Great Wall

I must admit - I purposely did not mention the Great Wall in my previous post in part because I felt I needed more time to think about the experience. I've been fascinated with the idea of exploring it since I was a young boy. It was one of the most compelling reasons for going. A bit of history of the wall might be useful; Construction started in the 5th century and continued off and on for another 10 centuries until the 16th. It stretches over 4000 miles. Seeing it snake down a valley and disappear up and over the next ridge is breath taking. We were fortunate enough to do some treking on an un-restored section of the wall east of Mutianyu. The engineer in me couldn't help but marvel at the scale of this thing. Awe aside -- what is all this wall building about ? Can one draw some conclusions from this single engineering project that lasted 10 centuries ? Whether it ultimately succeeded or not is something I'll save for an after dinner discussion sometime.

One observation I've made of China is that there seems to be no shortage of 'walls'; There are walls around everything --older parts of Beijing, the forbidden city, gardens, public parks, hutongs, palaces, and of course the country itself. One can't help but wonder -- why such a historical emphasis on building walls and what are these walls keeping out? I asked myself --could this still be the case today? Are the Chinese still building great walls? Some might say - yes. Today they are technological and less obvious. Can a parallel be drawn between 10 centuries of wall building and internet, news and digital information filtering in China today? These modern walls are certainly more porous; However like the more traditional ones which kept the West and more notably the Mongols out for so many centuries --the new walls also keep things out -namely information. Now China is certainly not the only nation with a history of "wall building" and that is an important factor to keep in mind. I do find the continuity and evolution of this "building a wall" theme -albeit physical and/or digital over the last 15 centuries intriguing !

From Great Wall of...