Four hours there by minivan and another four hours back.
The rising tide of Chinese imperialism was leaving its emotional scars.
Now the Chinese wanted to prove they were not a threat to their neighbours or the wider world.
So, while waiting for my passports, visas and permits, they had made sure I visit The Great Wall of China – their renowned symbol of misplaced planning, wasted resources and misused manpower.
As Genghis Kan once famously said ‘The strength of a wall depends on the courage of those who defend it.’
And now it was there, in bold print, on a billboard the size of a large building, as the tour group left the minibus and we began our single file into the tourist controlled surveillance park.
We had to be re-educated.
We had to see that China was not a threat to the Western gold standard of democracy and free-speech.
Genghis Khan led his Mongolian army to break through the Great Wall not only once, but several times.
The Chinese communist society was leaking, like a sieve. The fertile lands of the peasants were sliding through the palms, into a dustbowl of high winds that raped the soil of its moisture.
Better the consumer-led society, without corruption, and the trickle-down economy where all are well fed and homed.