Friday, April 16, 2010
Tomorrow, Saturday, we will be going to our exchange school. As you know, Helfrich Park has developed a relationship with the Second Experimental School located in Changchun in the Jilin Province. There are twenty-three provinces in China which are much like states in America but larger in size in regards to square miles. The city of Changchun has around four million residents and is the capital of the Jilin Province.
This morning I got up very early to get to Tiananmen Square for the flag raising ceremony. The ceremony is held twice a day, every day at sunrise and sunset. Today the sun rose at about 5:40 AM. Two platoons of soldiers march from the Forbidden City across Chang’an Street to the flagpole area. This area is off limits and guarded twenty-four hours a day for an area of about 50 yards front to back and 80 yards side to side of the flagpole. The ceremony begins as the solders march into square, line up on either side of the flagpole and stand frozen as the flag is being raised to the playing of the national anthem. It is an event that on weekdays draws between 6,000-10,000 people and lasts about three minutes. The ceremony is also very formal and there is an aura of great respect throughout the square. After the anthem is finished playing, the soldiers march back to the Forbidden City. As they march, the soldiers arms and steps are in perfect harmony and very crisp in their movements. It is impressive. There are military people throughout the area making sure that no one is in front of the barriers or walking on the grassy area to the sides. We then walked across the square to view the WW II Memorial and Mao’s Mausoleum once more from the outside, in Tiananmen Square.
After breakfast we went to the Great Wall of China. We rode a bus for an hour and forty-five minutes to Mutianyu to get onto the Great Wall. As I saw the wall I thought that everything I had ever read or saw about the Great Wall and its magnificence was true; it was truly a sight to behold. The day was a little foggy so one could not see the wall for miles. But, we could see for about 1.5 miles and it is unimaginable to think this wall was made, by hand, brick, buckets and shovels. At one time the wall stretched for over 5,000 miles and its purpose was to keep out invaders for the Qin Dynasty. This was about 2,200 years ago. The wall continued to be built through China’s last dynasty. There are a lot of engineering marvels in the wall (Mrs. King would love to see this work). Some of them are obviously the construction quality but also the drainage system and the way the defender’s defense system was set up along the wall as well as in the towers.
PUMAS, remember the Simple Six.
