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Great Wall
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A Paradox
Even when I was a child I had been told that China's Great Wall was the only man-made structure on earth, visible on the moon. This alone is reason enough for China to be proud of herself and her achievements.
Much later in life, I studied the Great Wall on the Internet and in the history books and was still more impressed. I tried to figure out some of the logistics. If it took so many labourers so many years to build the famous Taj Mahal in India, then how many hands must have laboured, how many backs must have been weary, how many lives must have been lost, in the construction of the great wall?
Seeing the actual wall, of course, is an experience - it cannot be caught in words.
The paradox began to dawn on me much later in life, perhaps when my fascination with China was growing. It stuck me that this Great Wall was built in ancient times to keep enemies and others out. Now it is tha main attraction to bring friends and others in! Is it not extraaordinary how history can play games with us? And is it not sad to stand on the Great Wall and look back in one's mind to the times when it was being built - long before the arrival of technology to make building easy. Some people on the Great Wall open their eyes wide and peer at the present; I tend rather to close my eyes and recreate the past. The experience puts me to silence and i like to be alone at such moments.
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1.
Jul 3, 2006 23:25 Reply
GERALDINE said:
Some people go places to say they have been there others go to experience the realities of other cultures and their achievements - you must be the latter!! Well done I wholeheartedly agree, The Great Wall gave me a feeling of mystic, sadness, achievement and history beyond what we can comprehend in New Zealand- our oldest stone structure dates to 1832 so you can imagine what standing on this wall meant to me.
2.
Apr 24, 2006 04:21 Reply
PINETREE said:
Such feeling can only come from one with wealth of life experiences & one that can see deeper into things than just the surface.