GHADI BABU!

I just needed to get the strap of a watch adjusted, so I visited a watch repair shop in Connaught Place recently. This was an air conditioned place with absolutely beautiful wall clocks from all the well known brands of clocks and watches from all over the world. A Piaget, an Omega, a Rado, and so many others adorned the walls. Each clock was more beautiful and unique than the other.

The people at the reception were young persons, who attended to me. The person who took my watch in, was an elderly gentleman. While waiting for my work to be done, I looked around the place and noticed that most of the people repairing or servicing the watches were elderly people. 

SHOP IN PAVITRA PAPI

My mind took me back to a very old movie that I had seen, "Pavitra Papi". Balraj Sahni had played the role of a watch repairer. His shop was filled with clocks in a tiny space, with a counter. I do remember so many such shops in all the cities that I lived in. They all looked alike.

I also remembered "Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam" where there was a "ghadi babu" whose job was to keep winding all the clocks in the household.

Who can forget the Salarjung Museum in Hyderabad and its musical clock where everyone gathers every hour to watch the clock perform?

THE CLOCK AT BERNE, SWITZERLAND

Other memorable clocks are in Prague, Berne,The Big Ben and many more historical, magnificent clocks in other cities of Europe, where people gather around the clock every hour to see the performance of the clock. 

THE CLOCK IN PRAGUE

Coming back to my story, I remember long- long ago, I was in the tenth class and most of my classmates did not possess a watch. In those days everyone did not wear a watch. It was considered an expensive item and everyone trusted the clock on the wall. My first watch was a "Camy" handed down to me by my mother. It had a square dial and it was my most precious possession. It was given to me so that I could prepare for my exams, timing myself. After that I did get a new watch but I always had only one watch at a time. I would take very good care of my watch, as did everyone else in those days. My watch was always the winding variety and I always wound it up at exactly the same hour every day. The first scratch on the dial had brought tears to my eyes and had spoilt my entire day.

My father owned an Omega and I was very careful whenever I had to fetch it for him.

It was my dream to own an Omega. For me it was the ultimate sign of having “arrived”.

Long ago in 1973, when I was in England, I worked for about six months there and with my earnings bought a Pye TV and an Omega watch for my husband. It was a beautiful watch with a two colored dial. Rishi Kapoor used to wear the same model of Omega then.

TRILOKI'S OMEGA OF 1973.

Many years passed, I acquired more watches one after the other. They were never too expensive. I always thought that a watch was for utility and needed to tell me the time. I did however buy a watch with different cases and colored straps and would match the strap with the dress that I wore. Then it was a fashion statement. I never thought of a watch as a status symbol. More years passed and when I completed 25 years in the Bank, as a Silver Jubilee gift from the Bank, I bought a black dial delicate looking Titan watch. That was the first time I had two watches at a time. Then a Seiko, a Citizen, a Regency and yet another Seiko, came my way. By now my thinking that a watch was just for telling the time had  changed.

One day while visiting my daughter in London, I noticed that a shop on Oxford Street was closing down and had a total "closing down sale" going on. My eyes opened wide when I saw a few Omega watches too waiting to be sold. I quickly called my husband in India, then called my daughter at work, got approval from both of them and ventured into the shop to buy my first prized possession...an Omega watch! My childhood desire of owning an Omega which had been lying dormant for donkey's years, suddenly got fulfilled!

MY PRIZED POSSESSION

Now I wear it everyday of my life. I have many other watches which I get regularly serviced, but my everyday companion is my Omega.

Well to get back to the watch repair shop! In my memory a watch repair shop was quite a non descript shop, with a show case filled with numerous watches waiting to be repaired by its ageing owner and a shop assistant who always looked eager to learn his job, sorry, craft. This swanky air conditioned shop with the most desirable beautiful wall clocks only had one common factor with those shops of my memory. It was the oldish looking gentlemen repairing the watches.

In this grand shop, I  missed the stately grand father clocks which would go tick-tock, tick-tock in a very soothing way. The pendulum would swing mesmerising me to some extent , and then suddenly the gong would strike the half hour, and break my reverie.

This shop took me down memory lane on a different journey! I loved re-visiting this closed lane!

DO BORDERS DIVIDE?

THE BORDER

Wagah border is the door between two nations which were once one without borders. About 66 years ago, a border was made and land was divided. People were uprooted and houses built with a lot of love, care and money were left behind. People moved to unknown places to settle down after having lost everything and tried to grow new roots in a different soil.

Very few of that generation which faced all that heart break, pain, misery, anguish, remain to tell the story. There are a lot of films made and a lot of stories written on the pain which brought about the partition of a property which created a lot of rift and animosity between people who were once brothers.

DISTANCES

 I travelled to Amritsar to see this border. They say Amritsar and Lahore were twin cities. They both were cultured and beautiful cities at close proximity with each other. Amritsar is relatively a new city built about 500 years ago by Guru Ram Das the 5th Guru of the Sikhs. Lahore on the other hand is known to be at least 2000 years old. It was the capital of the Mughal Empire for some time and Jehangir lived here for a considerable period of time. The famous story of Salim and Anarkali belonged to Lahore. Maharaja Ranjit Singh ruled from here. Lahore was the citadel of learning and its University, Govt College for Men, Foreman  Christian College,  Aitchison College were famous institutions. The tombs of Jehangir and  Noor Jehan are in Lahore. Lahore is famous for its cuisine, culture and juttis. 

Amritsar  is famous for the Golden temple, Durgiana Temple and Jallianwala Bagh. The cuisine of Amritsar and its street food too is legendary.

OUR SIDE OF THE STANDS AT WAGAH

We were in Amritsar to see the Closing ceremony at the Wagah border. There is a gate at the border. The Indian  gate is painted in the tri color. As one approaches Attari one sees the sign boards showing the distance to Lahore. We approach the border from the Swarn Jayanti gate. On this gate facing Pakistan is a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi.

OUR ENTRANCE GATE

On the side of Pakistan they have a portrait of Mohd. Jinnah. There are stands on the side for tourists to sit and witness the ceremony. Our side of the stands were choc a block filled with people. There were children and women running with the Indian flag in their hands from the Swarn Jayanti gate to the Border gate. Loud speakers were blaring out nationalist and patriotic songs mostly from films. There was Chak de India, Himmat watan ki hamse hai, Jai ho, and Yeh desh hai veer jawano ka.  The beat of the music was such that one automatically wanted to dance or clap.

THEIR STAND & PORTRAIT OF JINNA

Soon women from the public stands came down and started dancing the bhangra. Then the music stopped and one could hear the booming voice of a BSF Commander. The command went on as if it would never stop! Soon two men dressed in black with very dark glasses on their eyes marched across and stood near the Border gate. After that two women from the BSF marched to the Border gate and smartly stood there in attention after ceremoniously kicking their right leg high up.

They were followed by men from the BSF who were all more than 6'tall. They all marched smartly, aggressively, showed their attitude, temper, brute force and power. Yes, the closing ceremony was on its way.

  

LAND ACROSS THE BORDER

One is filled with pride watching the men march and kick up so high that it appears as if their toes go higher than their head gear. The marchers from the Pakistan side too  displayed the same mannerisms and antics as ours. The only place where they could not match us was that they did not have women marching to the border.Their stands too were devoid of people, perhaps as it was Ramzaan.

WOMEN CAME DOWN TO DANCE Our people were extremely enthusiastic, emotional and waiving the flag with great gusto. We are indeed very emotional people.

THE FLAGS. The flag was brought down with great precision. Each side made sure that the ceremony was in exact tandem. If looks could kill this was really one such ocassion, where even the blink of an eyelid could show that you were the loser. That actually explained why the dark glasses were worn by two BSF men. There was to be no blinking of eyes as they faced the opponent bang opposite each other. Gestures, looks, kicking of the legs with full force was fully dramatic and identical on both sides.It filled me  with pride and patriotism to watch the ceremony.

PAKISTAN & THEIR SIDE.

At the end of this ceremony, we could go behind and actually see Pakistan from across the barbed fence. The same fields, the same crops, the similar looking people with same color and features were trying to show animosity where perhaps none exists. People all over the world are humans first. They all want to live in peace. Europe is a continent without borders. Anyone can move about freely between countries. There is no hatred, no anger, no fear, no animosity. They seem to want to live in peace and harmony. They seem to want to grow, prosper and be comfortable. Why do we people of the same family want to fight, show aggression, show power? 

OUR BORDER

We celebrate our Independence Day on 15th August and Pakistan celebrates theirs on 14th August.We are two nations created craftily, hastily, by Sir Cyril Radcliffe who was just given one month to divide 175,000 square miles of territory with 88 million people. There was no thought given to the emotions of the people, the land and the territories that were divided. That happened 66 years ago. It is part of our History.

I take this opportunity to wish all of you A Very happy Independence DAY! Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!

At WAGAH.

Baki sab theek thaak hai!

AMRITSAR STATION

My latent desire to go to Amritsar finally fructified and I booked Railway tickets to travel by the Swarn Shatabdi from Delhi to Amritsar. I loved train journeys once upon a time, so was quite looking forward to it. I even told my grand children that they would see the Indian countryside and the towns as we passed them. I also told them that it was a prestigious train and would therefore be quite comfortable and clean. It was quite a disappointment by the looks of it, as the paint was chipping off, and it did not look like what I had imagined it would be. Nevertheless we boarded, my daughter purposely ran to catch the train in DDLJ( Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge) style, as it would never be possible anywhere else in the world, where the doors are shut before the train moves out. Don't want to sound hoity toity, but the fact remains that I have travelled a lot by train in Europe particularly Switzerland, UK, China, and have absolutely great memories of those beautiful, clean, gorgeous trains.

HAPPY WITH THEIR SEATS

The train moved, the tea was served and we were settled comfortably on our seats. We had excellent seat numbers and plenty of leg room. Soon the landscape changed and the fields and small towns went past us. The disappointment of the looks of the train started fading away, when the waiter serving us tea noticed that my grand children would neither drink tea nor coffee, so he brought them extra Marie biscuits, removed their tea tray and said, "Ye le lo beta". This dialogue of his touched my heart somewhere....this is India. This is what is "us", the relationships that we build so easily. Behenji, mataji, auntyji, bhai sahib, beta, these are the general terms used by all and sundry.We are all one big family!

SUMPTUOUS FOOD

The journey after that did not bother me and I took everything else in my stride.

The first stop was Ambala, and the announcement on the Public Address system said, "We welcome only passengers from Ambala......" I was quite amused by this declaration of bias towards passengers from Ambala. The next station was Ludhiana, again only the passengers from Ludhiana were welcomed. I thought it was quite strange and sounded not too good. By the time the third station arrived and the PA system was announcing the Welcome, I listened to The Hindi Welcome too. It said, “Phagwara se chadne wale yaatrion ka hum Hardik Swagat karte Hai." I realized that all this time the lady was actually saying, "We Warmly Welcome passengers from ..... and not "We Only welcome passengers from.....

After having solved this mystery quite successfully, I turned my attention to the passing scenery. Punjab is really a land of plenty. The fields were all green and fully planted. There were paddy fields , and sugar cane was present to a lesser extant. There was a pathway along the canal (nahar) on which people were going about on motor cycles and tractors. I also saw an elderly gentleman walking on the path probably taking his morning walk. It reminded me of my mother- in- law telling me that her father was the Dipty(Deputy) in the Irrigation department and he used to go on his horse for Inspection of the canals. That was the time of the British Raj and they lived in Imnabad which is now in Pakistan. My time traveller mind could find the similarities of a period about ninety years ago with this day. The nahar, the pagdandi(pathway), the same fields, the greenery of a fertile land, the prosperity of the people, everything seemed the same. The houses were few and all were pucca houses, they did not have the village like, rustic looking thatched huts. We crossed quaint little stretches of platform with two boards displaying the name of the station, a railway crossing with cars, tempos, motor cycles, tractors waiting for the train to pass, and a cluster of houses around the station. I felt glad that I had decided to take this train journey. It brought me in touch with My India, the real India. Prosperous, still rustic, still grounded, still surrounded by land, agriculture and crops.
Even though I strained my neck a lot, I simply could not see a Waheeda Rehman romping on the fields singing “Doongi tujhe reshmi rumaal oh banke zara nede aana( Des Pardes style). Could not see Simran( DDLJ style), simply couldn't see those beautiful damsels anywhere. OH! I know, those were all in the fields of the yellow sarson, so I guess if I come when the sarson is flowering and the fields look like a sea of yellow, I will see the damsels singing in filmy style! Eureka!

THE MIGHTY RIVER BEAS

Train journeys are still very romantic.They take us to our destination, and the view from the windows of greenery, prosperity, large rivers, little clusters of villages, power transmitters, electricity and power towers, the chaiwala visible but not entering your compartment, is a good memory.

THE OUTER POST OF AMRITSAR STATION

 One does have to overlook the toilets, the nasty complaining traveller who wants the complaint book as the waiter refused to serve him a cold drink, and the non existent cleanliness of the station.
One thing that I kept thinking about, was the same time of August in the year of 1947. I recalled the journey that a lot of people undertook on the train fleeing from Pakistan or India, leaving their homes, lands, belongings and memories. A lot of them lost their dear ones too. They all travelled on this very route, in very difficult, turbulent, disturbing and tragic circumstances. I know that a lot of water has since flown down the Ganges as well as the Indus, and yet I thought about those who travelled on this very route, and felt a little sad at those memories.

Back to the present day and time and journey, I have to say what most of us Indians usually say, after a full bout of complaints, "Baki sab theek -thaak hai!" (everything else is fine). 

SHAAN HAI! SHANGHAI!!

Most of us get fascinated by the names of some places in our childhood.  Shanghai was the name of one such place that I always fancied. Some other "names of places" that I liked were London, Bombay, New York, Melbourne, Paris.

IN THE TRAIN

When our China trip included Shanghai in the last leg, I was quite anxious to see what this city was going to offer me. From Xian we took the Express Sleeper train to Shanghai. The train was superb. There were beautiful net curtains as well as light yellow colored silk curtains on the windows. The corridor in the compartment had single seats at intervals where one could sit and watch the countryside go by. The sleepers were comfortable, with soft berths. Every cabin contained a water jug, 4 hangers, bright reading lights, and a dustbin. We were provided with two sheets, a blanket and a pillow, kept neatly stacked on the berth. We were allocated 3 Cabins but all ten of us huddled together in one cabin, as we wanted to chat and spend our evening together, eating all the namkeens that we had carried with us to China.

SEATS IN THE CORRIDOR

Incidentally it was the Wedding Anniversary of one couple, so there was more fun. We heard the interesting story of their marriage, which I will share with you some other time.

This train was a vestibule. There was a dining car too. In every compartment there is a washing area where you can wash your dishes and cups. There was also a very hot water dispenser for endless cups of hot tea.

HOT WATER DISPENSER

The train journey was good, and after a good nights sleep we arrived at Shanghai. It's altogether another story that TNN my husband lost his breathing apparatus....oh sorry...his mobile phone just when we reached Shanghai. No, it was not stolen, he just dropped it somewhere.

THE ERSTWHILE RUSSIAN EMBASSY

Shanghai seemed less high rise as we entered the City. It looked different from Beijing. There was something about the city which was captivating. The place gave an impression of a rich, relaxed well established grand city which has a character of its own.  

A GOLDEN BUDDHIST TEMPLE

The train stations and roads were very beautiful. There were no roses alongside the roads as in Beijing, but they had other plants and roads were clean, traffic was orderly. There were lovely Magnolia trees all over the place. The trees were in full bloom and the white huge flowers amongst the dark green leaves looked very fresh and pretty. There were Peonies too. Peonies are large pink flowers, and I was quite fascinated to see these flowers on trees.

The name of our hotel was "Lotel"! It was an eco friendly hotel so everything was quite green and no plastics were seen around. 

NEON LIT SKYSCRAPER

Shanghai has a  beautiful skyline.  The Pudong district of Shanghai has a wide range of skyscrapers, many of which rank amongst the tallest in the world. No other city in the world has as many free standing buildings which are over 400 meters tall . The third tallest building in the world is the Shanghai World Financial Center which is 492 metres tall. The tallest  building in China is under construction at Shanghai and will be 632 metres when completed and will have 127 floors. Shanghai has been described as the "showpiece" of the booming economy of China.

THE AMAZING SKYLINE BY NIGHT

All these buildings are lit up every night and so every night is Diwali night in Shanghai. The lighting pattern too is different in every building.We had asked our guide if there was any power failure in Shanghai. He said, " I am 27 years old, and I have never seen the lights go off".

When we reached the Bund, we were filled with awe as all around us were fabulously lit up huge sky scrapers.  The roof of each building was different and the beauty of the place was enough to make all of us gasp with amazement. 

ABSOLUTE BEAUTY!

The spectacular  area with the sky scrapers  is near the Huangpo river. A lot of  boats ply on this river taking  tourists around to  enjoy the beauty of the skyline by day as well as by night. The boats too are  well illuminated with decorative lights, and are quite fascinating to watch as they glide past with their passengers.

THE BUND WALL

The walls on the bund around the river have been beautified with an abundance of flowers. The potted plants have been placed on the walls in such a manner that the wall looks as if they are  made of flowers. The place therefore looks beautiful by day as well as by night.

THE YUYUAN MARKET

Shanghai also has an ancient side. There are many buildings maintained as they were traditionally.These are "Shikumen" residences which have a front courtyard protected by a high wall.  Each residence is connected by a straight alley. The entrance to the house is usually through a stylistic stone arch. In fact Shikumen means "stone gate".

THE ZIG ZAG BRIDGE

The Yuyuan Market is one such place where one can see a lot of these typical buildings. This is a shopping complex, but I was quite captivated by the beauty of the whole place and kept gaping at every roof, building and wall. I cannot recall any shop over there. There is a lovely lake in the center of the market and there is a zig zag bridge on it. It is quite fascinating to see these really exotic buildings and get the feel of traditional China as it must have been, once upon a time.

PROUD GRANDFATHER WITH CAKE

Another spectacular and affluent market in the olden style is Xintiandi. Xintiandi means "New Heaven and Earth". This is more modern than Yuyuan. There are traditional buildings which have a modern touch to it. They are less stylized. This is a very posh market with a lot of Western style restaurants with open air seating. It was my grand daughter Aaria's birthday the day we visited this market. So we had a little coffee party with lovely cakes. All the ten people wished Aaria and I recorded it on video.

As the houses here were connected by alleys, so we walked through one such alley. There was a window where the curtain seemed to be made with real egg shells. Flower arrangements and decorations in the windows were quite exotic and different from the Western world.

Xintiandi is the place where the first congress of the Communist Party of China met.

Near this place is the people's park and nearby are the showrooms of Lamborghini as well as Rolls Royce. Quite a see change from Communism to materialism!

NANJING

Nanjing is the posh- posh highest profile market in Shanghai. It is one of the world's busiest shopping street. It is totally a pedestrian area and is beautifully lit with neon lights. We wandered around the place, looking at the people and shops. We found Tea shops, where different types of tea was sold. There was a tea like a bud which when soaked in water opened out into a flower. I bought Jasmine tea as well as the flowering tea, I do not know the name as it was in Chinese.

In spite of the years of Communism, now people have returned to their Gods. There are a number of temples,mosques and Churches too. They follow Mahayana Buddhism, and also Taoism. We  went to see the Jade Buddha temple which was built in 1882. 

LANTERNS

COLOURFUL FISH

 There are two statues of Buddha made of jade, which were brought here from Burma. Besides the jade statues there are other statues made of marble in this temple. Outside the main temple inside the compound, there was a lot of incense being burnt in huge cauldrons. Candles were in the shape of pink lotus. 

WORSHIPPERS IN THE TEMPLE

People were praying very fervently. We entered the temple through a corridor full of red colored lanterns( akashdeep). The temple had a Bonsai garden as well as a pond filled with very beautiful colored fish.  The statues were beautiful and prayers were not carried on inside. It was very tranquil, clean and pretty. 

TEA CEREMONY

There was a tea shop inside the premises of the Temple, where they sold herbal tea which was quite expensive, but is said to bring relief in asthma, arthritis, diabetes and many other long standing illnesses. The tea was made and we were offered the tea. All of us bought one tea or the other trusting that it was a Government shop.

ZHUJIAJIAO ANCIENT VILLAGE

After seeing all this opulence and grandeur in Shanghai, we went to see a very tranquil, peaceful place. This was about 48 kms. away from Shanghai. The place is called Ancient Water Town Zhujiajiao. This village has been in existence for the last 1700 years. It is also called the Venice of China. 

THE CANAL AT ANCIENT VILLAGE

There was a canal in the center, lined with Weeping Willow trees., there were old streets paved with stone and many curved bridges across the canal. On the banks were shops selling curios, traditional toys, hand knitted bootees for babies, traditional clothes and food and tea. 

WEEPING WILLOW & A BOAT

We were told that a lot of buildings were more than 600 years old. There were boats plying in the canal. How beautiful and peaceful old China must have been! There was a lot of beauty, calm and a feeling of time having stopped in its track in the Village.

 

FLOWERS IN A WINDOW

 On our last evening in Shanghai, we went for a river cruise on the famous Bund. The fascinating lights, the lovely breeze made it a delightful evening for all of us.

Shanghai which broken up sounds like Shan hai, actually is a very shaandaar place. It is a majestic, grand, rich, historical metropolis which can give any big metropolis of the Western world a complex!

A JASMINE TREE IN FULL BLOOM

I cannot end what I am telling you without sharing one very interesting aspect that we experienced in China. Amongst the five men in our group there were two men with moustaches and one with a goatee. In Beijing at the Tiananmen Square, one of our group with large Nathulal style Moustache got a lot of attention from girls. The girls would flock around him and one girl even asked if she could comb his moustache! Where ever we went he was the center of attraction. If any of us got lost, we just had to strain our ears for the oohs and aahs of girls and sure enough our hero would be found there surrounded by admiring females.

On the cruise, before disembarking we were taking group photos, and were being watched quite intently by a lot of people. Suddenly one girl asked if she could be included in our picture. We agreed, she quickly came over to the hero with the goatee, pushed his wife away, and almost sat on the lap of our hero. It was a very hilarious sight and we couldn't get over this episode.

HIGHLIGHT OF OUR TRIP!

Now of course everyone knows why all the other men of our group are tending to their moustaches and making sure that they grow nice and beautiful, before we plan another trip to China.

UNBELIEVABLE CHINA!

TIANANMAN SQUARE!

China,you really surprised me. As a young girl fresh out of school the first novel that I read was “Peony” by Pearl S. Buck.Then "Good Earth" the Noble prize winning book on China.  Then I read about what life was like with one room tenements for all and the single child policy where children were considered the property of the state.I read about all men and women dressing in blue coloured uniforms of trouser and jacket.

But lo and behold, the Beijing that I saw took my breath away.It was nowhere near the China of my imagination. Going towards the hotel there were so many Oohs and aahs and "Look at the roses", "look at the roads", "Look on the left", "oh look at those colors!"It was as if we were in a Rose garden or a display of roses. 

The roads were lined with beautiful roses, it was a virtual rose garden! The roads were like Expressways, there were so many roads, one over the other, criss cross and at different levels. The roads seemed as if they had been laid only last night. 

The cars on the roads were orderly, everyone was in their own lane. There were Volkswagon, Audi, BMW or Chevrolet,a number of Hondas too were there and a number of Porsche too were plying. It looked like a rich city of rich people. The buildings all over the place were skyscrapers. Was this East Asia or Manhattan?  Houses are expensive and our English speaking guide Eva told us that she lives on the outskirts of Beijing as she cannot afford to live in the city.

Beijing is modern, beautiful, sleek and very very clean. 

Cleaning up all the time.

We went to the Tiananman Square which is the world's largest Square. It again took my breath away to see the beautiful landscaping. There were pillars with coloured patterns of flowers. It was very systematic, organised, neat and beautiful. The place was very crowded and yet there was no filth around. No empty bottles, no food packets lying around. There were people going around on scooters collecting all the garbage as soon as any could be spotted. The place is beautiful and one can easily forget the Tiananman Square massacre. The moment I asked my guide about the massacre, she quickly stopped me from talking about it.

FORBIDDEN CITY

The Forbidden City is next to the Tiananman Square. It was the palace of the Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasty. The common people were not allowed to enter this Palace therefore it was called the Forbidden City. There are a number of beautiful palaces one  after the other and one has to go from one courtyard to another to enter the next palace. One cannot exit from the gate through which one enters. This Forbidden City was home to 24 Emperors since the 13th century. After Puyi the last Emperor of China abdicated in 1912, the Forbidden City became a museum for the people.

WE CLIMBED THE WALL!

The Great wall of China is a Wonder of the World. They say it is the only man made structure that can be seen from the moon. The wall suddenly comes upon you as soon as the hills appear on the horizon. These walls were started in the 7th century BC. They were constructed to stop the intrusion by nomadic groups or people from Mongolia. The wall was later on added to by various dynasties. It runs along the East to West border across the Northern border of China. The wall is made of stone, brick, wood, and earth. In 220-206 BC Emperor Qin(pronounced Chin) Shi Huang added to the wall,the Ming Dynasty rebuilt and maintained the wall for the purpose of Border Control, imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Route and movement of troops. The Great Wall has watch towers, Garrisons stations and  troop barracks. 

LOCKS ARE FOR SECURITY...JUST LIKE THE GREAT WALL.

Climbing the wall was formidable. But I and a friend Mila decided that having come to China we had no option but to climb the Wall. The climb was steep and looking at it from the base the task appeared daunting. With water bottle in hand and big fat handbags on arms we ventured up. I could count only up to 30 steps at a time and then would take a “Catch your breath” halt. So I do not know the number of steps that we climbed. There were a lot of people climbing the wall, one notable climber was an old gentleman with a stick and another very old gentleman whose climb was being video recorded.

While we were climbing up both of us would look down and wave to our friends who actually could not distinguish us from the rest. We however could see them clearly from the steps. There were two big steps and then one small step. The steps are quite wide at the bottom, but they get narrower as one goes up.

It was arduos but exhilirating too! I felt like shouting, “I climbed the Great Wall of China!”

Chairman Mao had said  "Until you reach the Great Wall, you're no hero.”So Meela, TNN my husband and yours truly are now heroes!

JADE

Jade is found in China and every girl wears a jade bangle. It is said that if the jade bangle turns dark then it means that the girl wearing it is not healthy. I remember having read somewhere that Mughal emperors ate food from jade plates. It is said that if there was poison in the food the jade plate would turn dark.

We went to the jade factory and saw very beautiful jade carving. The craftsmanship is remarkable.

BIRDS NEST-OLYMPIC STADIUM

Beijing had hosted the 2008 Olympics and the Birds Nest Stadium,  was worth looking at. The walk along the stadium was lovely. More gardens, more flowers, lots of colour, beautiful kites and lovely breeze made it even more enchanting.

SUMMER PALACE

Beijing had lovely cool weather, yet the Emperors had a Summer palace. There is a huge lake with lots of beautiful boats plying for tourists. 

WEEPING WILLOW

The Weeping willow trees look very beautiful as they all droop towards the huge lake.There is a lovely covered long walkway which has beautiful painting. Huge carved gates, colourful painted walls, beautiful trees and plenty of water all round made the place quite enchanting. None of us wanted to leave the place.

Beijing is actually like a show piece. Tall buildings, beautiful roads, lovely flowers and historical buildings maintained in picture perfect condition.I have to say that I least expected what I saw. I came away thinking that Beijing is truly amazing. It is very beautiful, colourful , clean, modern and yet so very ancient. Very much like the Chinese characters which look very beautiful, intricate, mysterious and like a work of art rather than words which one can read. 

THE DRAGON BOAT AT SUMMER PALACE