Shanhaiguan: August 2003
On the second or third day I after I arrived in China -- still jet-lagged and adjusting -- my school took the other teachers and I to Shanhaiguan, the easternmost section of the Great Wall. This section isn't the sweeping wall you see in photos; it's the section that meets the Yellow Sea. We also visited Laolongtou (Old Dragon's Head) and the temple of Meng Jiangnu, a kind of goddess to the Chinese people who supposedly has favor with the sea gods. The next day we went to the beach.
Now for some of the interesting and weird...Within the wall itself, famous people from back in the day are supposedly buried underneath lifesize effigies of themselves. The effigies are not supposed. I saw those. It's the bodies I still have questions about. The effigies have mostly been rebuilt as a majority of the original ones have been destroyed over the course of time. Now, I DID see two actual dead guys, and I even paid $.60 to do it. Obviously, I got suckered into this. I have no idea who they were or why they were there as everything was written in Chinese, but I do know that they were floating around in some unpleasant-looking fluid and that I scooted back down the ladder I had climbed up to see them much faster than I went up it.
Laolongtou (Old Dragon's Head) and the temple of the sea goddess were actually pretty interesting because of the architectural technology they would have had to have to build them at the time they were built. The temple stretched 500 meters (read it, can't convert it) out into the sea, and it's supposed to be somewhere around 600-700 years old.
The next day we went to what I can only suppose it China's version of what I've seen of Coney Island in movies. It has various rides along the beach and a chair lift going out to a man-made island. The highlight of the day was the crazy new American teacher bungee jumping from the tower on the island. I couldn't count in Chinese yet, and I didn't know when they got to "one" in the countdown, so the guys at the top just pushed me off. The best part was the "certificate" I received after emblazoned in Chinese red with the words "Braver Certificate."
This was also my first experience with Chinese and Korean people, so I learned a ton of interesting traditions and culture on the trip. However, I also learned about the "shock" part of "culture shock." On night two, I was innocently eating dinner when a plate of jumping shrimp were placed on our table. The next entree was also alive and wiggling: sqid tentacles. Fortunately, they didn't bring out the head as well. The Koreans were all excited about these things, and I was ready to hurl. On another funny note, none of the teachers believed my hair color was real. Even though the best-selling hair color in Asia is red, I guess not many people have actually someone with real red hair. As most of you who will be visiting this site already know, I caused quite a few bike wrecks the first few weeks I was here people were craning their necks around so far to stare at my hair.
If you want to read about Shanhaiguan, Laolongtou, or the temple to the sea goddess, here are the sites. Also, you can check out the pictures I've posted.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/hebei/shanhaiguan/
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/hebei/shanhaiguan/laolongtou.htm
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/hebei/shanhaiguan/temple_mengjiangnu.htm