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In the Land of Confucian -- Foreigners in China Man and the Great Wall Series by Scott Urban Week 9 (October 24, 1997) -- Wing Tip "He who has not been to the Great Wall, is not a great man." -- Chinese Proverb Introduction: Scott Urban went to China
in 1994 to work at the China Daily newspaper in Beijing, where he stayed
until 1997. While in China, Scott contracted a severe form of bicycling
mania, which manifested itself in his 6,000-kilometer bicycle journey
to Xinjiang in 1995 with friend Brice Minnigh. In the Fall of 1996, Scott Urban and another friend William Lindesay spent every weekend possible cycling to the Great Wall of China to find lost sections of the Wall, with nothing more than curiosity, bicycles, and a map of the greater Beijing area. The trips involved comparatively big distances and tough conditions, but the payoffs were rich: in store could be anything from a swath of rubble to a grand section of Ming Dynasty ramparts with intact towers and inscribed tablets. This fall we invite you to join the ride and see the China that's not usually seen. Scott currently resides in Denver, Colorado, USA, and is involved in a number of China-related projects. He can be reached at 110362.3041@compuserve.com . (Continued from last week) Will and I climbed the steep steps of the Great Wall at Mutianyu -- anyone who's been there knows what I'm talking about. It occurred to me that this had been the first stretch of Great Wall I'd ever climbed, back in 1994 when I first arrived in China. We went beyond that stretch and continued on the path
that I'd once considered perilous. It was a cinch. Soon we arrived at
a big U-turn in the Wall: the Oxhorn. It was 4:30 and getting cold.
We crossed over to the far side of the Oxhorn and settled on a tower
over there. The wind started blowing, and it sent a chill through us. We picked a spot in the tower and cleared the ground, then built a low wall with rubble to protect our heads from the draft. Then it was time for the banquet -- there's always a few surprises in store. My kitty amounted to the aforementioned baked goods, plus a large box of orange juice and two tins of tuna -- and a small bottle of Scotch whiskey. It's too cold for beer. Will pulled out the main course: a big loaf of wheat bread, package of sandwich meat, hunk of cheddar cheese, two cups of pineapple-flavoured yogurt, and two big imported bars of chocolate -- with holograms attached. Although it was early -- not even 6 o'clock, it was dark and too cold to linger. We had to get in the bags, albeit with every intention of staying up and talking. No one can sleep for 13 hours. But after a day like that -- up at 5:30 am, all day on the bikes, and hiking up to the Wall -- once you're horizontal, you're out. I fell right asleep, plenty warm in the bag. Sometime later I was roused. "Scott," Will said, grabbing my shoulder. "Did you hear that?" He'd heard something rustling outside. Whatever it was, it went away. I asked Will to check his watch. It wasn’t even 7 o’clock. Later that night I got out of the bag to answer nature's call, discovering that the weather had changed: it was still and silent, and it seemed the temperature was even a few degrees higher. But most importantly, there were a million stars out in the moonless sky. I came back to the bag and reported it to Will. Later, he went for a wee and gawked at the same thing. "You gonna spend some time out there?" I asked. "Yeah," he said. "You gonna come out?" It was still and peaceful out there, with the kind of stars you never see in Beijing or any city. We stayed out there for a while trying to pass some time. Will counted six shooting stars. We retreated to the bags and got more sleep. Again, Will roused me from sleep around 5:30 in the morning. "It's people!" he said. I heard the noises and held my hand up and motioned to him to be quiet -- I wanted to hear more clearly. The voices got closer and closer, a big group of people it seemed, talking in very cheery, excited tones. Like everyone, they were excited to be getting on the Great Wall. "Must be a group of photographers," Will guessed. "Should we give them the scare of their lives?" One yell or shout would have scared the underwear off those guys -- no way did they suspect there were people asleep in the tower where they were ascending the Wall. They'd come up from another village down below. But I didn't want to deal with them; all I wanted was for them to go away so I could sleep. Most of the voices left but soon a few people entered the tower; we could see their flashlight coming our way. "We better warn them we're in here," Will suggested. "Hey," he yelled. "We're in here." "Oh, foreigners!" someone said. "We've disturbed you." "No problem," we replied. Unfortunately, to get to the top of the Oxhorn, these three would have to walk right through our passageway, meaning right over us, apologizing all the while. I feared there would be more of them, and gave up on getting any more sleep or staying warmly tucked away in the bag. Will got his photo equipment together and headed for the highest point near us. I stayed nearer to the tower, unnecessarily worried about our stuff. As the sun came up, it exposed a sea of clouds below us, forming a perfect shoreline right below me. Our tower and a few mountain summits around it were all that was sticking out of the clouds, like islands in a vast sea. It was an incredible sight. From the highest vantage point we could look across a
valley and pick out what must have been the Eagle's Nest, a piece of
Great Wall where we'd been stuck in the rain several weeks earlier.
The amateur photographers and Will were happy with the outcome that morning. "I've never seen anything like this, mate!" Will said. "These will be some of the best photos in my entire Great Wall collection." One of the Chinese photographers scolded me for hesitating so long to get up to that vantage point. "Photography is like war," he said. "The rule is: occupy the highest ground in the vicinity as soon as possible. Before sun up, get your gear ready and anticipate your subjects. Then, when the sun comes up, pao! pao! pao!, start shooting!" We all chatted and admired the Great Wall. "The Chinese are great!" one of them said partly tongue-in-cheek. "Yeah," I replied. "No other country has anything like this. China has a glorious history." Another guy piped in. "But you have what really matters -- transport systems that work, civilized people, high technology, clean environment. What good is history?" I told him I thought China was developing very rapidly. Soon it would have both history and modernization. And it wants the latter desperately. China has historically been one of the world's foremost civilizations, and Chinese people know it. For reasons that are not always agreed upon -- actually, for reasons that may have something to do with the Great Wall -- it fell behind. Now, it wants to return to its former glory. And that doesn't seem too much to ask for a country of awesome size and awesome history. We all posed for a group photo, then Will and I bid them adieu. We were running late. We got back to the tower, had some breakfast, packed the bags, and started down the Wall, back towards the tourist section. Back issues: archive.html Last week: Wingtip, 3 of 5 Next week: Wingtip, 5 of 5 From the Editor in Chief: If you have some travel or work experience in China to share with us, we will be very excited to hear from you! Send your feedback by e-mail or regular mail to ASM Overseas Corporation. Thank you! And if you liked this column, please check Expats In China (International Community in China) for more interesting and useful information on life in China as a foreigner, including calendar of events, entertainment, housing, employment, classifieds, personal, etc.
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Since this place overlooked both the Eagle's
Nest and the Raven's Nest -- a tower we'd stayed in on our last trip
to the Great Wall, three weeks previous, we nicknamed it the Wing Tip.