The Wall Saved Me
Pak Him Dan
he Great Wall of China. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, and also the one which could ever
be seen in space, it’s a massive achievement to all the Chinese for thousands of years. Being proud
of this, I went to The Great Wall, hoping that the verse "Those who do not reach the Great Wall are
not true men” will not become a part of me. But no one ever knew that these seven thousand
kilometers of brick, wood and soil would actually save the person who’s going to walk along it.
iel Kwong, Group 2: Fiction, Evangel Primary
On the fourteenth of June, I left the Datong Yungang Airport near Beijing and started my journey to the
Great Wall. After what seemed like three hours of car, I whistled to my favorite tune as I stepped on the first
brick on the Wall at the. I felt as if the pride has fallen on me to complete this “mission”, because not every
Tom, Dick and Harry could walk on this wall, not in
this
condition. Temperatures cold enough to freeze over
is extremely exhilarating. So I prepared my Columbia Omni-Heat and even some other winter warmers. But
still the cold is battling me as if I’m prey to a fierce predator, not much chance of escaping. And when I
realized this was a snowstorm, it was too late.
T
I knew I should have read the Weather Report back at the airport!
I thought. Just when I thought it was
all over in just the first hour of my journey. But, amazingly as it seems, the Wall came to life! And it even
formed a massive wave of soil and earth to shield me from the cold! I was surprisingly stunned by what it
created for me, when I wanted to gratefully thank the Wall. So not long after, the snowstorm ended, and the
Wall shifted back the wave of earth and soil. To me, this is not science fiction in my eyes, but no man-made
structure has
ever
came to life and formed thing to save people, it never done this action. Quite bizarre alright.
So on that night, I built a tent out of my portable rucksack. After a short break of canned lasagna and
Insta-Soup, I zipped up my tent, plopped onto my sleeping bag and got ready for bed. Not only because I
have to wake up early next morning to walk the twelfth section of the Great Wall, it’s also to see if the Wall is
really going to help me again if I’m in danger, is it really going to help people in danger of different things
around themselves.
The next day, at around six twenty-five in the morning, I folded the portable tent back into my rucksack
and resumed Sector Twelve of The Great Wall of China, Datong Sector. As I walked, I actually can see my
American cousin, Robert Minecraft, not far from the Wall. Since he is also walking along the Datong Sector,
he invited me to join him on his journey. As we chatted about our studies and other topics as we progressed
sixty kilometers further, we saw daylight burst through the darkness on the hills, a sign that daytime is going
to be starting.
A picture does paint a thousand words.
I thought. As I never seen true daylight before, I
flashed a photo with my Samsung Galaxy Note II, results are remarkably astonishing.
After the sunset snapshot, Robert and I travelled as usual. But who knows that it’s already ten forty in the
morning? We ate some fried eggs with a strip of bacon by borrowing Robert’s miniature stove. Soon, we
continued walking for another four hours and stopped only for toilet businesses, and because of that, we
treaded for over a hundred more kilometers. That’s when it happened.
A maniac, not just any maniac, he’s a maniac with a vegetable knife and two long pieces of rope. In my
opinion, he’s trying to strangle me and Robert! My heart thumped wildly, flashes of newspaper lanes
appeared before my eyes: “Minecraft, Kwong: Death by Maniac!” , “Cousins invaded by Chinese” . This is
mad, how can I die at this point? How could I ever complete my “mission” now? And what will my family
say when they heard about this? Just when I was in a quandary like this, I remembered something that saved
me in the first place before I met Robert: The Great Wall itself!
That’s it!
Why can’t I have thought better? But as the maniac charged towards us with his knife and ropes,
not content for the Great Wall to help us, we started running. But as we ran, he is slowly gaining on us; he’s
too fast for us to outrun him, not even Robert could run faster than him. In the progress, we ran back the way
we came - the Datong Sector. We still ran, the maniac kept closing on, and getting so close, that his vegetable
knife almost sliced through my Omni-Heat. Just as he got close enough to kill us both, a loud rumbling
sounded the whole area. It was so loud, even the maniac slowed down to take cover. And, as if by magic, a
giant of earth appeared. It was the Great Wall! It knocked the maniac off its feet, and he got scared and ran.
So, for my conclusion, The Great Wall
will
save me and Robert and people in danger around them. The Great
Wall of China had saved me.
Epilogue
And so, after three more days of hard trekking, me and Robert finally reached the Xuanfu Sector. Finally,
we departed by plane back to our homelands. As I looked back at the Great Wall of China, I can’t help feeling
that the Chinese are to take the biggest pride of all, because escaping a maniac and snowstorm isn’t any
normal person’s journey to the Great Wall, it’s my very first journey.
***