A Great Day (get it...Great Wall...lol); Beijing Day 2

We are paired with three other school groups on this tour. It is fun to meet other people from across the United States. One of the schools consists of deaf students from Maryland. Fortunately they have interpreters but Amanda and I both know sign language so we can communicate when needed. We have a group from New York and also one from San Francisco for a bus full of 44 people. Helen is our tour guide is she is just great. She speaks in third person a lot - "Helen will be here for you." Don't forget to talk to Helen first." Having breakfast with Helen we found out that she choose her American name to be Helen because of Helen Keller. When she told me that goose bumps went up my arm (yes, I'm a sap).

We are off to the Great Wall today. Helen shared a number of stories but I found it interesting that she explained that the Chinese built the wall for peace purposes and not for purposes of war. It was build to protect the people within China and that there was little interest in moving outside to attack others. While the wall is made of dirt and stone, it is clear they want us to know that for every brick within the wall there is a person who died building it.     ......

Mr. Chimento here...We set out on the Great Wall, with great determination to get as far as we could go. The kids and I felt it a no brainer to get to the top... I'm afraid I did slow the group down wanting to make some photographs along the way. Every once in a while, there would be a Chinese visitor with a wonderful hat, or a little child dressed so charming, that I couldn't pass up a shot to record the memory. Never have I seen a bigger witness of pure flattery, as the Chinese people seem so impressed that someone would want to photograph them.

But then there's another aspect of wonder on their part. Some of these people have never seen Americans before, so they think Americans as movie stars. And so at any given moment,the boys and I felt like Mel Gibson, or Brad Pitt, and the girls like Hannah Montana, or Kelly Clarkson! Swarms of Chinese tourists come flying out of nowhere, as if a beehive had been disturbed, smiling, laughing, wonder, amazement... Friendly people wanting to hug you, be in a picture with you, with their arm around you... Thoughts of being in pictures with Americans... Who would have thought we would be celebrities for a day?

We get to the top, and I couldn't help but break into song... Amazing Grace felt appropriate, and it was an amazing experience to feel like I captivated a foreign audience for a couple of minutes. But perhaps the bigger idea, is that we shared in the spirit of a very special, even spiritual moment. As I sang, everyone turned and sort of stopped talking, and after, there were big cheers and again the swarm of people wanting to be in pictures with me and the kids. It took us almost a ½ hour to get down from the top, from the line of people wanting to be in pictures with us. Nice to be famous for a day. As we walked down, there were numbers of people pointing at us, conversing with one another in Chinese, and in the midst of their conversation, I heard the English words, "Amazing Grace." Some things are just universal, I guess.

The Great Wall of China was an amazing piece of history. When I think of 2000 years ago, how it all began, and continued to be built through any number of dynasties, 6000 miles of wall, the length of a round trip from New York City to San Francisco, an architectural structure that can be seen from the moon, I can't help but feel a part of that greatness when you are standing on it.

We brought our own sense of Americanism to it, as I broke into song, and the kids brought a volley ball just to be able to say, "I played Volley Ball on THE WALL." T-shirt anyone?