The Great Wall, Cloisonne and Chinese Opera

China Day Three - The Great Wall

Today was a terrific day, as we climbed a section of the Great Wall of China!  I can now check that off the bucket list of the wonders of the world that I wanted to experience in my lifetime.  We started out the day stopping at a factory where they make cloisonne pottery.  We toured the factory and learned how the cloisonne is made.  Its quite an intricate and delicate process.  I didn't know that cloisonne pieces are all made of copper, not ceramic.  The process of creating the designs, hand painting the ceramic coloring, firing and polishing the pieces is amazing.  The pieces are absolutely beautiful and the precision and patience and creativity it takes to produce the pieces by hand is mind boggling.  

After the cloisonne factory, we drove outside the center city about 40 miles to a section of the Great Wall that is way off the main tourist routes.  This particular piece of the Wall was restored in the past 10 years by the Grand Circle Foundation which is the not-for-profit arm of the OAT group that organized this tour.  They paid for the clearing of the road and the repairs that made it accessible to hikers.  At first OAT was the only group that walked this part of the wall, but they have now opened it up, but very few people know about it and very few go there.  We were the only group there other than some individual hikers and a handful of Chinese locals.  It is much more rugged than the other parts of the wall that most tourists climb.  We passed those sections on our way to our section and we were very glad to have this alternative, as the other sections were absolutely packed with people so that you would not be able to stop to take a picture or enjoy the view because of the crowds going up and down, and God help anyone who needed some extra time to do the climb!  

The section we did was very steep and in many spots more than a little scary.  We went up to about 2500 feet elevation and we felt the burn in our legs as we made the climb.  We had a local hiking guide there to help us when it got particularly treacherous and a couple of times I was very glad for his hand to steady me!  Coming down was more scary than going up as we were WAY UP THERE and the steep steps of the descent had to be taken slowly and carefully.  We were very lucky that it was cooler today than yesterday and there was a nice breeze.  The mountain vistas were stunning, although the view was obscured by smog that was really quite dense today.  Even with the smog, it was breathtaking to look out over the mountains and see the wall snaking all along the crest of the hills.  It truly is a wonder to behold and you cannot really appreciate it until you've had that experience of the climb up and down.

After we climbed the wall, we went to lunch in a nearby local village community center.  The lunch was prepared for us by a local resident who cooked all the food herself.  We were able to sample dishes that are not usually offered in restaurants because they can't prepare the foods for the volume of folks they typically serve.  Then we returned to Beijing, which took more than an hour and a half because of the density of the traffic.  We all agreed we'd never complain about NYC or Boston traffic ever again after experiencing Beijing traffic!  

After a brief rest, we headed back out to an early-ish dinner and then went to a short performance of Chinese opera.   Chinese opera is definitely an acquired taste, but it was beautiful and the combination of martial arts and acrobatics that are part of it make it fun to watch.   The "music" however, is hard on Western ears.  Sounds not unlike a cat in heat much of the time!!

The pics today include the Wall, a shot of our dinner spread (and mind you this is what we are having at all our meals!!) and a shot of one of the opera performers.  It has been a full day and I'm more than ready to go to sleep.  Another very full day ahead of us tomorrow.