Category: Travel

Searching for locations: The Jade Factory, Beijing, China

The first stop is at a Jade Museum to learn the history of jade. In Chinese, jade is pronounced as “Yu” and it has a history in China of at least four thousand years.  On the way there, we are given a story about one of the guide’s relatives who had a jade bracelet, and how it saved her from countless catastrophes. It is, quite literally ‘the’ good luck charm.  Chinese gamblers are known to have small pieces of jade in their hands when visiting the casinos, for good luck.  I’m not sure anything could provide a gambler with any sort of luck given how the odds are always slanted towards the house.

At any rate, this is neither the time of the place to debunk a ‘well-known fact’.

 On arrival, our guide hands us over to a local guide, a real staff member, and she begins with a discussion on jade while we watch a single worker working on an intricate piece, what looks to be a globe within a globe, sorry, there are two workers, and the second is working on a dragon.

At the end of the passage that passes by the workers, and before you enter the main showroom, you are dazzled by the ship and is nothing short of magnificent.

Then it’s into a small room just off the main showroom where we are taken through the colors, and the carving process in the various stages, without really being told how the magic happens.

Then it’s out into the main showroom where the sales are made, and before dispersing to look at the jade collection, she briefly tells us how to tell real and fake jade, and she does the usual trick of getting one of the tour group to model a piece.

Looks good, let’s move on.  To bigger and better examples.

What interested me, other than the small zodiac signs and other smallish pieces on the ‘promotion’ table, was the jade bangle our tour guide told us about on the bus.  If anyone needs one, it is my other half, with all the medical issues and her sometimes clumsiness, two particular maladies this object is supposed to prevent.
Jade to the Chinese is Diamonds to westerners, and the jade bangle is often handed down to the females of the family from generation to generation, often as an engagement present, to be worn on the left hand, the one closest to the heart.

There are literally thousands of them, but, they have to be specially fitted to your wrist because if it’s too large, you might lose it if it slips off and I didn’t think it could be too small.  
Nor is it cheap, and needing a larger size, it is reasonably expensive.  But it is jadeite, the more expensive of the types of jade, and it can only appreciate in value, not that we are interested in the monetary value, it’s more the good luck aspect.

We could use some of that.

But, just to touch on something that can be the bugbear of traveling overseas, is the subject of happy houses, a better name for toilets, and has become a recurrent theme on this tour.  It’s better than blurting out the word toilet and it seems there can be some not so happy houses given that the toilets in China are usually squat rather than sit, even for women.
And apparently, everyone has an unhappy house story, particularly the women, and generally in having to squat over a pit.  Why is this a discussion point, it seems the jade factory had what we have come to call happy, happy houses which have more proper toilets, and a stop here before going on the great wall was recommended, as the ‘happy house’ at the wall is deemed to be not such a happy house.

Not even this dragon was within my price range.  Thank heaven they had smaller more affordable models.  The object of having a dragon, large or small, is that it should be placed inside the main door to the house so that money can come in.

It also seems that stuffing the dragon’s mouth with money is also good luck.  We passed on doing that.

After spending a small fortune, there was a bonus, free Chinese tea.  Apparently, we will be coming back, after the Great Wall visit, to have lunch upstairs.

           

The cinema of my dreams – It ended in Sorrento – Episode 54

Anna’s arch-enemy

…

I was woken to a bunch of messages arriving on my phone just after the time I’d designated as ‘switch on’.  I had only recently realised the phone had a ‘sleep’ function.

Among the messages was one that said he had arranged for the will matters to be finalised in a week’s time, and that he had organised a stay of proceedings based on what appeared to be legal mumbo jumbo.

It doesn’t matter.  It was the week I needed.

I didn’t have to wake Cecelia; she was an early riser and an exercise freak.  She’d already been out and back, showered and dressed and was ready.

“You have an assignment.”

“From all that stuff we got.  It looked like we needed a lawyer to decipher it.”

“It’s simply given us a week to close this case.  I want you to go to the main Dicostini resident and stake it out.  I suspect you might see some familiar faces before the morning’s out.”

“What are you going to do.”

“Break the news to our three charges, if they’re still there.”

“And you think…”

“We’ll soon find out.”

“Can I take the sniper rifle?”

“Have you got one?”

She just gave me one of those condescending looks of hers.

“Yes.”

“Good.  There might be some prospective big game hunting.”

I showered and dressed and headed over to the hotel where, hopefully, the three women were still waiting.  I guess the fact they might be still in someone’s crosshairs might be incentive enough to sit still.

For them, it was only another day.  I wondered what they were going to sat when I told them it had been put back a week.

When I arrived, they were cooking breakfast, and it appeared they were all good friends, almost as if they were on holiday together.  None seemed to look like they were going out for the day, though Juliet had dressed, so perhaps she was the one going out for supplies.

She was sitting at the table nursing a mug of coffee.  It smelled better than the one I made from the hotel minibar, and I was still slightly annoyed I hadn’t got down to the hotel breakfast room.

“One day to go,” the countess said.

I wondered, in that moment, just who she really was.  To look like the countess, enough to fool the Burkehardt’s she could not be one of the Dicostini family.  Dicostini had gone to a lot of trouble to make this work, including kidnapping and attempted murder.

If he was the one behind the deception.

“That’s what I came to discuss.  There are some legal issues to be ironed out and the signing will not happen for another week.”

The countess looked annoyed.  “Those Burkehardt’s are up to something, trying to find a way around it.  We can’t let that happen.”

“And we won’t.  I’ve alerted your solicitor, and he assures me that he’s on the case, and will be calling on Anna tomorrow.  I saw her yesterday, and whilst she would rather it didn’t happen, she recognises that in the absence of a will, the state determines your claim.  I presume that you searched for a will and couldn’t find one?”

Or more to the point, she had not been there to search for anything, but the real countess had.  What would she have done?  It was a question I’d asked when we finally met.

“Benito?”

“The one and same.  We met, and he seems to me to be quite stodgy.  I can tell him, if I see him, you’re here.”

“No.  I don’t quite trust him, simply because he once worked for the Burkehardt’s and may still have some allegiance towards them.  I’d rather he not know where I am.”

“As you wish.”

I would have thought she if she was the real countess, would want to see him.  Another nail in her coffin.

Juliet handed me a mug, and it had a nice aroma about it.  Our hands touched, and there was a tingle.  Damn her.  Despite everything, she was still in my thoughts, and that was not good.

Especially if I had to shoot her.

I sat next to her at the table.  The others kept cooking breakfast.

“What are you doing with yourself?  I bet that Cecelia type is keeping you amused.”

“She is a colleague.  If I want anything to keep me amused, it’s working out why you are here, and there, and everywhere I go.”

She smiled.  “Serendipity.”

“Or a curse.

“Perhaps it’s fate trying to bring us back together?”

“Why?”

It had been a mismatch and ill-fated relationship the first time around, perhaps one of those things a patient has for their doctor.  She was there, she treated me nicely, and she needed someone to pour out her troubles to.  We mutually kept each other sane.  I was disappointed when I discovered she had gone off the deep end.

But, as Rodby said in his usual pragmatic way, shit happens.

But, the question loitering in the back of my mind was how she could find me when I was so deeply buried in a new persona in a place where no one could possibly find me.

Venice.

“Why are you here?”

“To tell you about the legal proceedings.”

“You could have called.”

“And you should be working for us.  A third degree if I’m not mistaken.”  She was not a fool.  A distracting answer was needed fast.  “I hate to admit this but I was thinking about you last night, and I got it in my head that I had to see you.”  I shrugged.  “Now I have.”

It seemed to assuage her curiosity.  “What’s going to happen after this is over?”

“You’ll get to live happily ever after with your mother.  It had to be what you call serendipity to be reunited with her after all these years?”

“You might think so.”

“You don’t.”

“There’s a reason why she left me behind.  I doubt a leopard is going to change it’s spots.  Once she gets her money she’s gone.”

“What money?”

“On one hand, if she had to verify the countess’s identity, on the other, putting me in the frame as an heir.  I don’t want it, but it is worth quite a lot, and she says I can just sell it and both of us could have the life we were meant to have.”

“You believe her?”

“Everybody in my life has screwed me over, Evan?  What do you think?”

“I think, if you’re rich, I could come and live with you.  That Burkehardt residence is something else, and, it has servants.”  I stood.  “Just a thought.”

I’m not sure what she made of that, but it certainly wasn’t what she was expecting.

© Charles Heath 2023

Skeletons in the closet, and doppelgangers

A story called “Mistaken Identity”

…

How many of us have skeletons in the closet that we know nothing about? The skeletons we know about generally stay there, but those we do not, well, they have a habit of coming out of left field when we least expect it.

In this case, when you see your photo on a TV screen with the accompanying text that says you are wanted by every law enforcement agency in Europe, you’re in a state of shock, only to be compounded by those same police, armed and menacing, kicking the door down.

I’d been thinking about this premise for a while after I discovered my mother had a boyfriend before she married my father, a boyfriend who was, by all accounts, the man who was the love of her life.

Then, in terms of coming up with an idea for a story, what if she had a child by him that we didn’t know about, which might mean I had a half brother or sister I knew nothing about. It’s not an uncommon occurrence from what I’ve been researching.

There are many ways of putting a spin on this story.

Then, in the back of my mind, I remembered a story an acquaintance at work was once telling us over morning tea, that a friend of a friend had a mother who had a twin sister and that each of the sisters had a son by the same father, without each knowing of the father’s actions, both growing up without the other having any knowledge of their half brother, only to meet by accident on the other side of the world.

It was an encounter that in the scheme of things might never have happened, and each would have remained oblivious of the other.

For one sister, the relationship was over before she discovered she was pregnant, and therefore had not told the man he was a father. It was no surprise the relationship foundered when she discovered he was also having a relationship with her sister, a discovery that caused her to cut all ties with both of them and never speak to either from that day.

It’s a story with more twists and turns than a country lane!

And a great idea for a story.

That story is called ‘Mistaken Identity’.

Searching for locations: The remnants of the wall that surrounded Beijing, China

The fortification walls, both an inner wall and an outer wall, surrounding Beijing city were built from the early 1400s to 1553.

The dimensions of the Inner city wall are:
          Length: 24 kilometers or 15 miles
          Height: 25 meters or 49 feet high
          Thickness, at ground level: 20 meters or 66 feet
                            at the top: 12 meters or 29 feet

It had nine gates.  The fortifications included gate towers, archways, watchtowers, barbicans, barbican towers, sluice gates, sluice gate towers, enemy sighting towers, corner guard towers, and a moat system.

The outer city wall had a length of 28 kilometers or 17 miles.

From 1911, after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the dismantling of the fortifications began.

In 1965, major deconstruction of the fortifications was commenced to allow for the construction of the 2nd wrong road, and Line 2 or the Beijing underground railway.

 In 1979, the government called off the demolition of the remaining city walls and named them cultural heritage sites. By this time, the only intact sections were the gate tower and watchtower at Zhengyangmen, the watchtower at Deshengmen, the guard tower at the southeast corner, the northern moats of the Inner city, the section of the Inner city wall south of the Beijing railway station, and a small section of Inner-city wall near Xibianmen.

For more reading, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_city_fortifications

As for our guide’s explanation of the fortifications: Leaving the Square to go to the Golden Mask Dynasty Show, we pass remnants of the wall that used to surround Beijing.

This wall was built in the early 15th century and was about 24 km long, up to 15 meters high and about 20 meters thick, and had nine gates, one of which still exists today.  In 1965 most of it was removed so that the second ring road and an underground railway line could be built.

A photograph from the inspirational bin – 35

This is Railway Hotel in Gympie, adjacent to the old Gympie station

Just the name Railway Hotel conjured up a lot of interesting connotations. There’s one in almost every rural town that has Railway station, or perhaps a Junction Hotel, a Railway Hotel, or a Terminus Hotel.

And, once upon a time, there were nearly 600 of them, up until the 1920s, ubiquitous hotels build to house the people building the railways, and, then, when they were finished a lot disappeared, but a lot also remained to service the railway station and passengers coming and going.

These days, these old hotels that still exist are anachronisms of a bygone age, rather ornate wooden structures with big rooms and communal bathrooms, bars, saloons, and dining rooms, and only those curious about the past would stay there.

I’ve stayed in a few myself.

But, as for a story, well, the older, the better, because these would have ghosts.

They could also have infamous pasts, like a fire that destroys only part of the hotel, signs of which form part of the character.

A doorway into a now hidden room closed off because of something horrible happening there, could suddenly become a portal, where stepping through takes you back to the time of the event.

In fact, I’m in the mood to write just such a story…

Searching for locations: The remnants of the wall that surrounded Beijing, China

The fortification walls, both an inner wall and an outer wall, surrounding Beijing city were built from the early 1400s to 1553.

The dimensions of the Inner city wall are:
          Length: 24 kilometers or 15 miles
          Height: 25 meters or 49 feet high
          Thickness, at ground level: 20 meters or 66 feet
                            at the top: 12 meters or 29 feet

It had nine gates.  The fortifications included gate towers, archways, watchtowers, barbicans, barbican towers, sluice gates, sluice gate towers, enemy sighting towers, corner guard towers, and a moat system.

The outer city wall had a length of 28 kilometers or 17 miles.

From 1911, after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the dismantling of the fortifications began.

In 1965, major deconstruction of the fortifications was commenced to allow for the construction of the 2nd wrong road, and Line 2 or the Beijing underground railway.

 In 1979, the government called off the demolition of the remaining city walls and named them cultural heritage sites. By this time, the only intact sections were the gate tower and watchtower at Zhengyangmen, the watchtower at Deshengmen, the guard tower at the southeast corner, the northern moats of the Inner city, the section of the Inner city wall south of the Beijing railway station, and a small section of Inner-city wall near Xibianmen.

For more reading, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_city_fortifications

As for our guide’s explanation of the fortifications: Leaving the Square to go to the Golden Mask Dynasty Show, we pass remnants of the wall that used to surround Beijing.

This wall was built in the early 15th century and was about 24 km long, up to 15 meters high and about 20 meters thick, and had nine gates, one of which still exists today.  In 1965 most of it was removed so that the second ring road and an underground railway line could be built.

The Cinema of My Dreams – It ended in Sorrento – Episode 52

A visit to Heidi’s mother-in-law

…

I had intended to go to the Burkehardt residence with Ceceila as backup, but that would have left Francesca to her own devices, which to me would have been to turn up at the residence unannounced.

If Francesca had wanted to leave, Cecelia would let her, and it would not surprise me if she either let her bosses know how things were going, especially in relation to Juliet, and that they would want Francesca to find her.  The other possibility, is that Francesca was on her way, or already at the residence making herself known on behalf of her employers.

That I was wrong on all counts when I rang Cecelia to see if she had left, was disconcerting.  It meant another game was in play.  I was sure she had reported to her employers by now, and that they had asked her to impede us at every turn.  It just made it harder to guess why Francesca was with us.

I was stopped at the gate to the main Burkehardt residence by guards, who, I deduced from their dismissive manner, had been instructed to turn everyone away.  I asked them to tell the Mistress that I had information on the Countess Heidi von Burkehart’s whereabouts and then waited ten minutes before the gates magically opened.

If Alessandro was there, I would have some explaining to do.

I parked the car on the gravel outside the front portico and walked up the stairs to the front entrance.  The doors were open and a man in a morning suit was waiting for me.  I’d give the gate my Detective Inspector’s name, without the Detective Inspector prefix.

“Come this way.”

It was all he said.

I followed him through to a large room off the side of the entrance hall, what looked like a library, with several full-size suits of armour.

The older Countess was waiting for me at the front of her desk.

“Mr. Johnson, though I’m sure that bears no resemblance to your real name, and Detective Inspector you definitely are not.”

“I assure you I am, but it’s just one of my jobs.  Like I told your son Alessandro back in London, they only call me when it looks like the jurisdiction is about to change.”

“You have no authority here.”

“True, but like I said, they call me in when that happens.  My other self is the one with no borders, nor do I care about jurisdiction.  I come, solve the problem, and then go.  I am only interested in the wellbeing of the Countess Heidi.  Don’t make this into more than it is.”

“Security said you were going to be a pain, as did the people I employed to find the countess.  Perhaps I should fire them and employ you instead.”  She went behind her desk and sat down.

I sat in a chair to one side of the desk.

“It won’t do you much good to try.  I’m not doing this for the money.  I’m supposed to be retired, but I have an old boss who won’t let me go.”

“Rodby, yes.  His wife is the sister of the countess.  Fancy having a direct connection to a spy organisation.  I only just found that out but I’m sure you knew that.  I presume your other self is a spy?”

“I wish.  The suits, the cars, the toys.”  I shook my head.  “Nothing quite as glamorous, I can assure you.  And I only just discovered the Heidi connection too.  One of the drawbacks, we don’t always get the whole story.”  A bit too much sharing, but it was more to disarm the old lady, who looked to me still had some fire and brimstone in reserve.

“You said you have information about the countess?”

“I do.  But before I tell you, I need to know is there anyone you have managed to make angry, or you have caused problems for, or who wants to buy this enterprise, perhaps with prejudice?”

She gave me a look that was surprise or contempt before she summoned her best angry tone to say, “That’s absurd.”

It meant one of the three suggestions was right.

“You run a very profitable and well-respected operation here.  It no doubt creates rivalry with others in the same line of business who are not as well run, perhaps.”

It had to be a business rival.  The most recent information from the research team mentioned that there were several suitors for the business after the Count died, but no one specific. 

I could see her expression soften, that it was a problem she wanted to resolve herself, but it was not working out.  Alessandro had tried and failed to make it seem like business as usual, but a ship without a rudder soon foundered.  The uncertainty about the successor to the count had created uncertainty in the investors.

“There is one person, though I’m not sure he qualifies as aggressive but he is incompetent.  Alberto Dicostini.  The count and he were friends and business partners until Dicostini stole from the business.  After that, they became bitter rivals.  I am sure it is he who killed my husband, and later my son, the count.  It is why my sons and daughter have such security.  He had vowed to kill us all.  He will fail, as he always does.”

And there was a possible solution to the problem.  It was possible that it was Dicostini behind the fake countess, and if he presented her as the countess and she inherited, that what is hers would become his.  It’s almost foolproof.  The fake would have to pass the keen eyes of the Burkehardt family.  I’d seen the fake, but I hadn’t known the real one.

“You are vehemently opposed to the countess inheriting are you not?”

“She is an incompetent fool.”

“But a member of this family, and if she was to inherit, would she keep it in the family?”

“You’d think so, but a friend told me she was going to sell it, maybe not to Dicostini, but it will have the same effect.  He will get what he wants.”

“Have you tried to convince her to do the right thing.  As far as I can tell, she is the lawful heir.”

“There is another.”

“Which your investigators told you about?”

“How do you know this?”

“I have one of them with me.  Not here now, but back in Sorrento.  That might not necessarily be the case.  I’m beginning to believe that she is not a legitimate heir.  I suspect that Vittoria Remano, as she calls herself these days, did have a child, but not by the Count.  And although the count said he fathered a child, I believe he never got to see anything but photos, nor living proof, just the word of a maid.”

“And the birth certificate?”

“Did you get you investigators the check it?’

“I assumed they did.”

“Then they’ve got two days before I bring the three women to the solicitor’s office for the signing.  One of them will be a woman claiming to be the countess.”

“So, you know where she is?”

I sighed.  “You’re not listening to me.”

She paused for a moment as if to go over our conversation.  Then, “You’re saying the woman you have is not the countess?”

“I’m saying I don’t know, but if it was the real countess, who was kidnapped with Mrs Rodby, why is Mrs Rodby still missing?”

© Charles Heath 2023

Searching for locations: The Beijing Zoo, and Pandas, China

Beijing Zoo

Founded in 1906 during the late Qing dynasty, it is the oldest Zoo in China.  It also has an aquarium and has 450 land-based species, some of which are rare and endemic to China like the Giant Panda, and 500 marine-based species.  Other rare animals to be seen are the Red Panda, the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, the South China Tiger, the White Lipped deer, the Chinese alligator, the Yak, and the Snow Leopard.
Most of the original animals were bought in 1908 from Germany by the viceroy of Liangjiang Duanfang.  The Zoo first opened on June 16th, 1908.
Currently, the Zoo grounds resemble classical Chinese gardens, and among the attractions are a number of Qing dynasty buildings to view, as well as an Elephant hall, a Lion and tiger hall, a Monkey hall, and a Panda hall.  In all, there are 30 halls.
The Zoo is located at 137 Xizhimen WaiDajie in Xicheng district, near the 2nd ring road.

We are primarily at the Zoo to see the Pandas, and there is a specific hall devoted to them, and by the way, it costs extra to see them.  Everyone in our group is particularly interested in seeing them because it’s rare that any can be found anywhere else in the world.
Perhaps if there had been more time, another hour, maybe, it might have made all the difference, but I think that extra time might have clashed with the pearl factory, and that, for obvious reasons, was deemed to be more important.

Our first stop is in the Panda hall.

There are two pandas that we can see, one of whom is a little camera shy, and the other, above, who is demonstrating how pandas eat bamboo.  They are behind a large glass wall, and you have to wait for the opportunity to get a good photo, and, sometimes only enough to include the top of the head of the person in front of you.  Unfortunately, the Chinese visitors don’t understand the polite excuse me in English, and, can at times, be rude enough to shove their way to the front.

What is also a problem is the uncooperativeness of the pandas to pose for photos.  I guess there’s no surprise there given the thousands of visitors every day with only one purpose in mind.  We counted ourselves lucky to get the photos we did.

The hall itself is built on to the external enclosure where there are a number of giant pandas some of whom that were on show were relatively lethargic, as though they had a big weekend, and we’re sleeping it off, like this panda below:

Then, remarkably, we came across one that decided to be a little more energetic and did a walk in front of hundreds of Chinese who had undoubtedly come to show their children the animals.

This Panda was also easier to photograph whereas the other panda, one chewing on a morning feast of bamboo, saw a lot of pushing and shoving by the spectators to get the best spot to take his photograph.  Having manners just doesn’t cut it here, so do what you have to to get that photograph.

We also saw a couple of monkeys that were also in the panda enclosure, but they were not much of a side benefit.  They may have been there to use the Panda’s exercise equipment, though it was not quite like what we use. There was no time really to wander off to see much else, but apparently, there were also red pandas, and surprisingly, a category called Australian animals.  But who goes to another country to view your own animals? The cutest animals were the stuffed pandas, and they were quite reasonably priced.

A photograph from the Inspirational bin – 33

This is countryside somewhere inside the Lamington National Park in Queensland. It was one of those days where the rain come and went…

We were spending a week there, in the middle of nowhere on a working macadamia farm in a cottage, one of four, recuperating from a long exhausting lockdown.

It was not cold, and we were able to sit out of the verandah for most of the day, watching the rain come and pass over on its way up the valley, listing to the gentle pitter-patter of the rain on the roof and nearby leaves.

But as for inspiration:

This would be the ideal setting for a story about life, failed romance, or a couple looking to find what it was they lost.

It could be a story about recovering from a breakdown, or a tragic loss, to be anywhere else but in the middle of dealing with the constant reminders of what they had.

It could be a safe house, and as we all know, safe houses in stories are rarely safe houses, where it is given away by someone inside the program, or the person who it’s assigned to give it away because they can’t do as they’re supposed to; lay low.

Then there’s camping, the great outdoors, for someone who absolutely hates being outdoors, or those who go hunting, and sometimes become the hunted.

Oh, and watch out for the bears!

Searching for locations: The remnants of the wall that surrounded Beijing, China

The fortification walls, both an inner wall and an outer wall, surrounding Beijing city were built from the early 1400s to 1553.

The dimensions of the Inner city wall are:
          Length: 24 kilometers or 15 miles
          Height: 25 meters or 49 feet high
          Thickness, at ground level: 20 meters or 66 feet
                            at the top: 12 meters or 29 feet

It had nine gates.  The fortifications included gate towers, archways, watchtowers, barbicans, barbican towers, sluice gates, sluice gate towers, enemy sighting towers, corner guard towers, and a moat system.

The outer city wall had a length of 28 kilometers or 17 miles.

From 1911, after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the dismantling of the fortifications began.

In 1965, major deconstruction of the fortifications was commenced to allow for the construction of the 2nd wrong road, and Line 2 or the Beijing underground railway.

 In 1979, the government called off the demolition of the remaining city walls and named them cultural heritage sites. By this time, the only intact sections were the gate tower and watchtower at Zhengyangmen, the watchtower at Deshengmen, the guard tower at the southeast corner, the northern moats of the Inner city, the section of the Inner city wall south of the Beijing railway station, and a small section of Inner-city wall near Xibianmen.

For more reading, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_city_fortifications

As for our guide’s explanation of the fortifications: Leaving the Square to go to the Golden Mask Dynasty Show, we pass remnants of the wall that used to surround Beijing.

This wall was built in the early 15th century and was about 24 km long, up to 15 meters high and about 20 meters thick, and had nine gates, one of which still exists today.  In 1965 most of it was removed so that the second ring road and an underground railway line could be built.