How to Use a Small Child As a Weapon

(Nik)

It was a busy day to say the least: the Great Wall, a Cloisonné factory, the Ming Sacred Way, and a Gongfu performance. Kelly got us moving bright and early to drive for about one and a half hours to Mutianyu, a popular place to climb the wall.

As walls go, the Great Wall is pretty great. At its greatest length, it was about 10,000 kilometers long, and stretches from the Pacific Ocean north of Beijing and out across the parched northern plains. National walls were first constructed in quantity during the Warring States period in the 300s BC, and after Qinshihuang unified China, he linked up some previously-build walls to form the first stage of the Great Wall to halt nomads who were raiding food from Northern and Western farmers. It was further expanded by the Han and Ming Emperors.

The Wall couldn't stop all invaders, however, as Genghis Khan shows, and it has not remained a useful defensive measure, which makes the many lives lost during its construction all the more sad. The Wall is called "the Worlds longest graveyard" because workers who died building it were buried within the foundation.

Ascending the mountain to get into the Wall was rather arduous, however walking on the surface of the Wall was the experience of a lifetime. We all felt a connection to the great tapestry of history, and a sense of belonging to such a large, physically imposing thing. It was beautiful, and quietly emotional, and a wonderful memory.

Descending was a different story. To avoid another half-hour hike down the mountain, we all grouchily forked over some of our hard-earned yuan to use one of the alternate modes of transport: Ola and Kelly took the chairlift, while the Li's, Abby, and I tobogganed down the mountain on specially-build carts running in a metal trough. It would have been tons of fun if it hadn't been for a party of French Businesspeople in front of us. Despite signs literally every ten feet that say "No Stopping," they stopped frequently and dismissed Lindsay's furious screams in the high school French she still sort of remembers. Why? we can't say, however it was quite a bummer.

We had lunch at the cloisonné factory. While this was a real factory, the fancy lunch, English-speaking company representatives, and portraits of famous leaders made it clear that this is one used as a tourist attraction as well. Cloisonné is made from copper and enamel. Copper wire is glued to a sheet-copper shape in a pattern (the glue is an herbal paste) and mineral powder is mixed with water and then spread into the cells formed by the wire. The piece is fired, and more glaze is added to the cells to cover cracks and shrinkage caused by evaporation. After the glazing is finished, the copper is gilded through electrolysis with gold. The finished piece is then polished with charcoal and whetstone.

It appears to be a pattern at these factories that aggressive salespeople will approach you without provocation, then proceed to demonstrate how hard-wearing the merchandise is be opening and closing it rapidly, scratching it, and banging it against the display case. The woman who cornered me was trying to get me to buy a jewelry box; I successfully resisted, because there's something frightening about a jewelry box being beaten up by a severe-looking woman talking about credit cards she assumed I had.

On the way home we stopped at the Sacred Way to the Ming Tombs. The Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties constructed tombs around this statue garden and walkway full of auspicious animals and willow trees. We also got to see another stone tablet.

Upon reentering Beijing, Kelly took us to a "tea ceremony" to sample six of the 3000+ types of tea in China. We enjoyed wafting the scents and rolling the warm cups on our faces in the style of the woman leading the ceremony, and of course the tea was delicious. After the sampling, we were given time to buy, and once again aggressive salespeople besieged us. I wanted to pay relatively quickly to avoid being shown just how hardwearing the tea was...

After relaxing with tea, we were psyched up again by a Gongfu show. The performance was a mixture of concert, martial arts demonstration, ballet, and acrobatics. Two highlights for me were a dance sequence with aerial silks and a group martial arts number with adults and children fighting in tandem. My heart was in my throat as they sort of threw each other around; the children would swing and jump from the adults shoulders to attack the protagonist, the adults would jump over and around the children to execute their moves. It was amazing. Simply amazing.

Also, it made us late for dinner, so we spent about 30 minutes running around Wangfujing looking for an open restaurant. Fortunately, all of the maitre d' stations were very hardwearing (we know because Kelly made like a saleswoman and gave the all maitre d' stands a good punch).