words from the world

We can't leave China without seeing and talking again about its symbol. France has the Eiffel tower and China has the Great Wall. The day before yesterday and with the family, I went back hiking from Jinshanling to Simatai. superb views in a clement weather and intact emotions.


















Today, let's give way to the secret wall. One of these several parts, impossible to describe in a travel guidebook, and which delight some Chinese people sensing the good opportunity to make money. An alternative to escape from the tourists who swarm into the rebuilt sections of the Beijing-surrounding Great Wall. A short walk goes through the wood and ends at the bottom of the wall.
This enigmatic blend between an ancient human building and the vegetation which takes back the bit of land that formerly belonged to it. We feel the sensations of these treasure hunters and other archaeologists of the last centuries, crazy enough to leave the comfort of the city, guided by the obsessive quest of new jewels and unknown lands. We marvel like these intrepid pioneers. The steep hill sides would have formed a natural fence but topping its ridge with this wall, man showed his intention to tame the nature, to show his superiority over it. For a period. Because time teaches us without a meticulous maintenance, the nature swallows everything, destroys this fabulous rampart and devours the stone.
The so dreaded invasion didn't come from the humans but from the earth. Over the years, the roots pushed the rock away, infiltrated between the paving stone to finally dissociated and buried them. The fruits of the nature creep onto the rock and we contemplate this struggle that vanishes in a sumptuous intertwining of colors and forms.