Ode to Vast Chinese Walls

I recently had the opportunity to explore the Great, Vast Walls of China with a breadth and intensity that blew me away, and almost broke me. How best to share the spirit of this journey? As with the hiking itself in Northern and Western China, I today once again step outside my comfort zone and present my experience by Ode.

Photographs of the untamed and ruined beauty in this remote part of the world and additional narrative connected with several stanzas touching on history, fascinating facts, and a whole lot of personal story are available by clicking on the hyperlinks below. -- Andrew

Oh vast soaring walls of ten-thousand li

Bold dragons defending Cathay bravely,

Span ridges, valleys, arid desert laid

Innovative methods thine makers made.

Clarion calling me since a mere boy

At bottom of deep hole I dug with joy,

At one score did first I glimpse your rise

Two score on you almost broke me suchwise.

Meng Jiangnu wailing for dear husband lost

Built and maintained at exorbitant cost,

Raw, ragged, revealing all humbly told

What stories and meaning within you hold!

Hordes on horseback, soldiers on stone roads tread

Anxious moments, kill zones flow dusty red,

Surviving harsh conditions with aplomb

Impregnable ‘til human frailty harm.

Follow goat herd up slick Yin Mountain spall

Espy hidden Qin, your earliest wall,

Quarried rocks guard o’er Mongolian plain

Two millennia toiled yet you remain.

Darkness reigns in pre-twilight Gobi dust

Chasing rare organic Han wall a must,

Dawn’s orb brightens layered tamarisk stacks

Built to protect traders on Silk Road tracks.

Western Regions live beyond Jiayuguan

The Williams trekked east from Ming Beacon Tower one,

Rammed earth wall stooped in shadow of today

Buddhist karma’s blessing beckons not far away.

Crowning rugged mountains north of Beijing

Feral Ming walls through verdant Jiankou sing,

Qi Jiguang’s kilned brick restoration drive

White-knuckle dares to breathe, repeat, and thrive.

A north-south spur in Laiyuan’s a keeper

A Ming counter-flank three valleys steeper,

Hardscrabble stone and brick, watchtower dream

Knees thrashed by harsh plunges, where’s camp, don’t scream.

Walls of wonder, testaments to the past

Far from tourist crowds, grateful to the last,

Rich landscapes of rock, desert, and forest

Voices of history so well chorused.