Excursions

Several days before leaving Beijing I visited the Great Wall. Like a lot of other things in this country, the scale of it is immense. As I was standing in the cold and misty winter grey looking at it wind its way up and over steep hills, I couldn’t help but wonder how insane you would have to be to order such a huge construction covering hundreds of miles just to keep people out. I realised I was thinking aloud when the Belgian I was traveling with replied, “And now the U.S. wants to build a wall to keep out Mexicans.”

“Touché,” I thought, and laughed.