第一夫人旅行日誌：遊覽中國長城

米歇爾·歐巴馬

2014年3月23日

上午07：38東部夏季時間

分享這一博文

說明：本博文是第一夫人米歇爾·歐巴馬撰寫的系列文章之一，意在與美國年輕人分享她的中國之行。您可以通過WhiteHouse.gov/First-Lady-China-Trip 閱讀第一夫人的所有博文。

2014年3月22日，第一夫人米歇爾·歐巴馬和Malia 和Sasha遊覽中國長城。（白宮官方攝影師Amanda Lucidon）

今天，我們開車出城後一路向北，大約一個小時之後到達了一個叫做慕田峪的村莊去遊覽中國長城的一小段。那真是美得令人窒息。其實在前往慕田峪路上的景色就很美了，山和樹的廣闊遠景——所以僅僅這段車程就是種享受了。然後，綿延起伏在群山高高的山脊上, 你看到了它:長城——人類歷史上最偉大的傑作之一。

整個長城從東到西綿延超過1.3萬英里（這個距離大約是從緬因州到俄勒岡州整個美國長度的四倍）。它不是簡單的、連續的一堵牆，而是一系列較低矮的牆，有時相互重疊，有時彼此平行。

長城中的有一些段落的歷史可以追溯到公元前7世紀，但是今天我們所知道的長城的大部分，包括慕田峪這段，是修建於14世紀到17世紀之間。

為了登上長城，我們先乘坐了一輛纜車上山（後來下山我們坐了好長一段滑軌）。我們所參觀的這段，是長城觀光客最喜歡的部分之一。受歡迎的原因也很好理解。在慕田峪，長城大約有20到25英尺高，遍布台階，大約每一百碼就有一個烽火台。那些烽火台告訴人們最初修建長城的原因——是為了抵禦來自北方的軍隊的攻擊。在整個長城的歷史上，長城經歷了數十年甚至數個世紀的毀壞和坍塌。但它依然不僅是一座物理的屏障，也是威懾那些可能的入侵者的精神屏障。

在我們參觀長城的整個過程中，我一直在想，建造長城是個多麼龐大的工程。成千上萬的士兵和農民們，接受了危險、痛苦甚至是致命的任務——從森林中運送一噸又一噸的花崗岩、磚頭、泥土和木材，翻山越嶺，完成了這個不可思議的建築物。他們幾年、幾十年的勞作，而正是他們的辛苦和犧牲，使得長城至今仍然屹立不倒。

First Lady Michelle Obama takes a toboggan ride after visiting the Great Wall of China with Malia and Sasha. March 23, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

The First Lady"s Travel Journal: Visiting The Great Wall Of China

Note: This post is part of a series authored by First Lady Michelle Obama to share her visit to China with young people in the U.S. You can read all of the First Lady"s posts atWhiteHouse.gov/First-Lady-China-Trip.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Malia and Sasha visit the Great Wall of China. March 22, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

Today we drove about an hour north of Beijing to a village called Mutianyu to visit a section of the Great Wall of China, which was simply breathtaking.The scenery on the way there was beautiful – a wide vista of mountains and trees – so the car ride alone was a treat. But then, running along the highest ridges of the mountains, you see it: The Great Wall – one of the great marvels of human history.

In its entirety, the Great Wall stretches from east to west across more than 13,000 miles of Chinese countryside (that"s about four times the length of the entire United States from Maine to Oregon!). It is not a single, uninterrupted wall, but rather a series of smaller walls which sometimes overlap and run parallel to each other.

Certain sections of the Wall date back as far as the seventh century B.C., but the majority of the Great Wall we know today – including the section at Mutianyu – was built between the 1300s and the 1600s.

To get to the Wall, we rode a cable car up a mountain (and we later rode back down on a long slide!). The section we visited is one of the more popular parts of the Wall for tourists, and it』s easy to see why. At Mutianyu, the Wall is roughly 20 to 25 feet tall and full of stairs, and there』s a watchtower every 100 yards or so.Those watchtowers serve as a reminder of why the Wall was built in the first place – to defend against attacks from armies descending from the north. Throughout its history, the Great Wall has gone through decades, even centuries, of ruin and disrepair. But it has always served as not only a physical barrier, but a psychological one to intimidate potential invaders.

During our visit to the Wall, I couldn』t stop thinking about what a massive undertaking it must have been to build it.Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and peasants were given the dangerous, painstaking – and often fatal – task of carrying ton after ton of granite, brick, dirt, and wood through the forests, up over the hills, and down through the valleys to create this incredible structure.They did this year after year, decade after decade – and it』s because of their hard work and sacrifice that the Great Wall remains standing today.

First Lady Michelle Obama takes a toboggan ride after visiting the Great Wall of China with Malia and Sasha. March 23, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)