Visit To Great Wall Stuns, Humbles Locke

The Great Wall of China worked its magic on Gov. Gary Locke on Sunday, stunning and humbling the Chinese-American head of the Washington state government as he clambered enthusiastically up its ancient battlements.

“Wow,” “phenomenal,” “incredible,” Locke said, marveling out loud over and over again during a brisk morning walk up a steep and spectacular section of the wall at Badaling, about an hour’s drive northwest of Beijing.

The wall, which snakes for thousands of miles across China, was at its best Sunday, bathed in rich sunshine and framed by tree-covered hills of autumnal gold, brown and fading green.

The experience had Locke musing philosophically and speaking with pride of his Chinese roots.

“It just makes you feel so insignificant,” he said, sitting astride the wall and staring into the distance where it vanished into the hills.

“As a Chinese person, I’m very proud of the great achievements of Chinese civilization,” he said.

Locke is the first Chinese-American to be elected governor of a U.S. state. He arrived in Beijing on Saturday to promote Washington business and visit his ancestral village in southern Guangdong province, bordering Hong Kong.

Sunday was a sightseeing day for Locke before his meetings with Chinese leaders, including Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, start today.