New Tales of the Great Wall
Laura George, Group 3: Fiction, Heep Yunn School
ad, do we really have to go all the way up there?” I whined, as I stared at the Great Wall
snaking its way through the mountainside.
thin
Wal
“
As a matter of fact, Tina, no,” replied Nathan, my know-it-all younger brother. He
ks he’s the god of knowledge just because he has an IQ of 109.
“
It’s actually not possible for the average person to walk the entire length of the Great
l — it’s nearly 9,000 kilometers long,” Nathan went on, “Did you know that it was listed
as a World Heritage Site in 1987? Oh, and legend has it that …” he droned on and on while we started the long
climb up.
“
D
30
minutes into the hike, and my feet had already started to ache. “Why do the stone steps have to be so
uneven? It makes climbing so much harder,” I found myself mumbling.
Dad sighed and turned around to face me. “Well, Tina, considering that the Great Wall was built 1,000
years ago…”
“
It’s 1,400 years, Dad.” Nathan butts in.
“…
Not the point, Nathan. The point is that this piece of architecture was built in the ages without
modern machinery,” Dad continued. “All of these pieces of stone slabs were carved, carried and built all
manually.”
I rolled my eyes and trod on, all the while panting as hard as I could, hoping they would get the idea.
However, they ignored me and kept going. Ugh!
Just then, an engraving in a stone step caught my eye. I knelt down for a closer look and saw that it was
a symbol hastily carved into this hard material. Gingerly, I touched the symbols with my fingertips, marveling at
the idea that someone probably did the same thing 1,400 years ago. Before I could think any further, though, I
heard a deep rumbling noise that seemed to come from all around me. I looked up, thinking a thunderstorm
might be coming, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
“
That’s strange,” I thought to myself. I was about to ask Dad and Nathan if they had also heard it when
I realised they weren’t in front of me, nor were they anywhere to be seen. In fact, it was as if everyone,
including the other tourists, had simply disappeared. Suddenly engulfed in an eerie silence, I spun around in a
complete circle to check if I had missed anything, and that’s when I noticed a Chinese man wearing a general’s
armour standing in front of me. He looked me up and down with a very strange expression, like I was some
problem he had to solve.
“
Excuse me, sir, do you know where everyone went?” I blurted out, but as soon as that question left my mouth, I
realised it was stupid.
Sure enough, all he did was look confused. Of course he couldn’t understand English! However, what
he did next was very strange. He knelt down to the ground, placed his forehead on the ground, all the while
murmuring something like a chant.
The legend that Nathan was telling suddenly popped into mind. “…a tribe invaded China had a way of
getting over the Great Wall. The people feared them and rumors started of a saviour coming to save them. The
emperor dismissed the rumors and issued orders to have the Great Wall strengthened to prevent attacks. The
people, despite being forced to obey, remained superstitious and carved sacred symbols into the stone of the
Great Wall, hoping to call upon the saviour.”
I popped back into reality — well, I might have been dreaming so it wouldn’t be “reality”, but you got
the idea — when I heard, again, a deep rumbling. I was sure it wasn’t the weather and I became even more
confused. However, the Chinese general completely lost his cool and panicked, as if that was his death bell.
Judging from the way he threw his weapons down and tore his armour off, before jumping off the wall, I could
guess I must be pretty close.
At that moment, the meaning of Nathan’s story hit me full on the chest. The general probably thought I
was “the saviour”! I wouldn’t blame him — I was white and wore strange clothes, carried a backpack and spoke
a different language.
Meanwhile, the rumbling was getting louder and louder. I squinted in the direction of the sound and
realised with a fright it was an entire Chinese army, complete with drums, flags and horses. A lump of panic
rose to my throat as I calculated my chance of survival. It wasn’t very high.