Friday July 6

Friday July 6th
Beijing

Today has been a complete whirlwind. We were all assembled in the lobby at 8 o'clock to catch the bus that would take us to the Great Wall. We were also packed for our 8:30 pm flight out of Beijing and to Xian. Needless to say it was gonna be a long day. Exciting, but long.

On our way to the Great Wall we took a detour to check out the jade factory. Our tour guides gave us brief history of the importance of jade in Chinese culture. Apparently jade is a very hard substance and it can not be carved with bronze. As a result of this it took years to carve a work of jade and a piece made of jade would be extremely valued. Jade was also used in the burial rights of Neolithic peoples because of its value. The shop was absolutely beautiful and we got a chance to see some truly amazing works of art. The artists that created the statues are true masters of their craft. Many of the larger and more elaborate and detailed pieces take years to create even with the use of modern machinery. The statue of horses in particular was breathtaking. It also contained multiple colors of jade, of which there are apparently 30 different colors.

Ok, history lesson over and we made our way to the Great Wall! I have been studying history for many years and of course the engineering feat and importance of the Great Wall of China has been a structure I've read about often. It's not called the Great Wall for nothing. Climbing that mountain to reach the top would have required us to ascend over a 1000 steps. So not happening in the two hours we had available to us. Ok, let's be honest we may have needed days to complete that trek. Thankfully we boarded a cable car that took us to our destination. Ms. Bisconti was not super excited about the cable car journey... Finally at the top and it was just wild. To know you are standing in the spot where so many people have stood and died is a humbling feeling. The Wall is so impressive that you feel dwarfed by its magnitude. At the top you can really see how high and steep and dangerous it is to walk on let alone to create. It's no wonder many people lost their lives while building it. When you stand there you can feel the human spirit; the ingenuity, creativity, and power for both good and bad that the human species is capable of producing.

-Ms. Becker


Reverie . Seriously, all vomit and joking aside (okay, had to throw that in there or out there! Ha! Nothing like vomit humor to precede a serious segment). The journey. I just want to take the time to reflect. I am here. Yes, me. Wow. We are on a flight right now to X'ian we just left Beijing. Saying that, sounds so simple, but fails to appreciate the enormity of what this means to me or how shocking it is that I indeed am HERE in China. How did this Jersey girl Laurie Batitto Bisconti from little ole suburban Montville end up in not just China and the typical big cities but in the remote areas where people generally do not go - across the Silk Road. You need to understand I truly never thought that I would be here for a variety of reasons - money, time and my health issues to name a few. The journey is so much more than the actual trip you take. It's also the before and the after. just like the study of history itself, you need to know what happened before and after and only then can you even begin to understand.
I have been studying China for over 20 years and teaching about it for about 14. My master's thesis was about Mao and the Cultural Revolution 1966-1976. I have read and studied constantly about China. I felt a connection and fascination with it that I can not explain. I have read all the works of Anchee Min and Ha Jin, to name a couple of favorites, anything I could get my hands on. And now I am here. And I am overwhelmed with appreciation and joy. I stood in Tiananmen Square. I felt tiny and insignificant in a place so vast that it could hold one million people at a time. I wonder if that was the intent when it was created. I stood and looked at Mao's portrait so prominently displayed and stared. I was captivated and marveled at the grasp one man can have on so many and for so long (he has been dead since 1976). I imagined his followers standing where I was looking at him instead of just a portrait when he announced in 1949 his victory over the Kuomintang and established the People's Republic of China. What was that moment like? Does it's essence still linger here? I think so. And that is just one of the many moments that I have and will experience and it reminds me that no matter how much I read there is nothing like direct contact. In a day of so much technology. we cannot loose sight of all our important senses- touch, smell, sound - the tactile. Like touching and walking on the Great Wall, There is no picture or video that I can show you or words that I can say to help you grasp how that wall represents the human spirit because of its size, it's complexity etc. Just as eating Peking duck, "chatting" with the locals even through the language barrier, going to the bathroom on a squat toilet - represents the good and the bad of people. Having new experiences and learning how to adjust, to overcome, and to just live, once reaffirms that that human spirit is so much more alike than different. That is why I love travel, it makes me feel connected to the world, to humanity and to myself. That is why I want to see, as the song says, all I can see.
-Ms. Bisconti

The Great Wall:












Ms. Becker being sketchy and pretending to fall. Sure just give me a heart attack!







Yes, I actually climbed up there . . . okay more like crawled.