Category Archive for ‘People we've met’ at Walking the Wall

Archive for the 'People we've met' Category

Guo Nian Hao! (Happy New Year)

Published

on March 3, 2007

. 3 Comments

After last year’s Spring Festival non-event, we didn’t have high hopes for this one. People had told us that Chinese New Year out in the provinces could be a lot of fun, but we had learned (the hard way) in Beijing that it was a family holiday. With millions of people migrating from the cities to spend time with their families in the country, some of these farmhouses would already be pushed to the limit, and we certainly didn’t want to intrude.

We soon found out there was no need to worry. On New Year’s Eve, we were walking through a village north of Yulin when we spotted a beautiful old farm house behind some open gates. We stopped for a second to admire the wooden beams and tiled roof, when a 20-year-old girl appeared from inside. We were eager to see the rest of the house and to see how families were spending the day, so when she invited us in we gladly followed.

Liu Liangxia (on left), grandpa, dad and mum enjoying the food

This was to be the first New Year’s Eve event we were invited to. On this occasion it seems we were treated to the family meal, or one of them - dishes of chicken, goat, fish, meatballs, pork, rice and vegetables. Fish, we found out afterwards, is a special Spring Festival dish and is not to be finished. Well that was easy, there was so much food nothing was finished.

Liu Liangxia’s brother (in the middle), younger sister (in green vest), neighbours and rest of the family say goodbye

It was tempting to stick around the Lius’, but lunch was served late and finished later. We didn’t want it to become so dark they would feel obliged to invite us to stay the evening, so we headed out shortly after the meal was finished.

Our next port of call was the home of Gong Li Ping, who rescued us from the oncoming darkness as we wandered the streets of the village of Daheta looking for an open guesthouse. Not only did he give us a room, a heater and a kettle behind his restaurant, but he insisted, over and over, that we spend New Year’s with him and his family.

Gong Li Ping, Brendan’s “younger brother”

Again we worried a bit about stumbling in where we weren’t entirely wanted, and again it quickly became clear our worries were misplaced – as people gradually filtered in, we realised that what Mr Gong had in mind was not a quiet evening with the wife and kids, but the biggest, most raucous party in town (see the photo at the top of the post).

She always has to be the centre of attention, doesn’t she?

Emma with some of the village kids. Mr Gong’s 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are at the front

By about 6 pm, there were probably 15 people in the restaurant, eating home-roasted peanuts, sunflower seeds, jujubes, apples and noodles. Mr Gong broke out the dice and the bai jiu (the national drink for Chinese men - 45% or more grain alcohol), and the drinking games began. While Emma got away with sipping tea and beer, Brendan’s manly pride was too great for him to take the easy road – until after a particularly bad losing streak, when it was agreed, by all who voted, that whenever Brendan subsequently lost, his wife would sing a song.

Once we’d had enough to drink to make things dangerous, we went out to set off fireworks

Boys and fireworks - so that’s why they’ve been banned in Australia

By 10 the party had outgrown Mr Gong’s restaurant, so we all moved to the house next door. While the New Year’s CCTV television extravaganza blared in the background, people took turns dancing, singing and doing magic tricks. When the clock struck 12, there must have been about 30 or 40 people crammed into the main living room, from children as young as 10 to Grandma, who was above 80.

This lady definitely won the prize for best, and most attractive, magician

And this one for best singer, a la Beijing Opera

Brendan chatting up Grandma (never mind the man in the middle, he’s just the village banker)

A “changing faces” performance, again a la Beijing Opera

She may not be able to sing, but she’s got some moves

As always, people were excited to have us join them and made us feel very welcome, but what was a bit different and quite nice about this night was that it was a party for everyone. So often we are the spectacle, and crowds gather around us (which is fun, of course, most of the time). On this night we were just part of the crowd, and it was great to able to fit in, more or less like anybody else, and to have the language ability, albeit simple, to socialise for the evening. (One unfortunate consequence of this, however, is that there was simply too much happening for us to get people’s names right, so almost everyone in the captions will have to go unnamed for this post.)

When we left the next morning we felt a bit sad, and it wasn’t just that we had 25 kilometres to walk and fuzzy heads. Two of the men had declared themselves Brendan’s younger and older brothers and the women and girls had spent the better part of an hour taking photos with Emma. It sure beat New Year’s in Beijing by a long way.

They didn’t even let a late night stop them from seeing us off

The Hui Muslims of Ningxia

Published

Emma

on January 14, 2007

in People we've met

. 4 Comments

The Chinese have a greeting that translates as “Have you eaten?” Not “Hi, how are you?” or “Nice to meet you”, but “Have you eaten?” In Chinese, this is “Ni chi le ma?” (This might help to explain why Brendan and I haven’t lost much weight so far on our hike.)

Wanting to be polite, we often find ourselves agreeing to a break in our walk to join a kindly stranger, along with friends and families, for a bowl of noodles. Which always seems to turn into several bowls of noodles.

So it’s good to walk through the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and try out the food of the Muslim Hui (pronounced “HWAY”) minority. The food is still heavy on the noodles but with a few welcome additions to traditional Chinese fare.

Eat, drink, man, woman

Meet Mr Chu and his wife, Mrs Zhang, who live in a tiny one-room house near the banks of the Yellow River. We had just taken a rest stop, put our backpacks back on and started walking when Mr Chu appeared on top of the wall.

“Have you eaten?” he called from above. “Have you had something to drink?”

And finally, probably because we were wearing hats and sunglasses: “Are you a man and a woman?” (One thing the Chinese are not known for is their tact.)

We really didn’t have time to go with him, but he was so insistent that we at least take some apples that we finally agreed. After all, his house was right on the other side of the wall.

How ’bout them apples?

If it weren’t for the Hui, the bread situation in this part of the country would be pretty dire. Unlike the majority Han Chinese, the Hui can really make bread, lightly cooked with spices, garlic and egg, and finding Hui bread in towns is always a real treat for us. So when Mr Chu’s wife, who was rolling dough when we walked in, started making us bread, we didn’t protest too much. She cooked it for a few seconds in a skillet on their coal stove and it was some of the best bread we’d had. But after the second huge piece we had to sincerely protest. This was washed down with a few glasses of Eight Treasure Tea (ba bao cha), one of our favourite new finds, which is tea made with walnuts, goji berries, jujubes or dates, sesame seeds, raisins, longans, and rock sugar.

Hui to go, Mrs Zhang!

Ningxia is one of the smallest and poorest regions of China, with a population of about 6 million. Though this is a Hui autonomous region, the Hui make up 2 million of the population, the rest being Han and other ethnic groups. Throughout the nation there are nearly 10 million Hui.

A mosque near Yinchuan

Ningxia became an autonomous region in 1958 in recognition of the cultural background of the Muslim Hui, who are the descendants of the Middle Eastern or Central Asian Silk Road traders or of people who were converted to Islam by these traders. Though most of the Hui are similar to the Han Chinese in looks, they are distinguished by their practice of Islam and their avoidance of eating pork. The men wear white caps and the women often wear shawls (in this part of the country we have never seen a woman in a veil). Our language skills are not good enough to ask about their religion and whether there is any practice of Sharia law.

Mosques are often decorated with Arabic script

We met a group of men in Yinchuan who stand on the street every day selling Eight Treasure Cake (ba bao gao). They were from the province of Xinjiang and were obviously of Central Asian origin. Though we thought they might be Uyghurs, an Islamic people of Central Asian descent in Xinjiang, when asked they said they were Hui.

Ai bu bu la (possibly a Sinicisation of “Abullah”) from Xinjiang

Negotiating a price on a slice of Eight Treasure Cake

In the same way that Hui bread is always going to be fresh and tasty, we have come to recognise that Hui restaurants are nearly always a safe bet for a place to eat.

The cheery bunch of cooks at a Hui restaurant in Yinchuan

Chinese restaurants in this part of the country can often be dirty, noisy and smoky places to eat; the Hui restaurants, on the other hand, are usually run by families and are a fair bit quieter, especially on Saturday nights. The food’s a bit heavy on the mutton, but you usually know it’s fresh (don’t ask how).

Just look at those rosy cheeks

Bless My Homeland For-eee-ver

Published

Emma

on December 22, 2006

in People we've met

. 5 Comments

The students of Qingtongxia Vocational High School

So did you hear the one about the Wall Walker who was roped into singing “Edelweiss” in front of 300 giggling high-school students?

It all started on that Sunday when we met Hilton, the English language teacher from Qingtongxia (see Sunday in Qingtongxia). Not only was Hilton immensely generous and hospitable, but he was also very convincing, and somehow he got Brendan and me to agree to visit an English class at his school the following Tuesday.

From left to right, Hilton, two students, Brendan, the headmaster’s son, “Tommy,” and Mr Wang, the headmaster

What he neglected to tell us was that one-third of the school would be there and that we would be sitting at a panel in front of a row of microphones, giving the students pointers on learning English and participating in an impromptu episode of karaoke. A small oversight.

Headmaster Wang in his office

After the obligatory cup of tea with the headmaster, Brendan and I walked into the hall and froze. There in front of us were more than 300 students and teachers, all staring excitedly and craning to get a good look. A young guy with a video camera zoomed in. My first thought? Something like, “Damn, if he’d warned us about this I would have actually done something to my hair.” No choice on the clothes, though; we only have one set.

At least most of them seem to be enjoying themselves

As these students sang in unison and recited Tang Dynasty poetry for us, we couldn’t help but feel impressed with their knowledge and pride in their collective cultural heritage. Three hundred voices reciting the same poem is quite powerful. Fortunately, I remembered Dorothea Mackellar’s poem “My Country,” so we were able to fire back with a bit of Australian poetic history.

Me and the girls

The group singing evolved into solo singing – brave individuals performing solo in front of their peers. One boy even attempted a Shakespeare sonnet in English then gave up after some perseverance and finished in Chinese.

A student singing a famous pop song in front of the school. Now it’s your turn.

When it seemed that no more students were forthcoming, Hilton turned to us and said, “So, what are you going to sing?” We mumbled a bit and tried to convince him that we couldn’t, so he suggested we sing Christmas carols. “Everybody knows ‘Jingle Bells,’” he said. This guy was determined. So, supported by the students in Chinese, together we sang “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night.”

“Oh, no, you can’t sit down,” he said as the strains of the Christmas carols faded away.

“How about you sing “Edelweiss?’” You know, from The Sound of Music.

Brendan triumphantly raised his hands in the air, claiming no knowledge of the words, despite having just watched the movie on a locally bought pirated DVD on our laptop. Oh, the coincidences are astounding.

“Emma, you can sing it by yourself,” he laughed, knowing full well I can’t hold a tune.

Having learned long ago that when people ask you to sing, it’s better just to do it and hope they stop you half way through, I sang. My theory is you draw less attention to yourself by doing rather than by repeatedly protesting. In this case, they didn’t stop me half way through. Maybe I should have protested.

Brendan, take over, pleeeaaase

Sunday in Qingtongxia

Published

Emma & Brendan

on December 20, 2006

in People we've met

. 3 Comments

Qingtongxia’s brand new Christian Church

As Sunday had been decreed a day of rest, we dressed up in our finest and headed off to church. As in Christian church.

Now, Ningxia is not known for its Christian churches. Not many places in China are. The largest minority group in Ningxia, the Hui people, are Chinese Muslims whose impressive mosques can be seen looming over many of the province’s large towns. These, together with the Buddhist and Taoist temples that have dotted the region for hundreds of years, are the most popular places of worship for the residents of Ningxia.

So when we spotted a spire topped by a cross as we entered Qingtongxia, we were surprised and thought we’d have a look.

We pulled up to the church late in the morning, after services – we wanted to talk to people, but we didn’t want to interrupt anything. The director of the church, Mr Tian, and the church school’s teacher, Mr Chen, graciously greeted us and escorted us to Mr Tian’s office, gave us each a can of goji juice and filled us in on the church’s background.

With the church members. The man holding the boy in a yellow coat is Mr Chen, the church school’s teacher.

Qingtonxia Christian Church was established in 1990 by a congregation of two and with no money for all practical purposes. It is a “Protest” (Protestant) church, but is not affiliated with any denominations as far as we understand. For the first 16 years of the church’s existence, services were held in a small, cramped building.

From that modest beginning the church has grown to have a congregation of more than 200, and just this year completed a new church building at a cost of 1.5 million RMB ($250,000 AUD), with some funding coming from local donations and the bulk from Hong Kong Christians. As you can see from the photos, it’s an attractive building, with a large sanctuary and offices and classrooms on the second and third floors. Inside, there are rows of about 300 plastic chairs and up behind the pulpit on stage is a wall-sized picture of a tranquil mountain scene.

As we talked with Mr Tian and Mr Chen, other members of the congregation drifted in and out, and once we had heard the basic story of the church, it was our turn for questioning. Are most people in Australia Christians? (Many.) Do most people go to church? (No.) Are there other religions in Australia? (Yes.)

Seeing that our ability to talk religion in Chinese was rapidly running dry, Mr Tian called a church member who teaches English at the technical high school. From that point on the day devolved into one of those exhilarating but exhausting (and exasperating) exercises in Chinese hospitality we occasionally find ourselves in.

Chen Yonghong (”Hilton”), the schoolteacher, arrived with his 14-year-old son, Chen Le, and for good measure he brought his friend Li Xiaojun, who is not a church member but is the vice-president of the county’s Communist Party school (which, from what we gather, trains government and party workers in Party policy and ideology). Mr Li brought his 13-year-old son, Li Qing.

From left, Brendan, Hilton’s son Chen Le, Hilton, Mr Li and his son Li Qing. See the family resemblances?

They hauled us and the church leaders off to lunch at a local Hui Muslim restaurant. Ningxia is nothing if not ecumenical. Then it was time for photos in front of the church. After that, Hilton, Mr Li, their sons and the two of us piled into a taxi - that’s five adults and two teenage boys in a small sedan - and headed off to see the 108 Pagodas, a set of Buddhist stupas on the Yellow River, where we circumnavigated the main stupa in a traditional Buddhist ritual (more ecumenicalism).

The main stupa at 108 pagodas

By then it was time to eat again, and of course the evening would not have been complete without an hour-long stroll through Qingtongxia’s new park (it’s only -10° C, what are you complaining about?) and late-night tea at Mr Li’s.

As if going to a church wasn’t enough for our day of rest.

One in a Billion

Published

Brendan

on November 10, 2006

in People we've met

. 1 Comment

Xiong Xiang Juan

“Hey, don’t we know her?” Emma is waggling her head and pointing, none too subtly, at a young Chinese woman behind the travel services desk at our hotel.

“I dunno,” I reply. Emma’s stare seems to suggest I could try a bit harder. We walk past the counter and get into the lift.

Then something registers. “You’re right! It’s Lucy, or something beginning with an L, from Pingyao!”

Pingyao is in Shanxi province, 700 kilometres from Beijing. There are over 1.3 billion people in China. What are the chances?

Good enough, it turns out. Lara (not Lucy) works in the travel industry catering to independent, English-speaking travelers, an industry which is still quite small in China. Her Chinese name is Xiong Xiang Juan. We had met her before, and it was at a hostel in Pingyao, clear back in February, just two weeks after we first came to China. It was freezing, we were slightly discombobulated, and we could hardly speak a word of Chinese. Lara happened to be there for one month work experience, so with her English skills and enthusiasm she got to practice being tour operator on us.

With Lara in Pingyao, February 2006

Lara was born in Hubei Province and graduated this year from Xian International University with a degree in Foreign Trade and a major in English. She chose to go to youth hostels for her work experience, and has worked in Shanghai, Pingyao, Hangzhou and now Beijing.

With Lara in Beijing

Her goal is to work towards the 2008 Beijing Olympics, by which time she hopes to have her English Tour Guide License and possibly her own company. Who knows, maybe with a bit of luck we’ll run into her again there.

www.thegreatwall.com.cn

Published

Emma

on October 17, 2006

in People we've met

. 1 Comment

Last week, Brendan and I were invited to dinner with a group of Chinese people belonging to “A small site on the Great Wall,” a society (named for its website) of a few hundred members who seek to protect the wall. We’d been looking at their site, www.thegreatwall.com.cn, for a while, but never actually made contact. When we finally did, only last week, they invited us to one of their regular dinner get-togethers at a restaurant 45 minutes by taxi from our hostel in Beijing. (Nothing unusual about this, most Beijing taxi rides take 45 minutes. At least they’re cheap.)

Founder and webmaster Zhang Jun with Brendan

We’ve written before of the efforts and importance of nonprofit and community groups in protecting the Great Wall (see “A Great Celebration”). These groups, and The Great Wall group is no exception, are made up of enthusiastic, intelligent and passionate people. The Great Wall might be under World Heritage protection, but grandiose labels don’t necessarily mean much without the people of these member-based groups who are out there measuring and scrutinizing every brick and every tower and pushing for effective on-ground protection.

Try scoring some of these stylin’ T-shirts at Badaling

After eating more Chinese food than we probably should have, we were presented with one of the society’s T-shirts each. Then the lights were dimmed and we were treated to a viewing of some footage of a recent four-day trip the group took to some portions of the wall east of Beijing (which I have to say was rather daunting … that wall can be pretty steep in places.)

Emma watching trip footage with Great Wall members

Most of the material on www.thegreatwall.com.cn is in Chinese, but there are several informative pages in English with some great photos. Please drop by for a look, and if you can send an email wishing “The Great Wall” members well.

Old Friends

Published

Emma & Brendan

on July 12, 2006

in People we've met

. 6 Comments

Well, not exactly old friends. More like recent friends, actually. But when everyone you encounter is a stranger, and when every place you go to is a new one, it’s nice to come across a familiar face once in a while.

You might recall the group of Hexi University students we met at Jiayuguan Fort (see “A Great Celebration” ). They thought we needed a bit of feeding, Chinese-style, so they arranged to meet us in Zhangye, where their university is, when we got back from Matisi. They also gave us about 10 minutes to plan what they called a “short” presentation on our walk – you know, 30 minutes or so. Not too long.

With students at a hot pot restaurant - Zhang Xiao, who organised the event, is on on the far let, Wang Junde, the head of the Hexi University Great Wall Protection Association, is on the far right

Chinese-style feeding is about food, food, and more food. And when you thought you’d just about had enough…still more food.

We went to a hot pot restaurant on Zhangye’s “food street”. The students ordered a yuan yang (two-birds) hot pot, which is a large bowl divided into two yin and yang shaped sides. One side holds a red, spicy sauce, the other a cream-coloured, more mild sauce. Then you get never-ending plates of meat and vegetables and cook them in the pot (this meal requires a lot of patience).

To add to the range of hues, we got several plates of “colourful jaozi” (dumplings). The orange ones are made from pumpkin flour, the green from mixed greens flour, and the white from just plain old flour. They were probably some of the best dumplings we’ve had (and we’ve sampled quite a few).

Zane Lee serving up our fourth plate

Zane (holding the dumplings above) is a history student from Datong, Shanxi. He is comfortably fluent in English – probably more so than any of his teachers - and he won second place in the Gansu Province English contest. He said he’s never been out of China, so he’s either supernaturally gifted with languages or he’s watched a lot of DVDs (most likely both).

At the gate of Hexi University

When we made it to the Hexi University grounds (only about an hour after schedule) more students met us and took us into a building where they had prepared a room for our presentation. We spoke for about 20 minutes (in English, with Zane’s help in translating) before their history professor, Xie Jizhong, opened the floor up to questions.

The students were shy at first, probably because the professor wanted them to ask questions in English, but then they started to open up. How do we think the wall should be preserved? Have we seen any damage done to the wall? What kind?

Then the probing questions started to flow: Are you enjoying yourselves? Emma, you’ve got a bit of sunburn on your face. How do you feel about that? And, finally . . .

“So, what is the real purpose of your trip?” “Ummm, could you please rephrase the question?”

Mr Hou

Published

Emma & Brendan

on July 2, 2006

in People we've met

. 2 Comments

Mr and Mrs Hou

We were spent when we arrived at the village of Tiancheng after our desert crossing. We found the nearest store, bought some soft drinks and water, and plopped down under the store’s awning to recover. As usual, a crowd gathered round and peppered us with questions.

That afternoon, though, we were having a tough time coping. We always find it harder to understand and speak Chinese when we’re tired, but usually after a few minutes and some sugar, we can find the words. That day we just weren’t communicating.

One older man figured out that in our condition, we were better able to read than hear. He wrote down a few messages, worked out that we wanted a bus to the nearest large town for a rest day, and told us the next bus wasn’t until 7:30 the following morning.

Then he wrote us this message:

Qing dao wo jia qu xiuxi, xi jiao, chi fan, fei chang an quan.
(Please come to my house to rest, wash your feet, and eat. It’s very safe.)

It was such a kind gesture we almost cried (well, Emma almost did). His name was Hou Ji Zhou and he was a distinguished, white-haired gentleman in his mid-60s. He took us to his courtyard house, gave us a tub of warm water and soap and told us to wash.

He and his wife prepared us an enormous meal of rice, tomatoes, eggs, pork, biscuits, dates, apricots and prunes. It was the best meal we’d had in days. The shopkeeper popped in to check on us, and shortly after Mr Hou’s son and daughter-in-law came home from work. It seemed a bit of a special occasion, so Mr Hou opened up a new bottle of jujube wine and made us try some. Most Chinese wines are best avoided, but this one was quite good.

We stayed the night in their second son’s room and the following morning were served a breakfast just as large as dinner. Just before 7:30, they walked us to the bus down the road and waved us off.

After our rest day we caught a taxi back to Tiancheng to continue walking. We stopped by Mr Hou’s house and gave him a gift-wrapped bottle of wine. It brought a huge smile to his face, so we must have picked well. He raced into the kitchen and brought out more food, then led us out of the village as the other townsfolk waved us goodbye.

Mr Hou took us to the corner of Tiancheng’s ancient city wall, adjacent to the Great Wall and just a five-minute walk from his home. He showed us a stone plaque - on one side were stylized Chinese characters referring to the location of the old city wall, and on the other were modern characters referring to the fengsui, or beacon tower, next to the city. It was only when we were ready to leave that he told us he had carved the plaque himself for the city in September 1999.

Mr Hou and his plaque

The reverse side says Tiancheng beacon tower

A Great Celebration

Published

Emma & Brendan

on June 6, 2006

in People we've met

. 5 Comments

As the official send-off for our walk, last week’s event with the China Great Wall Society at Jiayuguan Fort couldn’t have been better. At the invitation of Great Wall Society leaders Dong Yaohui and Yan Daojun, we joined student conservation volunteers and Jiayuguan local government members in celebrating the end of the Society’s 35-day awareness-raising journey along the wall and the beginning of ours.

The China Great Wall Society, with a membership of over 1500 people, is the leading non-governmental organisation in China concerned with the wall’s preservation. The Society is dedicated to studying, publicising, protecting and exploring the Great Wall, and is involved in such diverse activities as publishing encyclopedias and collections of scholarly papers, advising on the production of TV specials, and hosting photo and painting exhibitions about the wall. If you can read Chinese, you can find out more about the Society at its website, www.chinagreatwall.org.

Mr Dong is Secretary-General of the Society and a well-known expert on the wall – he has accompanied foreign dignitaries such as American Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush on their visits to the wall, and is the author of The Eternal Great Wall (Beijing: China Nationality Art Photograph Publishing House, 2005). He probably knows as much about the wall as anyone in the world.

With Dong Yaohui. Photo by Yan Daojun

He is also one of the first men to walk the length of the Great Wall. In May 1984, he and two other men left Shanhaiguan (our destination) and spent 508 days exploring the wall, including its spurs and extensions. They arrived in Jiayuguan on September 24, 1985.

On Tuesday of last week, Jiayuguan was again Mr Dong’s destination. This time, there was a carload of journalists accompanying him, other members of the Great Wall Society, local government and museum representatives, and a busload of students from Hexi University in Zhangye.

Jiayuguan Fort is considered the end of the Ming Great Wall and is the most impressive tourist site in Jiayuguan. When we got there that afternoon, we had plenty of time to look around and take photos. Many of the students were media students, so they were keen on getting the right angles.

With the students at the top of the fort. Photo by Shen Cheng Ming

The formalities started around 5 pm, which is still quite hot and bright out here at this time of the year. There was a very strong wind coming off the desert, which was bad for the hair but good for the flags.

This banner says “Protect the Great Wall that extends 10,000 li”

The ceremony was opened by Zheng Yan, the Society’s Editorial Department Director, who spoke about the Society’s work during 2006 and the importance of the car journey they had just taken from Shanhaiguan. Also speaking were other Society members, museum and government representatives, and Mr. Dong.

After the Society leaders spoke, we were invited to the stage to say a few words about our trip. We’re not sure how well our speeches were understood (or whether the parts in Chinese made sense), but everyone seemed to appreciate the effort.

Emma making her first speech in Chinese. Photo by Cheng Wei Guang

After the speeches, Mr Dong took us both by the hands and formed an arm-linked chain of about seven people. The student volunteers fell in behind and we walked together through the fort as a symbolic send-off.

Under the arched doorway…

…and out into the desert. Photos by Yan Daojun

It was an honour to participate in the celebration. To have the support and encouragement of the Great Wall Society and the student volunteers from Hexi University means more than we know how to express. It was thrilling to walk out of the doorway with the crowd of students behind us, shouting and waving flags. As we write this, we can still feel the excitement of that day.

“If you’ve never been to the Great Wall . . .

Published

Emma & Brendan

on June 4, 2006

in People we've met

. 1 Comment

“If you’ve never been to the Great Wall, you’re not a real man.” Or in Chinese (pinyin), “bu dao changcheng, fei hao han.”

So said Mao Zedong, sort of. In 1935 the Chairman wrote this poem to inspire the men and women struggling to complete the Long March:

The heavens are high, the clouds are pale,
We watch as the wild geese disappear southwards.
If we fail to reach the Great Wall we are not true men,
We who have marched more than 20,000 li.

Over the years the context for the third line was lost. Today, “bu dao changcheng, fei hao han,” translated as “if you’ve never been to the Great Wall, you’re not a real man,” is a popular Chinese saying.

We did not even need to make it to the wall to hear it for the first of what will be no doubt countless times.

On the train from Dunhuang to Jiayuguan we were spotted by a man named Gao Wei Ping. Seeing a chance to practice his English, he kicked a woman out of her seat and came over to chat. We didn’t kick anybody, but were just as happy for a chance to practice our Chinese.

Mr Gao

When we told him we were headed to Jiayuguan, “bu dao changcheng, fei hao han” may not have been the first sentence out of his mouth, or even the second, but it was definitely in the top five.

We spent much of the four-hour trip swapping simple translations and writing down sentences, characters and their meanings.

Translations with Mr Gao (click on the pic for a clearer view)

Mr Gao repeatedly wished us good luck and “victory” on our trip, and his pride in China and the Great Wall was infectious.

(Translation of Mao’s poem from Chen Guoliang (ed.), Mao Zedong shici baishou yizhu (One hundred annotated poems by Mao Zedong) (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 1997), p. 84, quoted in Julia Lovell, The Great Wall: China against the World, 1000 BC - AD 2000 (London: Atlantic Books, 2006), p. 308.)

Walking the Wall

Archive for the 'People we've met' Category

Guo Nian Hao! (Happy New Year)

The Hui Muslims of Ningxia

Bless My Homeland For-eee-ver

Sunday in Qingtongxia

One in a Billion

www.thegreatwall.com.cn

Old Friends

Mr Hou

A Great Celebration

“If you’ve never been to the Great Wall . . .

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