Chapter 7 – Great Wall
With the competition over, the girls were carefree and ready for fun. For their fourth day, they would visit one of the most famous historical monuments of the world – the Great Wall of China.
The drive to the bit they were visiting was rather long – it took almost two hours. On the way, Baixue told them that there was a Chinese saying that if you didn’t visit the Great Wall, you were not a so-called ‘hero’.
“So,” concluded Baixue, “by visiting the great wall, you are all going to be heroes!”
“I don’t care to be a hero,” said Cynthia.
By the time they arrived at the Wall, it was nearly noon, and they had lunch at the Great Wall Restaurant before going on their guided tour of the Wall.
A tour guide met them there. He was to be the girls’ guide for the next few days when they visited tourist attractions. His name was Mr Leung.
Mr Leung distributed the tickets to the girls and they went through the turnstiles and onto the wall.
“Do you see?” said Mr Leung. “There are some regular holes on the outside of the wall. They were for the soldiers to kneel down and conceal themselves, but they could shoot arrows out of the holes and attack the enemy. This design allowed the Chinese army to take full advantage over their rival in a battle.”
“What if the enemy took over the wall?” asked Alice.
“Then the enemy would use the wall, and China would lose, no doubt,” answered Mr Leung.
They proceeded to a little enclosed tower. According to Mr Leung, they were called Beacon towers, and were built for passing military messages, and for convenience in observing the enemy’s actions. The soldiers lit fires to communicate with other soldiers. Other soldiers saw the smoke from other Beacon towers, and they too lit their fires, and the message would spread, one tower to the next.
They sat down on the floor of the tower as instructed by Mr Leung, since it was such a hot day and he wanted to introduce the history and construction of the wall to the girls in the shade.
“Different sectors of the wall were already built in the Spring and Autumn dynasty, when seven powerful nations declared war amongst themselves. The sectors were built to defend. This dynasty started in 770 BC,” explained Mr Leung.
“I’m sorry, Mr Leung,” said Baixue. “But I learnt that Emperor Qin was in charge of the building of the wall. The wall was one of his major accomplishments.”
“I was just getting to that,” said Mr Leung, smiling. “You were right. Emperor Qin joined the sectors in 221 BC to make the whole of the Great Wall of China.”
“I remember now,” Alexis cried. “I read a story about the wall. There was a couple, I think, that were just wed. But then the emperor captured the husband to build the wall, and the wife was heartbroken. When winter came, the wife made a jacket for the husband, and went to the wall to give it to him. There, she found that her husband had died, and his body was built into the wall. She wept in grief, and suddenly the wall crumbled and she found her husband’s body!”
“There is a story that goes like that,” replied Mr Leung. “But it’s not true. But what is true that out of the 300,000 people who were forced to leave their homes to be engaged in the task of building the wall, few were able to return. The conditions for building were really harsh, and many died of the cold or other factors.”
“That’s truly sad,” sighed Lizboa. “But isn’t it amazing that people from the Qin Dynasty who lived so many years before we did should be able to build such a wall!”
“Well,” said Mr Leung. “Not all of the wall was built then. Throughout the years, other emperors added on to the wall to make it the breathtaking, magnificent historical attraction that you see now!”
“Please,” asked Evelyn. “What sort of material was the wall first built out of?”
“The very first version of the wall was made out of wood and stone. Later on, bricks were used,” replied the guide.
They carried on walking. They could see scratches from spears, and holes from bullets. They saw holes that had been formed by crumbling bricks. They took pictures of the long fields of green grass that were under the wall. They posed in all sorts of silly positions to take photos.
By the end of the afternoon, the girls were very tired and very hungry. Before driving back to the hotel, they had dinner. They slept extremely well that night, for they all had sore feet from the walking, and were worn out by the hot sun.
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