Go Over The Wall. On Us.

We used to have a wonderful National airline called Canadian. Sadly it is no more. Before its demise on one sunny March afternoon in 2000 we just happened to be seated in Row 2 of a 747.

As the Canadian Airlines flight taxied from the gate I opened the in-flight magazine – an advertisement for the airline’s frequent flier program declared “no matter where you want to go, the best way to travel there is for free”. It pictured people climbing the Great Wall of China with the caption “Go over the Wall. On us”.

Doug and I were about to take them up on their offer - using the last of our frequent flier miles and just enough for two business class tickets.

“You are not a man if you have not been to the Great Wall” so the saying goes in China. The Great Wall extends some 3000 miles and is one of the few objects on earth visible from outer space. It was conceived as a gigantic defensive project as far back as the 7th Century BC and required a force of almost a million workers to construct it.

What makes the Great Wall all the more spectacular is the way in which it was constructed on the ridges of mountains, rising up and down with the contours of the terrain. On the top of the Wall a road paved with square bricks is wide enough for six horses to go abreast. Watch towers, built at intervals of a few hundred yards line the Wall. These two-storey stone and brick structures were used as beacons and a means of communication to warn of an enemy’s advance – using smoke during daylight and fire at night.

During the Ming Dynasty whenever a signal was sent, one or more warning shots were also fired. According to the military regulations of 1468 a single shot together with a single fire or smoke signal warned that the enemy was about a hundred strong. Two shots and two signals warned of five hundred, three warned of over a thousand. In this way a message could be transmitted very quickly.

These days the invading barbarians of old have been replaced by barbarians of a different kind – tourists.

We accessed the Great Wall at Badaling. While Badaling offers awesome views because of its proximity to Beijing it is very crowded. The Badaling section of the Wall was mainly constructed during the Ming Dynasty – the Ming Great Wall averaged 30 feet high, 25 feet wide at the base and 18 feet wide at the top.

Once we had arrived at Badaling we realized there were two choices – an easy climb or a more challenging one. There were fewer people on the steeper portion so off we went.

The climb proved to be difficult because the steps were very uneven and of different depths. Coming down was harder because some portions were slippery from wear and tear.

At the highest point of the climb we stopped at one of the towers and said hello to a Chinese family enjoying a picnic.

Despite the throngs of people, we didn’t have to go very far to be alone and take in the isolation of the place. Looking from one of the guard towers out over the barren mountains the Wall snaked off into the distance. We couldn’t help but feel small and insignificant.