The brass locks shone against the bright sun light. Strung together in a row with tags of red ribbons, they bore silent testimony to a belief carried down through generations — that relationships can be immortalised by symbolically locking them in locks.

“People believe that if they hang a lock at the Great Wall, their love will become eternal,” said a tour guide. Before the climb to the historic wall, we stood and looked around at the panoramic view, of rolling mountains and the winding steps that meander on the mountains and disappear.

It wasn’t a weekend, but there were thousands of tourists, quite a few of them, Chinese, who had gathered to climb the ‘Wonder of the World’. The stone steps are steep and uneven. But it was a pleasant surprise to see elderly people climb without a whimper. One old man, had his grandson on his back and he went from step to step with surprising agility.

The Great Wall can be climbed from different places. We had gone to The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, 70 kilometres northeast of Beijing. At small distances are watchtowers, which earlier must have served as sentinel posts.

Now people stop there to take a breath and catch the view from top. The roads down below looked like toy tracks with the hills raising their gigantic heads from their sides. Behind are the unending steps. If you climb the Wall, you are given a certificate for your historic climb. It comes for a small price.

Beijing, the political nerve centre of China, is also a City of historical interest. On the second day of our visit to the country, we went to the Temple of Heaven, which was built in 1420 AD during the Ming Dynasty. A sprawling complex, this is where the Emperor used to offer sacrifices and prayer to heaven for good harvest, peace and well being.

It has three structures — ‘The Earthly Mount’, where the Emperor prayed for favourable weather; ‘The House of Heavenly Lord’, where the altars were housed when not in use and the ‘Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests’, where he prayed for good harvest.

Free of litter

Chinese are avid tourists. Most places of tourist attraction have a lot of local visitors, including school children. But the most beautiful aspect of the country is its discipline, to respect public places. One does not come across any litter strewn on the road or filthy public toilets. Their public transport systems are clean and timely.

What fascinated us was the city railway station at Beijing. Thousands of people queue up at the station and wait for their baggage to be scanned. They then go to the designated platform, the door to which is unlocked soon after the arrival of the train. The platforms are clean and so are the tracks!

Shanghai, the commercial and the global city of China challenges the tourist’s vision, with its skyscrapers and gigantic towers of steel, glass and cement. The Oriental Pearl Tower at Pudong, Shanghai is one of the tallest buildings in the world.

A futuristic structure with a revolving restaurant at 260th storey, it kisses the cloud-laden sky with its awesome technology. The lift picks you up from the ground floor and in less than two minutes, takes you up to the 259th floor, where between the clouds that steal in from the apertures, people shop and eat on cloud nine, literally.

Our itinerary was a good mix of places. From Beijing we travelled to Shanghai via train. What we missed was the countryside and the rural landscape. From Shanghai we moved to Hangzhou, a two-hours travel by train from Shanghai. Hangzhou is a must for a tourist. It’s a picture postcard on the map of China.

The city is pretty. With the West Lake right at the centre, Hangzhou weather is salubrious and enchanting. A boat ride in the lake takes you through various vistas of city life. At the backdrop of the mountains, the West Lake is surrounded by weeping willows, that droop on its waters and kiss its waves.

One can never have enough of the lake. With thousands of lotuses blossoming on its water, the day never ends at the West Lake. Chinese love Indians (Induas) and consider India (Yindu) as the Western Paradise.

At the Lingyin Temple at Hangzhou, one of the 10 most important Buddhist centres in China, there’s a rock that the Chinese believe came from India. “It’s been very lucky for us. We believe that ever since the rock came, good luck has followed us,” said our tour guide and the international liaison officer of All China Journalists Association Zhan. They call it the ‘Rock that came from afar.’

Spectacular event

The musical extravaganza at the Song Dynasty Theatre in Hangzhou was spectacular. We had never seen something so perfect; it was a technical and theatrical wonder. There were scintillating skits, including on the legend of the West Lake and the Green tea ceremony, during which the actors gracefully came up to us and served the tea in the traditional way to the applause of the audience.

Chinese are warm and simple people. They love life. On a Sunday morning we strolled down to the park facing our hotel. The park was full of groups of people, old and young, doing their own thing. There were groups doing Tai Chi, there were others doing aerobic and there were yet others who sat down on the lake front and played cards. Lot of elderly people come out and savour life. Many of them, bring their breakfast from home and have it at the parks.

Our next destination was Xian —  a city etched on the map of ancient China. In 1976, it re-created history with the finding of terracotta warriors and horses — something that has to be seen to be understood. There are three pits in which the life size terracotta figurines were found and are kept. Around them, the government has constructed a huge park.

The silent clay warriors stand there everyday to thousands of awestruck tourists, who come from all over the world to see them. The figurines were broken when they were found and it took the archaeologists three years to piece together one warrior.

On the second last day we went to Forbidden City in Beijing, a ‘city’ which remained a mystery to the common man for years till recently. It was for the Emperor and his noblemen. Today, lakhs of people visit it, out of curiosity and intrigue. The mystery is no longer. The charm, however remains.