A Heavenly Reunion
Hiu Tung Mo
he Great Wall is one of the most popular tourist attractions in China, and there are many amazing
stories behind the Great Wall. Let me tell you one of them…
k, Group 3: Fiction, Pentecostal Lam Hon Kwong School
A long time ago, the Qin Dynasty was under the control of an overbearing king called Shi Wong
Qin. The policies set by him were very bad, making it hard for people to have a comfortable life .The country
became poor, and a neighboring country called Xiongnu next to Qin often attacked Qin. Therefore, the King
issued a command: the government needed to get some males to build a wall to protect the country. It would be
called the Great Wall. The laborers would not receive any wages, but they could get some food after working.
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In a little village at the time, there was a boy called Ka Keung Wong, who lived with his mother. His father
died when he was just three years old and his mother worked very hard to get a little money. Wong was a boy
full of filial piety, so he helped his mother with the farmland work regularly. In his free time, he would stand
outside the school in his village. He listened to what the teacher said and remembered and jotted down notes. He
worked hard because he wanted to be a government official so that he could escape from a life of poverty as
soon as possible. His mother really hoped that he could become a government official because being a
government official was a thing to be proud of.
However, life was not that easy. One day, some soldiers came to the village where Wong lived. 'All the
males need to go to help with building the Great Wall, which can help with protecting the borders of our country.
All males need to start the journey to the Great Wall tomorrow morning,' said the soldiers.
Wong and his mother were sad to hear the news because there would now be no one to look after his mother.
The next reason was because building the Great Wall was hard work
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much harder than farmland work.
Before Wong started on his way to build the Great Wall, his mother reminded him that he needed to have
enough rest and protect himself. She also asked him to write a letter to her every month to tell her about the
events in his life.
After a long journey, Wong reached the destination. He saw that there were lots of laborers working hard.
Some of them were moving some stones as big as three people. The stones could not be moved by just one
laborer because they were too heavy. All of the work was hard and took a lot of energy. Wong was ordered to
move the stones from the bottom to the top of the hill. It made Wong feel extremely tired, but he could get only
one and a half pieces of steamed bread and two cups of water. Although Wong was poor when he was living
with his mother, his life building the Great Wall was much harder. Because the work was hard and there was not
enough food, many people died of over-fatigue and starvation. Although Wong survived, his weight dropped by
about 10 kilograms Also, the laborers needed to work no matter it was raining or thundering. It was more
difficult to work in winter because the laborers had to work on wet snow and it was very dangerous. Although
Wong did not wish to do this work, it was the command of the King.