Slightly Saner European Adventure," I was searching for a guidebook that included information for families. I stumbled upon one published by National Geographic titled 100 Places that Can Change Your Child's Life that in its table of contents listed some of the places we were planning to visit. I also saw that it had chapters about China, and one in particular about the Great Wall caught my attention. I started to remember something I had heard about this book, that there was a reason I should had already known about it. Fogginess gave way to near-clarity and....then....I remembered!
I was interviewed for this book.
The subject was, of course, the Great Wall, and at the time the writers and I corresponded, our family was making Great Wall treks a couple of times a month. Our frequency has decreased a little, with sports taking up some of our weekends, but we still find time to get out there as much as we can.
More after the jump
With the long holiday week at the beginning of October, we had a few days to explore some Great Wall that we had never seen. One day we went to the place that I blogged about seeming haunted. The following day we were in another pass near there and near the Sancha of Peter Hessler fame. The pass at Wangquanyu was narrow, claustrophobic at its narrowest--again, like the previous day, so tight we wondered if they really needed a Wall to guard it.
Much of the Wall that spanned the lowest part of the pass is gone, but what remains is still fascinating. It wasn't a see-Wall-forever kind of place. It was more like a surgical view.
All the layers. All the different building materials. Field stone, cut stone, bricks.
And in some places, the Wall was attached directly to the boulders which weren't moving for anyone.
Higher up the hills, the Wall took its twists and turns along the landscape, though in the overgrowth it appeared random and unplanned.
Even after four years, we are still able to seek out Great Wall that we have never seen before within an hour's drive of our apartment. Sometimes we get to see great expanses of Wall, and sometimes we just get to see bite-sized pieces.
I was interviewed for this book.
The subject was, of course, the Great Wall, and at the time the writers and I corresponded, our family was making Great Wall treks a couple of times a month. Our frequency has decreased a little, with sports taking up some of our weekends, but we still find time to get out there as much as we can.
More after the jump
With the long holiday week at the beginning of October, we had a few days to explore some Great Wall that we had never seen. One day we went to the place that I blogged about seeming haunted. The following day we were in another pass near there and near the Sancha of Peter Hessler fame. The pass at Wangquanyu was narrow, claustrophobic at its narrowest--again, like the previous day, so tight we wondered if they really needed a Wall to guard it.
Much of the Wall that spanned the lowest part of the pass is gone, but what remains is still fascinating. It wasn't a see-Wall-forever kind of place. It was more like a surgical view.
All the layers. All the different building materials. Field stone, cut stone, bricks.
And in some places, the Wall was attached directly to the boulders which weren't moving for anyone.
Higher up the hills, the Wall took its twists and turns along the landscape, though in the overgrowth it appeared random and unplanned.
Even after four years, we are still able to seek out Great Wall that we have never seen before within an hour's drive of our apartment. Sometimes we get to see great expanses of Wall, and sometimes we just get to see bite-sized pieces.
Comments