Dreams Vs Reality

The following day Immerqi took my Internship Intake to the Great Wall of China (not the whole thing… that would likely take a certain amount of time), this part of the wall is quite well known and only two hours drive from Beijing.

Staring out the window it was fascinating to watch the dichotomy of the city, poverty mixed in with the elite, traditional with the modern, a Lamborghini beeping at a man on a bike hauling a cart packed to the sky with wheat-bags filled of rice, gardens shimmering through hand-held hoses and smog hovering above.

It is an endless city. There are sky rises, then long flats when you think you’re coming to the outskirts, and suddenly, more sky rises… But often, these are empty. Hauntingly empty… as if you’re seeing a city two months after the zombie apocalypse. Later, when I’d moved to Tangshan, I spoke to one of the expats who explained that the theory is that the Government will pay for these high rise apartments to be built in the hopes that people will come… ie if you build it they will come. Unfortunately the people are unable to afford to move into these high rise apartments so they lay there, dormant… 

There is something post-apocalyptic while sitting on a bus or train watching the sun hover over the horizon and these silent empty carcases stand tall and without a whisper of life.

After a couple of hours sitting on the bus contemplating the theory behind building buildings for the sake of building buildings and also what sort of wonderful sci-fi / thriller / horror films could be set upon these landscapes, we finally burst from civilisation and mountain peaks pierced the smoggy skies.

I cant say I ever imagined I’d go to the Great Wall of China. I thought I might one day go to Mongolia… possibly live in Turkey or Hungary… but never China… so stepping off the bus and looking up at this winding stone construction, this epic, colossal feat of human co-operation (using that term loosely, there was a wee bit of slavery here and there).  It was as if I was in one of those dreams where you are staring down at yourself, that this isn’t really you, its an alternative version or dimension… but no, it was me, here I was, at one of the seven man made wonders of the world.
A few facts of the GWC (you can call it the GWC if you’ve climbed some of it… reason being, you have NO breath by the time you walk up the dashed thing!):

You cannot see it from the moon. This was a rumour circulated by Ripleys Believe It Or Not Magazine (before any one had even visited the moon!)

   Originally separate walls or fortifications to protect the individual provinces from invasion
     First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered the walls / fortifications to be connected to protect his new dynasty in 259 BC

     Considered a protection for China from the Nomads (Mongolians and alike)     Full length is 8,851.8 kilometres

There are some beautiful legends that surround the GWC, here one:

Meng Jiangnu's husband Fan Qiliang was caught by federal officials and sent to build the wall. Meng Jiangnu heard nothing from him after his departure, so she set out to look for him. Unfortunately, by the time she got there, she discovered that her husband had already died. Hearing the bad news, she cried her heart out. Her howl caused the collapse of a part of the wall. 

Many of the stories talk of forced labour and the heartache of family members being lost. There were wars bought, battles braved, and the ongoing toil of the common man and woman to upkeep what has become a tourist attraction.

When I took a moment, drowned out the noise, and observed this small piece of… architecture, of construction, of history, stone upon stone mixed with modern day brick, I felt overwhelmed by a history I knew nothing of. I felt overwhelmed by stories I’d never here, of loves and losses and conquests and overthrows, invasion and annexation. This incredible country, this vast and peculiar state and this piece of monumental history that snakes it way through a diverse land.

Lets just say I was baffled, flabbergasted, humbled and… yes, excited… that my eyes were some of few that got to observe this and my feet, flat and large as they are, were two feet among the billions on Earth that had the unique and sacred opportunity to tread these ancient stairs.

Now keep all of this poetic and romantic considerations in mind when I tell you…

…it’s a bloody hard walk!

From below you think, ‘yeah… I’ve got this’, and you begin. You soon come to realise that you’re walking at close to a 90 degree incline. The small steps are fine… a moment of respite when you have three paces at the same level… and then… and then! The steps of giants, the BFG would be proud of one that is able to take such steps in their stride! These are the steps… the STONES… that you place one foot down, you grasp the pole to your right and with all of your mite, haul yourself up with your arms and legs all at once.

You take ten steps… then fall upon the ancient stone praying mercy to what ever elements are listening. Your thighs, at points, literally decide to stop working… so while you mind says, “up!”, your body say… “eh…. Give me a sec or two”.

I stopped, I started. My new friends flailed with me… one of the South Africans’ stood three meters above yelling “you can do it”, and if he wasn’t such a lovely guy I do believe I’d have kicked him in the shin when we got to the same place.

I honestly thought I was having a heart attack at certain moments when climbing the Great Wall, and I must express I literally thought my heart might stop… or something else was going to go terribly wrong! 

Thanks to my South African “Biggest Looser” Cheer-man I pushed myself up, up and up… “You can do it! C’mon Fiona! You can do it”

“Shuddup Attilla!” said his fiancé Sam, “She’ll do it if she wants to”
“I’m just trying to help!”“You’re being annoying!”
I puffed my way up and met them…. “To be honest”…. I puffed, “he’d be annoying…. But he’s…. tooo… nice”
“See!” said Attilla
“Ooohh shuddup”, responded Sam, passing me a bottle of cold water and helping me lean back on a wall to rest.

All of us were sweating and moaning and considering whether this really was the spiritual experience we’d all been hoping for, but to drag ones self up those stairs, giving encouragement to those you passed, laughing with those (who’s language you don’t even share!) who you sat with for a moment of respite, and then looking back when you reached a peak… seeing the snaking river of stone below you, knowing that these not marble looking steps had been tread on by warriors and peasants and poets and slaves alike, the mountains caverning as far as the eye could see, and sipping that cold cold cold bottle of lemonade you paid an exorbitant amount for just for the sugar and sweeeeetttt chill on your tongue… every puff and dizzy spell and slip and cut a bruise and black rubbings across your thigh was worth it.

One thing about China, no where you are, there will be a shop or a stall. You might be at the entrance of an ancient temple or the top of a mountain, you’ll always be able to purchase a cold bottle of water, sprite or beer, a shard or shaped piece of jade, and if you’re lucky… something hand crafted.

On shaky legs we all made our way back down from one of the look outs, my right leg continued to try and collapse on me, but everyone seemed to be in the same boat.
We stopped for lunch at a ceramic factory. When I hear factory I imagine enormous machines, hand-gloved staff members popping items into boxes, but no… fortunately we were able to see an authentic pottery factory.

It does make me wish that as a civilisation we’d stayed away from plastic… that we would purchase this art… similarly in Bali, these incredible artists that cannot sell their wares because something similar can be so easily made by a machine… but those items are heartless. I wonder what the economy of these countries would look like if the West supported genuine articles of furniture or art or even flooring… or am I assuming that the West has it right? When infact, the East might know a better form of living? This experience… its not answered any questions I have, but provided me with empty holes to be filled up with… I know not… more questions it seems.
These talented women and men were carving in to and painting on individual pieces of pottery. I felt bad watching as if we they were in a zoo, but to see such talent is so mesmerising, and I wished I could tell them so.

The next area made me wish above all that my sister was here, even just for an afternoon… she would have had a field day! It was almost a warehouse of hand made pots, vases…and TEA POTS! … these were the tiniest, all handmade, collection of tea cups I think I’ll ever have the fortune to see.

Although I was waved and growled at, I took some quick pics to send to Tiffany and hoped she’d delight in the sight alone. Whenever I see the snap shots I wish I’d have bought one or two atleast! Such little and perfect gems… particularly the green ones!
We sat down to a delicious meal, Lazy Susan made her way around for each guest to enjoy 

the plethora of available dishes.

Our evening treat was a viewing of Chinese Acrobatics! I didn’t now what to expect… my assumption was that we’d be going to some kind of second rate pseudo dancing school to see students practice (expectations are better kept low to prevent disappointment)…
But then… then! We arrived at a theatre in the heart of Beijing: “The Circus World of Beijing Theatre”. I tried to contain my excitement, sadly, my jumping and squealing excitement took over my generally stealth exterior when it comes to performance.
Myself and the two couples I’d made friends with sat on the edge of our seats awaiting the
show… the lights came down, some Chinese announcements were made and the lights came up, displaying a giant lilly pond including lillies and ladies dressed as such.We all watched awe struck at the choreography, at the acrobatics, listened enticed to the bounding music, clapped enthusiastically and laughed and gasped and clapped in unison throughout the performance.
There was romance and majesty, comedy and conjuring… and then…. There were the motorbikes in the ball!!!!

We watched as one, two… motorbikes entered the ring. They zipped in unison, then swapped and completed figure eights… then another motorcycle… and another and another. There were SEVEN motorcycles in this one circular cage, dancing to their deaths, the singing, ringing, angry buzzing of bikes kept us all hiding our faces but peeking through our fingers to see… to see… ooohhh to see them….

Escape

Safely

And they did. But oh the stress!

The rest of the artists danced out onto the stage and the entire audience erupted into a standing ovation… Now there is a way to spend an evening!

When I decided, “Yes! Lets teach English in China”, I imagined myself in a smallish town / village with wee Chinese children. I bought the finger puppets in preparation and has so many class plans ready to go. I was prepared for the cold, I knew that Central Mongolia was very cold and very isolated and I was prepared for this…
When we came back from the acrobatics performance we were all so excited to run and find out about our exact placements. What years we would be teaching. What schools we would be located at…
Fiona………….. Tangshan………….. Highschool
My heart sank. My new-found friends came to comfort me. “I can swap?! I don’t want Mongolia... you're the only one who wants Mongolia!”…
I spoke to my Immerqui Contact and explained the dilema... in a nice way the response was... Too Bad....And so here I am... Tangshan is a city of 3 + million, it is a Coal Mine town, most famous for the 1970 Earthquake that devastated the city.
So here I am, in the main industrial city teaching teenagers and its….
WONDERFUL!
I’m not so fond of the city, but I’m travelling most weekends to get a bit of history, culture and most importantly, nature.
But the best thing is… the students. They are a delight and each time I walk into class I have a smile, when I walk out… I am beaming with happiness from my heart…
I think in doing Teaching as a Foreign Language…. In moving to China… in taking a chance… I’ve done the right thing.
Smiles and hugs from here to you!
Will post again soon :) 

Fiona XXxxx