The Wall

I remember when I was a kid I thought Jared was pretty cool because they called him "The Wall" when he played goalie in soccer.  Nothing got through.  I was always too scared to be goalie--I'd rather be doing the kicking at the goalie rather than be the goalie being kicked at.  Well, China has a wall like that.  Yes, the famous one: The Great Wall of China.  I think when you see these pictures you might think, "wow, that looks a lot a like the other pictures of the Great Wall that I have seen," and you are probably right.  When you get there and start climbing up the hill towards the wall you get pretty excited.  Then, when you reach the final stair, step onto the wall itself, and look into the distant, winding, stone wall that stretches across the endless mountains, you suddenly realize: this is far cooler than I thought it would be! Sure, the pictures are the same, the wall is the same, and the old grey stones are the same, But the mystical feeling of the place is very unexpected.  It took me by suprise like the spirit does sometimes when I am talking about some random gospel topic.  We were lucky because the section of the wall we went to was not crowded at all.  It was like American style crowded, which is to say a few people here and there.  This allowed me to think about the wall and what it means.  When I think too much, things go down hill, as the following will demonstrate quite thoroughly.

I think that it is important to understand the "personalities" of each country in order to know how best to improve relationships and lessen international tension.  When I say "personality," what I really mean is the history and culture of a country that heavily influences the way that country sees and acts towards the rest of the world.  I think there a lot of American's who are afraid of China, and rightfully so.  China has a military that is one of the largest and best equipt in the World.  Add to that an American ambivalence towards China's internal and international policy, and you find the root of what it means to fear: the unknown.

The cool Blurry One

the countryside

door1

door2

lord of the rings style fire signal

China calls itself the "middle kingdom."  That's what 中国means.  They don't call themselves "China."  That is a foreign name to their idea of what China is--the oldest culture in the world.  They see themselves as being in the center of a vast world of nations that, if history is any indicator, have a desire to invade, use, and abuse.  That is why they built the Great Wall in the first place: they wanted to keep the invaders out.  You might have read a little of China's recent history in my last post.  Do you know what the Opium War is?  The Chinese do.  It was when every colonial power in the world descended upon China in order to take advantage of the rich resources that the land and people had to offer.  The Japanese were particularly brutal in their conquest of China before WWII. They used the eastern part of the "Middle Kingdom" as a jumping board to all of South-east Asia and the Pacific.  When the US military, led by the often bold and sometimes severely egocentric General MacArthur, moved north of the 38th Parallel in pursuit of the North Korean Army, the Chinese got nervous.  Here they come again.  We don't know how many Chinese moved over the Yalu river, but to the Americans they seemed numberless.  It was the Korean War.   But the Chinese recovered.  They are strong now, very strong.  They have rebuilt their wall--this time stronger than ever.  They're motto is "Stability, and they intend to keep it."

So there is your history lesson for the day haha.  I find all of this intensely fascinating--and I know there are at least a few of you that are falling asleep at this point.  Moving on.

The guy in this picture was a cool guy.  He was standing outside a maze of underground tunnels dug during the Japanese occupation of China in the 1940's.  He was all dressed up like a soldier and I just couldn't help but get a picture with him.  He let me wear his hat and hold his spear and gun.  He was just about the coolest chap I have ever met.

me with the cool guy

Right after we went through the tunnels and met the old soldier, we went to eat next door at the local diner....I'm going to call it that.  There was no menu.  We each paid Y40 and they just brought out what they had.  The shrimp as whole: eyes, antennas and all.   They actually tasted like scorpions, just a little fishier.  You can see from the pictures the other dishes.  It was a good, but a strange meal that I will not soon forget.  I will miss China when I'm gone.

the food 2

the food

what__

Finally, I have included a video of the view outside my window.  The last few days I have woken up to the sound of sludge hammers and an excavator starting sometimes before 6 am.  They didn't care that there are 500,000 people trying to sleep--they had a building to tear down.  So about 30 guys ran around in their shorts and tank tops while one guy pounded at the building with his excavator hammer.  When they got the building down, the group of men got to work breaking up the bricks with hand held picks and jack hammers.  Some of the men had to be over 70.  It was all very strange and slightly humorous to me.  Its hard to question their methods though.  After all, they did build one of the seven wonders of the world--a wall that stretches across an entire continent.

Love to all