Badaling : Something of the gods

Walls are generally a bad sign. They are barriers between people and ideas as shown in places as diverse as Berlin, Cyprus and recently Israel. However sometimes these very walls can help guard people against advancing enemies and so keep the flicker of Civilization burning. The Great wall of China is one such monumental piece of human achievement that has served this purpose for Millennia. It is to this marvel that i traveled to on my next leg of my sojourn through China.

December 8, 2012, Saturday

It was a bright cold day and the clock was striking 7. The biting cold enveloped me as soon as i came out of my hotel. I was filled with excitement at the prospect of visiting a wonder. The Great wall represents China in more ways than one, it stretches for miles just like the way China's history stretches centuries, the sheer audacity of its constructions reflects the audacity displayed by China's myriad rulers, the rise and fall of the wall over mountains represents the rise and fall of China over time.

I caught the fast train from Tianjin to Beijing and the rapid pace of the train transported me to Beijing in no time. Beijing shown brightly in the sun and i proceeded to board another train to Badaling from there. The Great wall stretches for over 5000 KM and Badaling was the most visited place on the wall. It is about 50 KM from Beijing which makes it an ideal spot for foreign tourists to visit. The train to Badaling seemed to jog across the landscape as opposed to the fast pace of its fast train cousin. The slow pace however gave me an opportunity to gaze into the Chinese countryside.

Though it wasn't quite the season for greenery, the scenery was still captivating. As this was the northern part of China it was a mixture of mountains and plains with animals grazing the grass strewn grounds and people going about their quotidian lives. After almost an hour into the journey i sighted the crepuscular outlines of the Great wall for the first time. It was rising on the back of a distant mountain, at fist it appeared like a sliver but soon became quite distinct. Just thinking about the audaciousness of the idea of the wall was mind boggling. Its tough enough constructing any building but it was insanely tough to build something that covers that much distance through various landscapes. After another hour i was at the Badaling train station.

There was a hoard of tourists disembarking from the train at the Badaling station, despite the biting cold. The air was was so thick with cold that you could almost cut it with a knife. But even a cold as severe as this was no hurdle when you are aiming to visit a wonder, so the mind simply shut off the cold even as the body struggled to. A short walk from the station led me to the entrance to what seemed like a tourist base camp with shops of various hues lined up next to each other. The entrance itself was a magnificent gate in resplendent red and painted in various colors at the top.

A little distance from the entrance brought me to the base of the section of the wall. I climbed the wall through steps carved on the niches on the side and sooner than i could realise i was on the wall. The sight that greeted me was simply outstanding. Wherever i looked - either front or back or on the sides - the wall seemed to be omnipresent snaking through the mountainous terrain. The grey of the wall blended brilliantly with the sober color of the mountain and the whole scenery appeared very picturesque.

 The premise of the wall however was to be found in history and geography. The northern part of China bordered Mongolia. Whereas a supreme culture flourished in China, Mongolia was ruled by warlords with ferocious attacking abilities. Even though China's culture rivalled the best in the world they were no match for the Mongols on the battlefield, it was like an old cultured man facing an uncouth youth. So the Mongol threat was a real and present danger right through Chinese history and generations of Chinese grappled for a solution to this Mongol menace.

At this time China was being united by a maverick called Shih Huang Di who united all the warring provinces of China and gave rise to the Qin dynasty - due to which China got its name -  in the process giving himself the exalted title of 'First Emperor'. Once the internal issues were settled the first emperor turned his focus to securing China's northern border. He hit upon the idea of building a wall spanning from the sea on the east to the Gobi desert in the west, this wall he envisioned would stop the marauding mongol armies and protect Civilization.

Although the First emperor's intentions were noble and grand they were realised on the backs of the poor labor force of peasants. The peasants were forced most of the times against their will and made to break their backs building the wall. There is also an urban myth that some of the peasants who died in the process were buried inside the wall and that their revenants still haunt the area. Well, there is always the dark side to every monument i thought, be it the great pyramids or the great wall or even the Taj Mahal, these objects of grandeur and beauty always come at the cost of the proverbial have-nots. Their names and nationalities might change but the exploitation of the haves of the have-nots is the same everywhere. At least in our modern world the laboring have-nots seem to have got a better deal and such horrendous tasks appear not to be thrust on them anymore and we can be thankful for that.

As i was in this reverie, the wall with all its beauty was snaking in front of me. Even though the Great wall was started by the First emperor the wall was made 'Great' by the Ming emperors. Even the section of the wall that i was on which is the most well preserved section of the wall was a Ming accomplishment. Since the Ming period came around the middle of the second millennium the total time needed to build the wall comes to a staggering 1500 years which is more time than one could ever imagine. Even so it shows the determination that the Chinese had to resist the Mongol invasion.

The wall was dotted at regular intervals by watch towers and it is said that during times when messages needed to be transmitted fast, smoke signals bellowing from one watchtower being picked up by the next watchtowers was the quickest way to go. It sounds quite tedious for us now but at that time it was indeed a highly practical way of getting messages across.

The irony of the Great wall is that even as it took well over 1500 years to construct it really did not serve its purpose. As a little after its completion the enemies found a chink in not the wall but human nature as they merrily bribed the soldiers guarding the wall and sneaked into China. Soon the whole of China was raided and occupied by the Manchu armies of the north resulting in the Manchu or Qing dynasty which ruled China until the revolution in 1911. The failure of the wall to protect China gave rise to a contempt of the wall, it was forgotten for all practical purposes until it was rediscovered by curious westerners. This was later picked up by the Communists as part of their agenda of reviving Chinese pride and hence the Wall was rescued back to the present times.

Whatever be the effectiveness or otherwise of the Great wall it remains a prime example of what humankind can achieve when it thinks and performs to its potential. The realization that primates who looked and sounded like me were able to build something so monumental gave me a great sense of satisfaction and pride. A shared sense of humanity enveloped me as i left with a great thought from Nehru who said...

 'Whatever gods there be, there is something godlike in man, as there is also something of the devil in him'.

Yes, there is certainly something godlike in man and when he applies his mind he can rival the gods and produce things like these that resemble something of the gods.