The Great Wall is a man-made wonder

Dec 07, 2006

EXPLORER Marco Polo didn’t think it was worth mentioning the Great Wall of China in his writings about Asia. As a symbol of monarchical and feudal oppression, the revolutionary communists who seized power in October 1949 could have erased it but instead have actually preserved and modernised it.

Ofwono Opondo

EXPLORER Marco Polo didn’t think it was worth mentioning the Great Wall of China in his writings about Asia. As a symbol of monarchical and feudal oppression, the revolutionary communists who seized power in October 1949 could have erased it but instead have actually preserved and modernised it.

In October 2006, your columnist, together with Minister Dorothy Hyuha, MP David Bahati, Eng Ian Kyeyune, Richard Todwong and David Mafabi were part of 15 NRM members who climbed the Great Wall, and thereby added their names to that of former British Premier Baroness Margaret Thatcher, and G. H. Bush. The Great Wall puts our own Lubiri at Mengo to great shame.

While we did not visit the whole of China, probably no other national treasure in China surpasses the Great Wall, which rises and falls, and meanders from one end of the country to another.

It is a magnificent engineering feat that has been added to and altered for more than 2000 years. It is well in the category of the other Seven Wonders of the World including India’s Taj Mahal, and Egyptian pyramids. In the mists starting just 50km east of Beijing there stands an enormous, majestic, silent and terrible Great Wall, running over 6,000km fearlessly and in utter solitude like the empire it once guarded ending at the foot of the Qilan mountains, Gansu Province.

But these days, solitude is a little hard to find along the Great Wall, at least on the day we were there along the more accessible Badaling sections near Beijing because of the huge number of Chinese, and international tourists.

The Great Wall, Forbidden City, (a complex of royal palace of the Ding Dynasty), Tiananmen Square, Mao Zedong’s mausoleum, and the Miao ethnic village girls, and Huangguoshu waterfalls in Guizhou province are some of the mighty symbols of China now turned into cultural heritage, which are a must-see icons of world tourism. Like much else in China, the Great Wall has a very ancient history dating back beyond times Before Christ (BC), first built under Emperor Huang Di in 3BC.

It is claimed that a million men under Gen. Meng Tian-a colossal labour force at the time constructed the wall. The most recent sections of the wall were constructed during the Ming dynasty some 2,000 years ago (1368-1644). Some sections of the wall are seven metres high and five wide, enough for five horsemen to canter along the top of it side by side.

Unfortunately, in spite of its enormous size, in military terms the Great Wall like Kabaka Mutesa’s Lubiri at Mengo, was actually a white elephant — a useless hunk of stone and masonry that never really served its purpose of protecting the emperors and their privileges! But while it never served its military purpose, The Great Wall is today certainly popular among Chinese and foreigners alike.

As a symbol of feudal oppression it could have easily been lost under communist revolution, but in 1984 Deng Xiaping declared that everyone should “Love China, Restore the Great Wall!” and since then, it has become a symbol of patriotism including a verse in the national anthem. Great Wall insignias decorate tea towels, plates, T-shirts, postcards, beer, cigarettes, or corporate company logos.

The wall is now a tourism attraction and source of revenue with its most accessible section at Badaling 50km north of Beijing, where perspiring loads of mostly Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and Chinese tourists snap photos, and buy trinkets and “I climbed the Great Wall!’ T-shirts. It is very steep in some parts and few people, at least the day we were there, made it to the massive watchtowers, preferring to gulp at rapidly warming Chinese cola in the shade of the battlements.

Fifteen Ugandans led by Hyuha as team leader began the climb but before long, actually 30 minutes, Hyuha faded behind, and ground to a sudden halt and retreated to the shades.

Although youthful, Bahati limped slowly far behind Eng Ian Kyeyune, Mafabi, Parminder Singh, Sebina Sekitoleko, Ronald Kibule and Richard Todwong, while I headed the pack trudging through crowds mercilessly with a Kyankwanzi military stamina.

As we moved further on, camels and horses sneered dejectedly in the direction of Mongolia with their attendants standing close, staring into space, and waited to offer rides or photo snaps for money. Earlier on, as tour groups shuffle off their coaches, more energetic and youthful backpackers leap off, by-passing vendors, camels and horses, and charging as if determined to run the entire length of the wall.

I was in the same state of mind when we began but after three hours our hosts from the International Department of the Communist Party of China said time was up, and we rolled with painful limps through a meandering route back to our coach heading to Beijing for a duck roasting dinner that evening, where President Yoweri Museveni ate roasted duck in 1989 according to the inscriptions he left on the hotel wall.

With time and energy it is certainly worth hiking away since the tourist hordes are soon left behind, leaving the whole place to yourself, and the pine trees hushing cool breeze as the hawks soar above. It was thrilling and the adventurous can keep hiking.

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