China

 – By Kishan Sonpal

Have you ever wondered about China – its beautiful landscape, culture and artifacts?  Let me tell you all about it. 

China is the fourth largest country in the world but it has the highest population of the world.  It is located in Central Asia.  Its neighbors are Kazakhstan, India, Russia, Mongolia, Nepal and many more.

This past summer, I was fortunate to visit China.  We started our trip from Shanghai.  It is famous for the Bund Riverside and Nanjing Street.  The Bund Riverside is a place where people go to enjoy the beautiful view of downtown Shanghai.  At night the water view is absolutely gorgeous.  All the buildings are lit up and thousands of locals and tourists come to the riverside to enjoy the view.  Some of the famous buildings are the Oriental Pearl TV tower and bottle opener Financial Tower.  Nanjing Street is must see because it is a one-stop shopping alley.  It is just fun to see people shopping and vendors selling.  The best part of Shanghai was flying kites on Bund Riverside in the morning.

From Shanghai we took a cruise on Yangtze River.  Yangtze River is the third longest river in the world and we experienced beautiful gorges along the way.

Next stop – Xian is just mind blowing.  It is most famous for the Terra Cotta Army museum.   Did you know that it has over two thousand life size clay soldiers that all have different expression on their faces?  These soldiers were built for Emperor Qin.  His wish was that when he dies he wanted to be surrounded by clay soldiers.  We were lucky to meet one of the farmers who discovered the site and get his autograph on the book.  We went to a local restaurant for eighteen course dumpling dinner.  One of my favorite parts was the Tang Dynasty Show. 

Our last stop was Beijing.  Beijing is the best combination of old and new.  On one side, it has the famous Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, the Winter and Summer Palaces and on the other side, it has the modern buildings such as the Bird’s Nest and the Ice Cube in Olympic Village.  Bird’s Nest is the building where all the gymnastics took place and all the swimming competitions took place in Ice Cube building.  The Great Wall of China is one of the wonders of the world.  Did you know that it is about four thousand miles long?  We did climb to the second base, it was exhausting but worth the climb.

The history, architecture, landscape and most of the people were so beautiful that they will have a special place in my heart.

The Great Wall

By John Huang

The Great Wall of China is the one of two things that can be seen in space that is man made.  From an orbit from 160 -310 kilometers, it is visible to the naked eye.  It was back in the 7^th century, B.C. when millions of people died trying to build the great wall.  Guard stations, watch towers and signal towers were built evenly apart.  The towers looked like old Temples.

The Great Wall is 1500 miles long.   For many years no one thought anyone can walk the Great Wall.  While I was walking on part of the Great Wall it felt just like concrete, hard and bumpy. The stairs were 6in.-10in high and it was a challenge to climb it for me.  The Great Wall is made out of wood, earth, stone, and brick.  It is 25 feet in height and 15 – 30 feet thick at the bottom. 

The stones were a silver color but now they are fading  and they look like concrete.  Also 27 miles of the Great Wall may disappear in the next 20 years, because the wall isn’t that strong anymore and it may break apart. I walked to an end at one point and I could see the Great Wall broken apart into at least five pieces . Also the Great Wall is divided into many different sections.

Whose idea was it to build theGreat Wall?

Qin Shi Huang undertook many big projects including the Great Wall of China. The emperors in the time of the Great Wall were Qi, Yan, Wei and Zhao.