Xi'an City Wall - A Five-Sided Rectangle

I've seen the Xi'an city wall referred to a both the last remaining city wall in China, and the most complete city wall remaining in China.  Suffice to say Xi'an still has a city wall.  Most, or all, of China's other historically larger cities that had city walls have removed them or failed to maintain them.  Xi'an's original city wall was constructed sometime around the 600s-900s AD during the Tang Dynasty.  Originally constructed from dirt, lime, and glutinous rice, it was enhanced to it's current state early in the Ming Dynasty (late 1300s).  The wall has been renovated three times since, the most recent in 1983.  The current wall is 12 meters tall, approximately 14km long forming a rectangle with battle stations every 120 meters, and is surrounded by a moat.

Today the wall is a tourist attraction and site of marathons every weekend of November.  Every other day, tourists can walk, run, and/or bike on the city wall.  We rented bikes.  And despite my strong protest, Laura insisted on a bike-built-for-two.  She paid dearly.  Not possessing the balance required to stabilize the bike with my considerable weight on the back, she was relegated to the back seat.  Much like the back seat of the bus, every bump is magnified on the back seat of the bike.  Particularly one as rickety and lacking in cushion as this one.  Combine that with a cobblestone-like surface minus a plethora of cobblestones, and you have one sore rear 14km later.  The bike-built-for-two and terrain also resulted in a lack of pictures what with me focused on balance and avoiding potholes and Laura hanging on for dear life.

Laura's behind will disagree with me, but I quite enjoyed the tour of Xi'an from the top of the city wall despite getting "lost".  Getting lost on a rectangle you ask?  Yes, I have submitted inquiries to the assorted colleges and universities the five well-educated adults among us attended for evaluation of their practices.  We all joked at the fact that there was a map of the rectangle on the back of the tickets we purchased for admission.  The map wasn't to identify city landmarks throughout the 14km circuit, it was merely a map of the rectangular 14km circuit.  Bikes rented, off we went to.  After all counting four turns, we stopped to turn our bikes in.  Strange that they didn't have our paperwork (everything in China has paperwork and gets the red stamp).  As we continued to chat with the rental place to resolve the issue, someone began noting our surroundings remembering a building near where we started that was not near where we stopped.  Perplexed, and all agreeing we had made four turns, we asked the rental place what gate we were at.  East Gate.  We had started at South Gate.  We still had a quarter of the loop to complete.  To this day I remain mystified.  I convinced myself it was actually a pentagon until Google maps confirmed it is in fact a rectangle.  Either we severely overestimated the intelligence of the group, or Xi'an has developed a five-sided rectangle.  I spend a good amount of free time in search of a solution to the five-sided rectangle.

From the base of the wall at the South Gate.

A warrior demonstration.

On the wall on a bike-built-for-two.  Brilliant!

Matt and Paul made the wiser choice.

Looking down one side of the wall from one of four (or five?) corners.

Looking down another side from the same corner.

Summer Palace

A much more interesting venture than the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace essentially served as emperor's vacation home.  Built in the mid-1700s and merely 15km to the northwest of the Forbidden City, the property covers nearly 750 acres.  According to our tour guide, nearly every inch of the property was constructed by hand.   Roughly 2/3 of the land is now Kunming Lake, a lake dug by hand.  The dirt from that lake made the Longevity Hill where the tower stands that the Dragon Lady reportedly ruled from.

The Dragon Lady (Empress Cixi, born the year of the dragon on the Chinese calendar) was a cunning and charasmatic woman who people came to both admire and fear.  She was chosen as a concubine into the emperor's harem, improved her situation both through her education and singing to the emperor in the gardens.  Upon the emperor's death, she ousted his appointee and maneuvered to  make her son emperor.  Historians believe she ruled China for 47 years through her son.

Below, you will see a picture of a concrete boat.  This boat was the handiwork of the Dragon Lady.  She diverted the entire naval budget for a year into the construction of this boat and improvements to her Summer Palace.  The idea behind the boat being once China's enemies saw the boat and believed they had the ingenuity to make a cement boat float, this alone would cause them to reconsider any thoughts of an attack on China.  The boat is of course not floating.

The Summer Palace is perhaps the most intriguing tourist stop in Beijing.  Our guide was full of interesting stories about the place and you can't possibly see it all in one day.  Like other stops, the incredible detail and symbolism is present everywhere.  Just one example at the Summer Palace is the 728 meter corridor, the longest in China and I'd presume the world.  Every portion of it is painted with great detail, but of particular interest are the beams at the top of each section.  Every beam has a hand-painted unique outdoor scene, the scenes progressing from winter to autumn as you make your way down all 728 meters.

Notice the board in place along the floor of each entryway.  These are in
every door I saw of both the Forbidden City and Summer Palace.  They
are in place to keep out the devil, the devil is apparently very small and
doesn't have much of a vertical leap.  You are also supposed to step over
these boards left foot first.

None of this detail work is done the easy way.

Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill

The 728 meter corridor

A summer scene painted on a corridor beam.

Every beam of every interior of every structure here and
at the Forbidden City resembles those in this picture.

Kunming Lake from Longevity Hill

The importance of a building in China can be determined by how many
 figures are on the roof corners.  The more figures, the more important
the building is.  I believe the most a building can have is 11.

The concrete boat built to deter China's enemies.

LT, also born in a year of the dragon, preparing to board a dragon boat.

The 17-arch bridge.  The 17 is not significant, but 9 is.
There are 9 different sizes of arch, or 9 arches in either
direction from the center.  9 is the emperor's number.

Forbidden City - Go Ahead and Blink

Covering a rectangular block nearly a kilometer long and 3/4 of a kilometer wide, the Forbidden City was the massive imperial palace of emperors for nearly 500 years spanning the Ming and Qing Dynasties.  Upon it's completion in 1420, the capital of China was moved from Nanjing (south capital) to Beijing (north capital) with the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square sitting along the city's north-south central axis.  As with most things in China, there is great symbolism in nearly every detail of the construction, colors, and layout.  The walls of the Forbidden City, like portions of the Great Wall, were constructed using bricks and mortar in which major ingredients were glutinous rice and egg whites.

The night of our arrival into Beijing, we happened upon a military training of some sort meandering through a public portion of the Forbidden City.  Incidentally, a half hour stroll later we happened upon the same military men performing the same ritual as they lowered and carried away the China flag between the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.  Neat to see.  Feeling confident in my assumption that this is a ritual performed twice daily, you have to be impressed with the pride displayed in practicing to give the task the precision they feel it deserves.

The following day we did the walk through the entirety of the Forbidden City.  The entirety of that which is open to the public I should say.  Some of it is still forbidden.  I am constantly amazed will the level of detail that adorns every surface of these historic sights.  I find myself spending the majority of my time inspecting like carvings or paintings for commonality that supports a hypothesis that they fast-tracked the process if you will.  The evidence continues to suggest otherwise.  Variance in quantities of feathers or petals, a slight extension of a foot in one painting versus the other, an imperfect pattern.  All the same at a glance, all unique on closer inspection.  It is maddening to me as an engineer, but I can appreciate the effort.

Like the Great Wall, once through the Forbidden City was enough for me.  In one wander through, I feel as though I've seen it six or seven times.  The Forbidden City is a procession of similarly ornate rectangular buildings followed by similarly massive courtyards.  I considered at one point if the Chinese had discovered how to bend space.  Despite walking forward in one direction for the duration of the "tour", I felt as though I continued to arrive at the same place.  In front of a large, ornate, rectangular building which would be followed by a large courtyard.  If you visit, don't be concerned if you miss one building or courtyard due to temporary blindness from an aversion to pollutants in the air or the distraction of a child playing behind the ropes on a centuries old lion statue, there's another big building and courtyard to come ... and another, and another, and …

Can you imagine the conversation when a meeting was held here?  This is between Mr. Chang, the government official, and Mr. Chen, an employee of the Forbidden City.

Chang:  Mr. Chen, good to see you.  Where is the meeting today?
Chen:  Good to see you too Mr. Chang, it's in the big building out back sir.
Chang:  Which big building?
Chen:  The rectangular one with the big courtyard behind it?
Chang:  You're not helping me Mr. Chen.
Chen:  You know, the fancy ornate one with the little figures at the corners?
Chang:  Still not helping.
Chen:  It has the beautiful carving between the stairs to the entrance.
Chang:  (Irritated) They all look the same Mr. Chen.
Chen:  A lot of Westerners say that.  Follow me Mr. Chang, it's just a 40 minute walk.

Entrance to the Forbidden City

Chairman Mao over the entry gate.

Military men we happened upon practicing,
we weren't sure for what at the time.

Same military men between the Forbidden City and Tiananmen
Square for the evening lowering of the flag of China.

There is a moat that surrounds the majority of the
city, passing through the city at one stage.

I have no idea what any of the following buildings are,
feel free to attempt to discern one from another.

That little fella is not suppose to be there.  All buildings
deemed significant in China have two lion statues on
either side of the entryway.  It has been asserted that the
one to the right as you look at the door is a male lion,
and the one to the left is female.  Seeing that every
lion statue has a mane, I'm curious to know
evolution has stripped female lions of their's
 in the last 600 years.

He's actually 48.  Age well here.

The gardens behind the last building.

The hill at the north end of the Forbidden City.  You can see
 the entirety of the city from the top of the hill.  we didn't
have the time, legs, nor will to undertake the trek. 

"The All Right Wall of China"

Karl Pilkington, the star of An Idiot Abroad, saw The Great Wall of China and declared it o be "the all right wall of China".  I can't say I disagree with him.

Construction of The Great Wall began as early as 7th century BC.  However, the majority of the wall was built during the Ming Dynasty which ruled from 1368-1644.  Primarily purposed as a defensive structure, it covers over 21,000km (over 13,000 miles) in it's entirety.  Depending on the region of China, the wall was erected using soil, clay, wood, brick, stone, and/or other materials available to the region.  Not sure who first claimed it could be seen from space, but logic dictates otherwise.  It's long, but it's only built at a width to accommodate five horses side-by-side.  If you're able to see five horses abreast from a commercial flight, the Department of Defense is likely interested in speaking with you.

There are a number of sections of The Great Wall which can be visited within a 45 minute to 2 hour drive from Beijing.  We opted for the typically less crowded, and reportedly more scenic Mutianyu section which is roughly 60km outside of Beijing.  The Mutianyu section of the wall was built early in the Ming Dynasty, and renovated as recently as 1986.  The primary material used at Mutianyu is granite.  The restored section is roughly 2.5km long and includes 22 watchtowers.  You can generally determine the range of weapons at the time of construction by halving the distance between watchtowers, however, the distance can vary in the more mountainous regions as fires atop the watchtowers served as warning of an attack.  Each watchtower had to be visible from the watchtowers on either side.

Of every stop on our tour, I was easily most excited to see the wall.  Now that I've seen it, I can relate to Karl Pilkington in that I don't know that I'd ever go out of my way to see it again.  Very appreciative to have seen it, but what makes it "Great" to me is the sheer scope and difficulty of the project …particularly for the period.  I left extremely impressed by the feat, not so much by the wall.  I would return for either The Great Wall half or full marathon, or accompanying visitors.  Be warned if you are those visitors, I plan to extend the stay and physical exertion on my next visit.  There is a point at which it is strongly recommended you not trek beyond.  As with many things in China, things look great on the surface, just don't look too deep.  I want to look "behind the curtain" so to speak at the unkept wall.

The crew taking on The Great Wall

Exhibit A of why Google translate doesn't
 necessarily work for Mandarin.  1404
pretty much all I'm getting out of this.

Exhibit B.  Seriously, there are very good English
speakers here.  Use them before you invest in signage.

That rock formation of Chinese characters
says something about Chairman Mao.

Watchtower

Heading up to the top of the watchtower.

Easier coming up than hopping down that hole.

Access point for troops.  Can't imagine crossing that ledge on horseback.

That watchtower way up all those steps is the one it's requested
you not pass.  Many don't make it past the one this picture is
taken from due to the long and steep climb.  Only three
in our group decided to take on the challenge.

The final steps up that ramp looking thing to the tower might as
well be a ladder.  Hands were on the step two above the one you
were stepping up onto.  Not the safest steps I've climbed.  Unlike a
ladder which you can grip a rung on, you're relying on the friction
you can generate between your hands and the flat step for "grip"

Hunter, one of our crew having
a look out from the top.

The non-climbers.  I think they had a small party
going on down there while we sucked wind.

Beyond the recommended stopping
point.  I'll keep going next time.

Sharing a beer and adding to the stack after descending from the climb.