The Misadventures: China Journals 3: Conquering the Great Wall

Tuesday; April 25, 2006

Jade Factory
Appreciating calzone, err… cloisonné
Hero
Not again?!

Wake-up call: 7am. Breakfast: dimsum, hot soy milk, oily noodles, stuff that looked like French fries but doesn’t taste like one (reminds me of boldstar’s pork siomai song which goes like this: yesterday I had siomai, man it tastes like leche flan, but it’s not it’s pork siomai!) Last night, my bedside phone rang. It was room service, the Chinese girl desperately tried to ask me if I wanted to have a body MESSAGEE. That offer really was tempting, what kind of massage could the motel offer? Haha! Just thinking.

After doing the morning rituals, Frank made his routine roll-call before we boarded the bus. “Today, we will be going to the Great Wall of China, a wonder of the world”. Before we could reach the site, we made a few stopovers. Beijing by the way is a very huge city. It is more than 170 kilometers from east to west and around 150 kilometers north to south. Judging from the infrastructures and other establishments in Beijing, it is much like Manila.

The first of the stopovers is a jade refining factory. Nothing much to see there, only the process of shaping and polishing jade stones. As usual, the trip wouldn’t be complete without the hordes of salesladies peddling jade. The best thing I saw in there was an authentic Scottish dude with kilt and all (minus the bagpipes). Next stop please.

“This time, we will go to the calzone factory” What the hell was that?! I thought calzones originated from Italy? Are we gonna get free taste? I could now imagine, seaweed calzone with pancit bits, fetus calzone, SICK! I read the sign in front of the factory and it said “CLOISONNE” WHEW!

Inside was a display of porcelain, so we think. It was actually made of copper and mineral enamel baked and polished. MAN! The process was really tedious and required tons of patience. It goes like this: 1. The coppersmith forms the copper sheets into vases, after soldering them to pieces, 2. Female workers stick copper wires on the surface to form patterns like dragon scales, panda fur and the like. 3. Powdered minerals are filled into the pattern using medicine dropper (think color by numbers) 4. The vase is baked on a furnace reaching 900 degrees. 5. After baking it is polished using charcoal, leather and rhinestone. Once you see how it is made, you’ll appreciate it even more.

At last, the time has come, Droz, meet the Great Wall. Before the day ends, you will conquer it and become a HERO. Tradition says that once you claimed the great wall, you’ll become a hero. I dunno what that means but I wanna achieve that feat. Gloves? Check. Shades? Check. Camera? Check. Cold water? Check! Wait, let’s just leave that in the bus. It’s too dang cold! Slopes of more than 70 degrees, no decent handrails, more than two kilometers hike to the top. An hour and a half later, almost out of breath, I achieved my target. I’m officially a hero. But do you know what spoiled the feat? At the peak of the wall, there’s this souvenir shop and a photographer for hire. What made me feel more insecure is the fact that the lady photographer shuttles up and down the wall to have the pictures printed! SHIT! She does that around 50 times a day depending on the number of customers. For 50 Yuan per picture (400 pesos), the climb was worth it!