GREAT WALL OF CHINA

This great engineering marvel, constructed to keep out the hordes, those wild Mongols from the steppes in the north, is now being invaded again, but this time by peace-loving hordes. The Great Wall, a wonder of the world (whether visible from space or not), is a magnet for visitors to Beijing. The new wave of invaders is friendly and a spirit of camaraderie prevails as they jostle along, huff and puff up the steep steps and perspire profusely in the humid heat. Everyone's in this together, all experiencing one of the world's "must-sees".

The Great Wall of China winds across the country's northern periphery for more than 7,000km (longer than the width of the USA), spiraling over green mountains, rugged peaks, and desert plains. Kingdoms of the Warring States Period (5th century BC) built the first sections of the wall but Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (of Xian fame), linked the sections together to create the Great Wall in 221BC. For thousands of years, the wall protected China from barbarian attacks and facilitated communications between the central part of the country and its distant frontiers. The skeleton of the wall is more than 2,000 years old, but much of what you see today dates from the late Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, when the emperors, threatened by Mongol invasion, mobilized to extend and fortify it. The most famous "barbarians" were Genghis Khan, who stormed Eurasia in the early 1200s, and his grandson Kublai Khan, who defeated the Song in 1279.

One Saturday last July we joined the throngs on a visit to the Badaling section of the wall. The Chinese government has opened three sections of the wall to tourists, all easily accessible from Beijing, but Badaling is the closest and apparently the one most closely restored to its original' condition: Every tower and turret stands as it did when the Mongols overran the country 700 years ago. But, because of this, it is also the most crowded section.
Our first view of the wall had been from the air-a concrete snake coiling up and down the mountains. We surmised that, if visible from the plane then it must be huge, but just how huge, how monumental, was a surprise. What was also a surprise was the size of the crowds. We had been prepared by the university students who accompanied us-it's summer season, it's school holidays, it's a Saturday-but still, we were taken aback at the sheer numbers. Tour bus after tour bus rolled in, car after car, van after van,

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