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Once designed to keep Mongolian nomad warriors from breaching the frontiers of the ancient Chinese princes, the wall stands as a monument to Chinese diligence and labor and the most basic drive of all rulers —the push for unity, the defense of China's frontiers against outside invaders. Unlike any other in the world, the wall has a vitality of architectural rhythm that gives it a sense of endless movement. It seems to be a slow-moving dragon, the bricks its scales, undulating in the sunlight. Even Richard Nixon's banal description of its might fails to mute the wonder of the morning. "A people that can build a wall like this certainly have a great past to be proud of," he says, "and a people who have this kind of a past must also have a great future."
The President and Mrs. Nixon seem more interested in posing for pictures than in actually walking on the wall. The President finally calls a halt before another ascent. "We will not climb to the top today," he tells his host. "We are already meeting at the summit in Peking." Then he delivers a final homily. "As we look at this wall, we do not want walls of any kind between people."
Fifth Day
Visit to the Forbidden City in Peking. Last banquet in the Great Hall of the People:
For the Ming emperors, the center of the world between heaven and earth began in the Hall of Supreme Harmony within the red gates of the Forbidden City. Rising from a massive deep-red pedestal, the red pillars and two yellow tile roofs spread forth in gigantic yet perfect proportions. In the morning, snow falls across the Imperial Palace grounds. It is into this setting that Richard Nixon and a mob of television and still cameramen walk, making small talk and gawking. "The snow has whitewashed the world," says Yeh Chien-ying, deputy chairman of the military affairs commission of the Chinese Communist Party as he guides the President.
Nixon enters the main throne room of the emperor, then the smaller Hall of Perfect Harmony. In a corner is a sedan chair, gilded and elaborately carved, on which the emperor was transported to the throne. "He didn't get much exercise if he was always carried on the chair," the President observes. Following Nixon and his party as it sways through the hall seems a bizarre intrusion on the heavenly harmonies, but the building absorbs it all with splendid serenity. When the press and cameramen momentarily block the way, Nixon explains: "Our press is like an unorganized army." Replies Yeh: "But I think they have to work very hard."
From the palace, the Nixons drive to the west part of the grounds, where a collection of antiquities unearthed during the Cultural Revolution has been organized. The most spectacular pieces in the collection are the jade burial suits of a prince who died in 113 B.C. and his wife. "Well, you wouldn't walk around in that," observes Nixon. When he notices a pair of ear stoppers used by the emperor to keep from hearing criticism, the President says: "Give me a pair of those." Nixon is in the Forbidden City, but he makes it seem as if he were still back home in San Clemente, Key Biscayne or any place else he travels. -