The Great Women Of China Impressed Me As Much As The Great Wall

I just told it to a new friend, so I’ll share it here, since it happened when my homepage photo was taken. There were a lot of local farmers selling things at the Great Wall, and most were women who were rather elderly. Some were following us up the ridge and then along the wall, even though it was a 2 hour hike. I felt sorry for them because they looked desperate for a few Yuan. I was with three others and we were the fastest of all the visitors because we wanted time to enjoy the top. One local woman kept following us, and she was gasping. I told her many times in Mandarin, “You don’t need to follow us. I’ll come to your shop when I return. I promise.” I lost sight of her and figured that she went back down.

We three made it, and I took that guitar out of the case, but I couldn’t find the pick. I picked with my fingers, but the other three people were in their 20′s and I had promised to play rock. Suddenly the local woman appeared and she handed me the pick! How did she even see it? It was white and so it couldn’t have stood out much among the light grey rubble. I gave her a hug and played a couple of soft songs just for her. That really summed up the women’s situations for me at the Great Wall of China–their hardships and their steadfastness. They impressed me as much as the monument did.