City Wall of Yong Nian, China
The city used to be surrounded by water which was at the level of the pagoda -- the area is being renovated.
Diary from China – Wednesday-and-a-half, August 3.5, 2005
Yong Nian, China
Excerpted from the Diary: That wall is quite interesting, and we've been wanting to explore it since we got here. It was built 1,500 years ago (isn't that difficult to imagine?) when this town (Yong Nian) was the site where the king or regional emperor ruled. So this morning Stephan and I met Master Sun and his student/disciple and walked along the top of the wall for a fourth of the way around the town.
Above: On the left is original wall, on the right is a new section of the wall that has been reconstructed. Below shows a section of the wall that has been destroyed.
Excerpted from the Diary: Apparently during WWII everyone within 200 kilometers went into the city to escape the Japanese, who pummeled the wall and destroyed a lot of it, and finally entered and defeated the soldiers there. We could see the holes where the cannon balls hit the dirt sides, they were a foot or two deep.
The holes from cannonballs are still here. Openings in the wall were used to shoot the enemy soldiers.
Excerpted from the Diary: The wall is now being rebuilt as well as a lot of the area around here. The Japanese made significant contributions to restore it, and there were two plaques commemorating the donations – one with the names of Chinese people who had donated, and the other was once a beautifully designed plaque saying that the Japanese had donated too. The plaque with Chinese donations was fine but the Japanese plaque was vandalized – Master Sun said kids did it, but they must have been very tall kids! – I think it was more probably adults who still harbored the anger.
The plaque on the left is in appreciation to the Chinese donors. Master Sun and his student/disciple stand by the Japanese plaque whose front has been scraped and marred.
Excerpted from the Diary: I got my thrills, as I have a fear of heights (Laura, do you remember when I had the heeby-jeebies walking to the lookout at the southern tip of New Zealand?) and there were a number of places where we had to walk about 20 feet along a stretch that was only about 2 feet wide (at one point I got on my hands and knees to do it!). Master Sun and his student/disciple were very understanding, I explained (through my interpreter, of course!) that my fear wasn't rational, I KNEW I wouldn't fall but that didn't keep me from being terrorized. The disciple (I don't know his name – Stephan and I just vowed we'll learn it tomorrow!) kindly said I was very brave.
The wall sections that scared me were like the ledge shown on the left below, but they were only about 2 feet wide.
[Below, right] Master Sun shows where there used to be a tall tower.
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