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Great Wall of China
At Simatai, a two-hour drive from Beijing, there's an access point to the Great Wall, in north Miyun County. Three years ago, I hiked a dirt trail from this site's long-deserted turnstile entrance and scaled the wall's steep, crumbling steps. I felt I was conquering, not climbing, the Great Wall.
In the absence of known facts, many legends have buttressed the wall's lore. "The myths show that the earliest viewers of the wall from Europe [in the 1700s] really grappled with words to describe the immensity of the structure they saw," says William Lindesay, director of the International Friends of the Great Wall. "It was soon realized that there was no single summit from which viewers could survey the entire wall, hence imagination took to speculation." In the years that followed, the wall's length was estimated to be anywhere from about 1,500 to 31,250 miles. But the structure is actually multiple wallsâÂÂdating from the 7th century B.C. to the 17th century A.D.-some of which are only now being surveyed. Current estimates place its length, with all the branches and sections, at 4,500 miles.
As the sun rose after a sleepless night at Simatai, I went from feeling like a big, bad adventurer to a blip in the wall's dark shadow."It's the collective work of perhaps hundreds of millions of laborers," says Lindesay, who has trekked some 1,500 miles of it. "And it will probably never be surpassed in scale."
Tianzi (Son of Heaven) Mountain
Located in the northern part of Wulingyuan Scenic Area in Hunan Province, Tianzi (Son of Heaven) Mountain Nature Reserve is one of the four scenic spots in Wulingyuan (three other spots are the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, the Suoxiyu Natural Resource Reserve and the Yangjiajie Scenic Area). It covers an area of 67 square kilometers (about 16,550 acres), and the highest peak is 1,262 meters (about 4,140 feet) above the sea level.
Tianzi Mountain provides stunning views of peaks, which rise one after another. It is known as 'the Monarch of the Peak Forest'. At the top of the mountain, visitors can see the full extent of the Wulingyuan Scenic Area. Beautiful scenes of the mountain greet visitors in different seasons. There are four wonders: the Sea of Clouds,the Radiance of the Moonlight, Rays of Sunshine and the Snow in winter.
Tianzi Mountain takes its name from a man, Xiang Dakun. He was the leader of the Tu ethnic group during the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 -1279). Xiang Dakun led a revolution and avowed himself as Tianzi (Son of Heaven). Visiting the Tianzi Mountain Area, visitors can see many sites about his story, the most impressive being: the Yu Bi Peaks, the Xian Nu San Hua, and the Shen Bing Ju Hui.
At Simatai, a two-hour drive from Beijing, there's an access point to the Great Wall, in north Miyun County. Three years ago, I hiked a dirt trail from this site's long-deserted turnstile entrance and scaled the wall's steep, crumbling steps. I felt I was conquering, not climbing, the Great Wall.
In the absence of known facts, many legends have buttressed the wall's lore. "The myths show that the earliest viewers of the wall from Europe [in the 1700s] really grappled with words to describe the immensity of the structure they saw," says William Lindesay, director of the International Friends of the Great Wall. "It was soon realized that there was no single summit from which viewers could survey the entire wall, hence imagination took to speculation." In the years that followed, the wall's length was estimated to be anywhere from about 1,500 to 31,250 miles. But the structure is actually multiple wallsâÂÂdating from the 7th century B.C. to the 17th century A.D.-some of which are only now being surveyed. Current estimates place its length, with all the branches and sections, at 4,500 miles.
As the sun rose after a sleepless night at Simatai, I went from feeling like a big, bad adventurer to a blip in the wall's dark shadow."It's the collective work of perhaps hundreds of millions of laborers," says Lindesay, who has trekked some 1,500 miles of it. "And it will probably never be surpassed in scale."
Tianzi (Son of Heaven) Mountain
Located in the northern part of Wulingyuan Scenic Area in Hunan Province, Tianzi (Son of Heaven) Mountain Nature Reserve is one of the four scenic spots in Wulingyuan (three other spots are the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, the Suoxiyu Natural Resource Reserve and the Yangjiajie Scenic Area). It covers an area of 67 square kilometers (about 16,550 acres), and the highest peak is 1,262 meters (about 4,140 feet) above the sea level.
Tianzi Mountain provides stunning views of peaks, which rise one after another. It is known as 'the Monarch of the Peak Forest'. At the top of the mountain, visitors can see the full extent of the Wulingyuan Scenic Area. Beautiful scenes of the mountain greet visitors in different seasons. There are four wonders: the Sea of Clouds,the Radiance of the Moonlight, Rays of Sunshine and the Snow in winter.
Tianzi Mountain takes its name from a man, Xiang Dakun. He was the leader of the Tu ethnic group during the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 -1279). Xiang Dakun led a revolution and avowed himself as Tianzi (Son of Heaven). Visiting the Tianzi Mountain Area, visitors can see many sites about his story, the most impressive being: the Yu Bi Peaks, the Xian Nu San Hua, and the Shen Bing Ju Hui.
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