The Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City

The Joy of Travel:

The Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City.

I have been fortunate to travel the world extensively. Discovering new cultures and spectacular scenery makes all the packing and unpacking and time spent in airports worth it.

Since many of us are staying close to home these days, I thought I’d post a few blogs about some of my travels. I always enjoy revisiting these exotic places.

China is a truly amazing country to explore. While I was there ostensibly for business, I have been able to take in many of the sights. I have been fortunate enough to visit the Great Wall of China three times.

The scale of the Great Wall of China leaves you in awe of what humans are capable of.  The sheer scale of this endeavor is sometimes hard to grasp. Sections of the wall were actually started in the 7^th Century B.C. It was added to by rulers over the centuries, with the best-known sections built by the Ming dynasty from the 13^th century to the 16^th century.

Even with modern diesel-powered equipment the scale of the wall’s construction is huge, and to think it was built with just human labour makes it even more impressive. One can just imagine the human tool. One of the things that stuck with me most was the countless labourers who are actually buried in the wall itself. With such great distances from where they would have originated, it would have been impractical to return bodies home.

While one of the primary purposes of the Wall was defence, it was also used to control trade along the Silk Road and allowed rulers to impose duties. As trade agreements and taxes and tariffs continue to be prominent in the news today, it’s always interesting to think that these concepts originated centuries ago.

I was also fortunate enough to visit The Forbidden City in Beijing. It was built in the early 1400s and consists of a series of almost 1,000 buildings with 9,999 rooms on 180 acres. It would have been home to the Chinese emperor and like the Great Wall leaves you in awe of its size and scope.

This is me standing in front of the Forbidden City on one of my trips to China.

I did my best to capture the size and scale of the Great Wall of China, but it’s a challenge. Since it can be seen from satellites, it’s no surprise that it’s a challenge to capture it on a camera.

I was able to visit the Great Wall a number of times. Here’s a photo taken in the fall.

And one taken in the spring.

Like any human creation, the wall requires maintenance. While the sections of the wall most commonly visited by tourists are well maintained, as you explore more you realize the scale of just trying to keep a structure this standing upright.