A sunny Saturday afternoon
Last Saturday, after the kids' indoor sports, frisbee and soccer, and grocery shopping, we knew we didn't want to waste too much time not outside because we finally had a good air quality day. It was too late, though, to try to drive up to any piece of Great Wall for this time of year. We decided we could head up around the Ming Tombs. We don't spend nearly enough time there, taking it for granted because it is practically in our metaphorical backyard. The villages are so steeped in centuries of history that it is a shame we usually hurry on past on our way to tumble-down Great Wall.
They really are something, those Ming Tombs. I'm often amazed at how wonderful they look from a distance against their mountain backdrop. The sites were chosen based on geomancy, but were their formulae really able to calculate how striking it would be to view them from future highways?
More after the jump
We drove up through Yanzikou, peering at every hill top for signs of Old Wall or signal towers we can only see in late winter. We continued into Kanglingcun, stopping to check out the tomb there. It isn't open to the public, so we walked the perimeter, peeking inside where we could. Oddly, we aren't as interested in entering these types of off-limit sites as we are so-called Wild Wall. Perhaps we feel some sort of lingering reverence for these as burial grounds.
Just behind the Kang Tomb we came upon this sign, the likes of which I had only ever before heard but never had seen. I googled it to get an idea of the date of it, and I found one similar mentioned in this article from 1966. We were ready to continue further up the path, but Myles was adequately freaked out about the rusty prohibition, so we returned to our car.
We continued along one road, and then another, until we decided to turn around as it would soon be supper time. We were driving through the village of 锥石口 (Zhuī shíkǒu) for the second time when I asked Randy to stop the car. I was certain I had seen something that looked like wall.
I had.
There it was, a short length of crumbling wall, several centuries old, spanning (almost) the pass.
In retrospect, we should have expected to see some sign of wall or a gate on this pass near this spot. Many places we go to north of Beijing with the word 口 in the name played some role in the walled defenses in this area.
Any brick or stone facing there may have been was long since gone.
We could just make out the rounded opening of a man-door that we couldn't access quickly from where we were standing.
It was amazing to me, at least, that it appeared that some of this wall was still standing. It looked from where we were standing that the weir may was a more recent construction, and may have widened the river necessitating the removal of the wall on that end. It may also have been partially dismantled due to the paved road being built. Why the whole piece of wall wasn't just taken out in any of these projects is possibly a testament to how solidly built it really was.
We hadn't expected to see any wall, but we had. Sometimes that can really make our day.
They really are something, those Ming Tombs. I'm often amazed at how wonderful they look from a distance against their mountain backdrop. The sites were chosen based on geomancy, but were their formulae really able to calculate how striking it would be to view them from future highways?
More after the jump
We drove up through Yanzikou, peering at every hill top for signs of Old Wall or signal towers we can only see in late winter. We continued into Kanglingcun, stopping to check out the tomb there. It isn't open to the public, so we walked the perimeter, peeking inside where we could. Oddly, we aren't as interested in entering these types of off-limit sites as we are so-called Wild Wall. Perhaps we feel some sort of lingering reverence for these as burial grounds.
Just behind the Kang Tomb we came upon this sign, the likes of which I had only ever before heard but never had seen. I googled it to get an idea of the date of it, and I found one similar mentioned in this article from 1966. We were ready to continue further up the path, but Myles was adequately freaked out about the rusty prohibition, so we returned to our car.
We continued along one road, and then another, until we decided to turn around as it would soon be supper time. We were driving through the village of 锥石口 (Zhuī shíkǒu) for the second time when I asked Randy to stop the car. I was certain I had seen something that looked like wall.
I had.
There it was, a short length of crumbling wall, several centuries old, spanning (almost) the pass.
In retrospect, we should have expected to see some sign of wall or a gate on this pass near this spot. Many places we go to north of Beijing with the word 口 in the name played some role in the walled defenses in this area.
Any brick or stone facing there may have been was long since gone.
We could just make out the rounded opening of a man-door that we couldn't access quickly from where we were standing.
It was amazing to me, at least, that it appeared that some of this wall was still standing. It looked from where we were standing that the weir may was a more recent construction, and may have widened the river necessitating the removal of the wall on that end. It may also have been partially dismantled due to the paved road being built. Why the whole piece of wall wasn't just taken out in any of these projects is possibly a testament to how solidly built it really was.
We hadn't expected to see any wall, but we had. Sometimes that can really make our day.
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