The Great Wall

Korean Adventure (February 21, 2003 Chautauqua)

My trip to see the Great Wall was a full day trip outside the city of Beijing that took in two other sites, the Ming Tombs and Long Qing Gorge.
The road system was fairly up-to-date. The gas stations are something to see. They combine the usual amenities with a circus tent-like appearance, to attract customers, I imagine. One of the things that amused me was seeing a road sign forbidding horse and buggy traffic on certain parts of the highway.

The Ming Tomb

The Ming Tombs lie in a valley where 13 of their emperors are buried. There are also six other tombs for imperial concubines and one for the princes. On the way leading to the tombs is a stone archway, a great red gate, a stele pavilion, a sacred path flanked by stone statues of generals and ministers, and a dragon and phoenix archway. The tomb precincts are covered with ancient pines and cypresses.

The stele at the Ming Tomb

As for the Great Wall, there are three sections within range of the city that are open to tourists. The farthest afield is at a place called Jinshanling, near Gubeikou, where you have the wall more or less all to yourself.
The second site is at Mutianyu, and is rarely visited by tourists, too. It has a cable car and offers spectacular views similar to that of the most popular site, at Badaling (where our tour was scheduled to visit). Badaling has been much built up, and could be termed overly touristy. The highway makes it the most convenient site to visit.

Cable car up to the wall

There are endless pay toilets, souvenir stands, peddlers, tourist buses and a cable car, but the view from the top is striking. The wall and the strategically placed towers climb and swoop along the crests of the mountains that has to be seen to be believed.

The entrance to the stairs up to the top of the wall

It is amazing when you consider the fact that the wall was built more than 2,700 years ago, to protect Chinese territory. These walls had a total length of 50,000 kilometres, which ran across an area as large as 16 of today's provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. You can see it from space.

After getting off the cable car you come down to a rest area where they sell refreshments and souveneirs before climbing up to the top

After being carried to the wall by the cable car, there is a short walk to the entrance. This is a fairly small door leading to the stairs up to the top. It's a little crowded. Once you are up top, there is a variety of places to go to take in the views.

View from the top

Getting from one place to another is the trick, though, as the wall gives new meaning to the word steep. An appreciation for what mountain goats must go through is instilled in everyone.
Care must be taken to avoid becoming part of someone's picture. The wait for the pose to be captured on film makes for a welcome break from climbing. There are towers, as I have said, but these are not accessible to the public, except to go through to the next section. You can walk back down, but there was no time allowed for our group.

One of the dams at Long Qing Gorge

Before we knew it, we were back on the bus, headed for Long Qing Gorge. It was a bit of a ways from the wall, and the group took the opportunity to commandeer the tour guide's microphone for some karaoke. Each singer introduced himself, and sang what I guessed was some traditional Korean song. They were nice enough to invite me up, and I gave them a few verses of the Beatles' "In My Life."

A typical boat - very snug!

Long Qing Gorge is the site of a lake, created by a dam, upon which "dragon boat" tours carry approxiamately 100 or so people up to a recreation facility and back. There are pretty spectacular cliffsides on view. There is also an escalator, that carries you up to the boats, built inside a giant plastic dragon (below).


This was the impression that I brought back from China with me. There was some very ancient, undeniably spectacular scenery, surrounded by the modern day trappings (both good and bad) of garish capitalism.

... that's very steep

Sometimes it was hard to appreciate what I was seeing, the tour moved so fast. But I think my background in history gave me enough insight to put things in their proper context. I hope these stories have been entertaining, informative, and shown just a little bit of what the world has to offer.
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I took this tour in October 2002, just after Korea's amazing performance in the World Cup of soccer. We heard a chant from that time, "Daehan Minguk!" from one of the other boats on the lake. The trippers in my boat were so pleased with this that they yelled it at every other boat we passed. Some of them responded, and some of them just stared back blankly.
Being part of a package tour has its advantages, in that you cram a lot of stuff into a short time. But if you're not pressed, it's better to find your own way to these places.

Going To China

Korean Adventure (December 6, 2002 Chautauqua)

I went to China as part of a package tour. Just getting to the airport was an adventure in itself. I got off work at 7:30 pm Tuesday night and went home to pack.
I then caught a 10:30 express bus from Daegu to Seoul. The buses in Korea are fairly pleasant as buses go, and I thought I would be able to catch a few Z's on the way. My seatmate, however, had other ideas.
He received many calls on his cell phone during the ride, and for some reason he had to speak to all his callers at the TOP OF HIS VOICE. On one call, he also had to repeat everything he said three times.
There is a surfeit of cell phones in Korea. I know they can be handy sometimes, but it gets a little ridiculous when you see a couple walking down the street, both talking on phones (MAYBE to each other, but I doubt it).
The "text message" feature is another thing that annoys me. It's not uncommon to see people concentrating more on tapping out a note than the world going on around them. You have to watch out for them when they are walking down the street.
The phones also have a variety of tunes that you can select to alert you to a call instead of a ring. I would appreciate it if the users would select "vibrate," especially when I am trying to teach a class.
Anyway, to return to the bus (we have to get to China, don't we?) things finally settled down after a short rest break. There are some interesting rest stops on the highways of Korea. There are restroom facilities, restaurants, and even little roadside stands selling cheap souvenirs, CDs, etc.
As we were getting close to Seoul, I almost had to referee a battle over an open window. My seatmate was a little hot, but the Koreans don't like the cold. He tried to pretend he was asleep, but the others just reached over him to close the window. It was a good thing the trip was over shortly thereafter (China's getting closer now).
I got into Seoul about 2:30 am with three hours to kill before the airport limousine buses started to operate. Next to the express bus terminal is a hotel/shopping mall/ bus depot complex called "Central City." I imagine it's a happening place during the day, but the only people I found awake were night owls like me and the cleaning staff.
None of them seemed excited about their trips. I was too wired to sleep so I read a bit and, before I knew it, the limousines were running. I almost took a cab to the airport, but it would have cost me 60,000 won ($75 Cdn). The limousine bus costs 11,000 won ($15). No contest.
At the airport at 6:00 am, and STILL two hours before my tour group met (Don't fret, China is almost near enough to touch). Coffee and a donut was breakfast, and the paper was a distraction.
The two previous e-mails I had received from my travel agent specified the "Hana Tour (table #5) between B and C check-in counters" as the meeting place. The tour meeting there, however, was going to Japan (!). A helpful agent directed me to the Hana Tour table between K and L check-in counters.
Well, there they were, and I was now part of a group of middle-aged Koreans. Most of the tour was conducted in Korean, and I would pretty much have to shift for myself as to explanations as to what was going on.
There was a very nice man named Michael who spoke English, and he was to be my roommate for the tour. We each had a badge to identify ourselves to the tour guide, who held a flag up for us to follow (Let's get to China already!).
Going through customs was no trouble at all. After 9/11, I had expected an ever-increasing gamut of checks to go through, but they have been decreasing, if anything.
We were all released to hit the duty-free stores, and about an hour later, we were rounded up and herded through the gates towards our stalls... er... seats on the plane. I was very excited, despite the lack of sleep. In only a little over an hour, I would be in China! (At last!)
It will be a little longer before you read about that experience, though. Until next time...
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I never had a cell phone until my third year in Korea. They are pretty handy when you're getting together with friends, but I did try to resist having one as long as I could. Probably too long.
Korean buses can be a trial if you're not sitting next to the window. The heat can be oppresive, but the average Korean seems to thrive on it. I always tried to get next to a window as much as possible, because some drivers just ignored the A/C button.
Travelling around Korea is usually cheap and fast. Buses, taxis, and the train were all very convenient ways to get around, much more convenient than back here in The World.
I don't recall too many difficulties with Korean Customs. They usually waved me through without any baggage search at all.