There are a lot of myths about the Great Wall that need to go away. First of all: you can’t see it from the moon. Second: While portions of the wall have been constructed and linked and rebuilt in stages since before the Qin dynasty, the Great Wall that most people see today is of a (comparatively) recent vintage, dating back to the 14th century when the Ming emperors sought some means to separate themselves from their Mongol enemies. It never really worked as a “wall,” but it did serve an important defensive purpose as an elevated highway and means of sending communications quickly along the northern mark.
But even so, if you’ve been standing on the northern frontier for such a long time, you’d like to get some respect. First, the announcement that the Wall, which used to protect the Chinese state, now needs state protection. Starting this week, you can no longer carve your name or other graffiti nor take portions of it home as souvenirs or use stones from the landmark to rebuild your pig shed. The Wall sees a reported 10 million tourists a year, but not all of them behave. Getting the chop are such popular activities as driving a vehicle on the wall (!), hiking the ‘wild’ sections of the wall, and the popular ‘raves‘ held near Beijing each summer.
(The Mighty Ho and I actually attended one of these things a few years ago. Trust me when I tell you, if you weren’t there, you didn’t miss anything. After a few hours of watching laowai drink overpriced beer in the rain–and my almost walking off a 50′ drop looking for the WC–we wandered down to the nearest village and paid a local miandi driver 150 yuan to take us back to Haidian. Not good times.)
Other things to strike from the agenda when next you visit wan li chang cheng (万里长城): jumping it on a motorcycle or making it disappear magically (though this last part seems unfairly aimed at the narrow segment of the population named David Copperfield.)
Also in Wall news this week, The People’s Daily announced that the Chinese government will put its sophisticated and famously spot-on statisticians to work determining the official length of the wall, to be announced in 2008. The usual answer is between 6000-6700 km (about 4000 miles) but when the Beijing statisticians get through with the job, be prepared for anything. I’m setting the over/under at “twice the circumference of the Earth.” We’ll have to wait and see how this turns out.
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French President Jacques Chirac this past week revealed himself to be a true connoisseur of Chinese history, visiting several cities including Xian, which Chirac called: “The holy land of Chinese civilization.” According to the People’s Daily, the French President keeps a number of Chinese artifacts in his office including, “bronzes from the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 BC) and a Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) sculpture of Guanyin, the goddess of compassion and mercy.” So Jacques loves the Middle Kingdom. Of course $14 billion worth of airplanes and $1.5 billion worth of locomotives can buy a lot of love.
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Continued news from the archaeological excavations near Luoyang, Chinese specialists have uncovered over 98 different tomb sites, 95 of which date back to the Eastern Zhou period (770-256 BCE). “The unearthed Zhou tombs, containing earthenware, bronze weapons and jade articles, have been categorized as those for common people, while two bigger ones, with bronze pits, musical instruments and other articles for sacrifice ceremony, belonged to noble families, according to the experts.” I’m not sure how they’re defining ‘common people’ here (bronze and jade articles?), but any new discovery that can add illumination to this period in China’s history is exciting news.
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Steven Cheung, former dean of the economic and finance school of the University of Hong Kong, wrote on his blog on October 6 that the mausoleum of Qinshihuang, who united seven warring states and founded the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC, should be opened.
Cheung wrote it would be a “stupid” waste if the tomb remained untouched. “It’s like it doesn’t exist,” he argued.
The economist also said the tomb would bring huge profits. “If the ticket were sold at 500 yuan, five million visitors would bring an annual revenue of 2.5 billion yuan.”
That might be, but even the Chinese government is against this. “‘Current techniques cannot ensure that the mausoleum will be properly protected after excavation,’ said Duan Qingbo, a senior archaeologist with the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeology Institute.” I’m not holding my breath to see the lakes and rivers made of mercury or ceilings of diamonds and jade anytime soon.
i’m still waiting for them to open up ming taizu’s tomb in nanjing. bet there’s all kinds of crazy stuff in there.
I’m with you. The historian in me would like to see all of these tombs opened up, but not until measures are in place for preservation and protection of the artifacts and sites.
Interestingly, just recently there was this report that estimates that no more than 2500km remains of the Great Wall, though that apparently only counts those ruins that can still reasonably be called a ‘wall’ and ignores other, more weathered portions.