The Great Wall of China – A Stock Photography Photo-Shoot
Author: John M Lund
Source: ezinearticles.com
The guest house at the base of the Simatai section of the Great Wall of China was typically rural in its naked and unadorned atmosphere. I had been sicker than a dog for a week and I was really hoping for a nice hot shower. It was March and here in Simitai was freezing cold and windy. I checked into my room and turned on the shower. I let the water run a long time, but do not seem to be getting a warmer. I checked the receipt and the clerk sent a man to my room to see the hot water. He told them not to worry that there would be plenty of hot water in the morning. Swell. The hot shower had to wait. The next morning (at 4:00 am that came too soon), I turned on the water and surprise, no water. Not even the cold water! Oh well. I bundled up, grabbed my camera equipment and headed to the lobby to meet my traveling companion, Ginna Fleming, and our guide. We need our start early so we could be well on the wall and instead of shooting the sunrise. I have learned from years of travel, action photography assignment and there is no such thing as "too soon", but "too late" comes in a hurry: a short walk to the wall. It is too early for anyone to be around, only two of us and our local Chinese guide. She was a villager from nearby. He explained that the village was located here, but when the wells dried up people had to travel about 4 miles away where they could find more water. She told us that village life was very difficult and guide the tourists was much easier. We began to climb the wall, who climbed the mountainside on a steep slope. The top of the wall was, in effect, a stone staircase and walked to the lookout perch one step at a time. We climbed the "ladder" for nearly two hours before the sun began his own ascent to heaven. We went beyond the portion of wall and tourists to stop and warning signs prohibiting go further, but it was early and in the winter and there was no one to stop us. Here, the wall had been rebuilt and was in bad shape irregular. Our guide pointed out the graffiti that men and women who built the wall many years ago had left behind. The stones were loose and crumbling and had to be careful as we walked through the structure. When the light began to spread across the landscape we set up our tripods and a framed section of the wall distance stretching out below us like a giant serpent undulating up and down the edges brown and barren hills. For me it was one of the peaks of experience, one of the main reasons I travel. The sense of history was almost palpable, the only sound of birds singing. No tourists, no Hawking guides. Just this ancient wall, a magnificent view of the Chinese landscape and the cold wind pressure on us as the sun struggled through the morning mist. When its rays, finally reached the valley below us and recorded the details of the wall in its warm light that he knew the photos would also be the effort. While I was there to create the adventure and stock photography, travel, I was there for the experience and spent several hours in all quiet reverence. It was not until we were well on our way until we got through anther person passing quietly by us on his own trip to the Great Wall. Begun around 220 BC Qin Shi Huang, the first 3,000 miles of the wall required the effort of 70% of the population of China … more than a million peasants, prisoners and soldiers. There are more than 10,000 watchtowers and beacon towers on the Great Wall. There really is no "single" wall, but rather a series of walls, some brick and some land and built in a span of 2000 years. The stone and bricks from the Ming Dynasty wall would be enough to circle the earth five feet high! Our guide told us that the wall had never stopped any incursions. The intruders, just round the wall or bribed the guards to let them pass.
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