Dearest Rachel –
I was going to make this report on the city of Beijing, but I don’t know how much time I’m actually going to be spending there, when it all comes down to it. The day we went to the Great Wall thirty-five years ago took up most of the day, as I recall, and since this time, we’ll be riding in from Tianjin, that much further away (Beijing isn’t exactly on the coast), it’s going to chew up that much more of the day. For all I know, this will be a drive to the Wall and back, bypassing Beijing altogether.
Well, actually… that’s not quite true. As with Sydney, Beijing is immense; well over six thousand square miles in all. Even the metropolitan area (which we might yet be bypassing) is just under five thousand square miles. And when you count all that area to be part of the city, it’s no wonder that Beijing is considered the largest capital in the world, in terms of population – and, likely, in terms of area as well.
Ironically, it’s still not the largest city in its own country; that honor goes to Shanghai, which at nearly twenty-two million people has Beijing beat by a full three million. And you might notice that when you spread Beijing’s nineteen million or so across all that space, you actually get a population density lower than back home. Of course, that’s assuming you spread its populace out evenly throughout the ‘city,’ which you know doesn’t happen. Note in particular the districts that make up Beijing, and how they get smaller as one moves toward the city center:
I’ve checked the ad copy of our tour, and they refer to our destination as the “Beijing section” of the Great Wall. Presumably, this would be in a place known as Badaling Ancient Great Wall Natural Scenic Area, located in the Yangqing District, which is green in this map. More specifically, it’s due east of the lake on the border, and just south of the source of the small river that feeds into it. So it’s quite a ways from the city center as we think of it, but it is within the city limits.
Of course, that wasn’t the case when it was built (and as you might see from the first map, the spot we’re visiting may include parts from both the more recent Ming Dynasty as well as either the considerably older Qi or Sui Dynasties), but the fact that any wall needed to be built even this close to the capital gives an indication that the encroachments from invaders were both serious and effective.
Oddly enough, while we think of the Wall as having been built to keep out the Mongols (specifically, Genghis Khan and his Golden Horde), this would only apply to the newest fortifications, built during the Ming Dynasty. Bear in mind that the Mongols, as effective as they were in conquest (throughout Eurasia, no less! No one wins a land war in Asia… except the Mongols), didn’t last very long as an empire, and were already diminishing during the rule of Genghis’ grandson Kublai Khan (of Coleridge’s Xanadu fame). The Ming, understandably, considered them a threat, of course, but the older walls were built for more ancient nomadic tribes, many of them lost to history since they kept none of their own. Some of the walls, in fact, were built to defend against other Chinese, especially during the Warring States period, while the walls in the hinterlands were built by non-Han (the current majority ethnicity in China) kingdoms, such as the Wei, Liao and Jin for their own security.
In any event, this was not a project or plan carried out by a single man or empire. Nor was it ineffective; if it were, later builders wouldn’t consider expanding on the structures already in place. Why go to great lengths and expense to add to something that doesn’t work, after all? If these fortifications were ineffective, the empires would be better served by training the men used in the construction process to be fighters instead.
As well as the Great Wall, we are to be visiting the Changling Tomb, built for Emperor Zhu Di, the third emperor (also known as the Yongle Emperor) of the Ming Dynasty, and his empresses. He ruled China from 1402 to 1424 and is also known for moving the capital four hundred miles north, from Nanjing to Beijing, and initiating the construction of the Forbidden City (as well as necessitating strengthening of the walls and their fortifications). We’ll be moving a little closer to the city proper to get there, as the tomb complex is in the Changping District of Beijing (shown on this map in orange); however, this is still at a remove of some fifty kilometers from the city center (about a quarter more than the distance from our hometown to the Loop, for reference).
All in all, it’s going to be a long (twelve-hour) day. Granted, quite a bit of that time will be spent on a coach, going from the port past both the cities of Tianjin and Beijing, but there’s also going to be a couple of miles of walking and climbing. Oddly enough it’s listed as a moderate excursion; evidently, the down time in the bus theoretically offsets the effort spent while on the ground. In either case, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 