July 9: He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man. -- Chairman Mao
Today the ghost of Chairman Mao attacked my masculinity. Our guide urged us to climb the Great Wall by citing Chairman Mao. I would have felt bad not quite reaching the top even in this heat and humidity except that I remembered that this was the same guy who had the Chinese people beat on pots and pans for forty eight hours to force the birds to fly until they dropped dead from exhaustion. More importantly this is the man responsible for launching the cultural revolution and, if my reading of history is correct, setting back China at least one generation. I hung back with Jen out of exhaustion as well as common sense, but also after realizing that reaching the top would not yield much more of a view. We had climbed from the parking lot on a path leading to the top of the wall for what seemed like an hour. Our tour company had selected a particularly unappealing segment of the wall ostensibly to avoid the tourist hordes. Unfortunately there was a reason why the tourists hoards went elsewhere. So for the record, here's a picture of one of the towers on the wall. Also for the record here is a my picture of the ghost of Chairman Mao.
My question for today is: Given what a screwing Mao gave the Chinese people, why are there still pictures and statues of him all over the place and why do they flock to view and venerate his embalmed remains in Tienanmen Square?























Much of the hard work in China is still done by low paid laborers. While we were climbing up to the Great Wall this man was carrying the heavy metal pipes to be used as guard rails that will prevent tourist from falling over the edge. Unfortunately (or fortunately) our tour mostly shielded us from this aspect of Chinese society. I shot this photo very quickly, on impulse, as the man was passing our group.










July 9 (Cont.): Night out

We came back from seeing the Great Wall pretty knocked out and decided to skip the acrobatic show and go out to dinner and walk around the hotel on our own. Jie Zheng, our tour leader, henceforth to be referred to as "Mark," had already shown us the neighborhood on a brief walk the day before so that we were familiar with the hazards of crossing the street: don't place any faith in the traffic lights; just make sure you are in a large group of pedestrians while you brave your way through the crossing and trust that the driver will choose not to hit a large mass of people. We had gotten the name of a restaurant, about a half a mile from our centrally located hotel, from our local guide . To be on the safe side we had also asked Mark to point out the restaurant during our rehearsal walk. Jen and I and two others who had decided to skip the optional tour proceeded to walk there at 6:30 that evening.

We passed by the Maserati showroom, the Rolex showroom and a dozen other luxury good emporia and arrived at our restaurant without any difficulty. The rush hour traffic had abated somewhat and crossing the street was no more eventful than the same activity conducted in New York City. I had to wonder as we passed the Louis Vuitton store: who were the purchasers of these luxuries in a city (and country) where one must always carry one's own toilet paper?

At the "Red Lantern" we were immediately seated by waiter who spoke a little English and who provided us with English menus with illustrations. The chopsticks and glasses were sealed in plastic wrap. I was somewhat concerned, in spite of Mark assurance, that this place was not authentic. But there were several good signs: we were the only Westerners in this large, almost full restaurant and the dishes on other customers' tables looked very good. As it turned out this was, for under $15 a person, including an excellent local beer, the best meal we had had so far. The pork dish, the string beans and the fried rice -- unlike any fried rice one gets in the US -- were superb. The fourth dish, a sea food mixture, was somewhat lacking in sea creatures. But three dishes for four people was more than enough. No tip was expected and no tip was given. We walked out quite satisfied with the food and the service -- and at having negotiated successfully this little adventure.

After dinner we strolled past the Beijing Night Market, a sensory experience that the accompanying pictures unfortunately don't capture: exotic smells, colorful foods on spits, much shouting and a carnival atmosphere. For me this was Beijing at its best.