In preparation for our upcoming Interactive Great Walls Discussion with David Spindler, we wanted to share with you an interview which was originally conducted by our good friend and luxury travel partner for China, Guy Rubin of Imperial Tours. Guy originally conducted this interview in 2005 but we recently checked-in with David to make sure all the information is still relevant and up to date. Here is the updated interview:
Great Wall Specialist David Spindler has more achievements under his belt than most of us dare to dream of: he followed his Dartmouth College degree in Asian Studies with an M.A. in Han dynasty history (in Chinese) at Beijing University. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he joined the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Beijing. He left consulting in 2002 and for the next 11 years David dedicated himself full-time to speaking and researching the history of the Great Wall of China.
How did you become interested in researching the Great Wall of China?
I went on my first overnight hike on the wall in the fall of 1994. Being in the outdoors, visiting remote places, and getting away from a crowded city have always been attractive to me — hiking on the Great Wall allowed me to do all of these things at once. Over the next six years, my wall hikes continued with increasing frequency until the summer of 2000 when I actually started researching it in-depth.
Surely this is a crowded area of academic interest. How did you aim to add to it?
Actually, it is a surprisingly uncrowded field. I do not know of a single university academic anywhere whose major field of interest is the Great Wall, leaving open the possibility that I may be able to make a real contribution to our understanding of the Great Wall. I hoped to explain how Mongol action shaped and changed China’s defenses against its northern neighbors through the use of border fortifications during the course of the Ming dynasty. [Margot’s note: interestingly in the past 20+ years since David started his research, there has not been any change to this. That is, there are still no university academics devoted solely to studying the history of the wall.]
Your guided tours and lectures taught visitors how to view and understand different sections of the Great Wall. Which section of the Great Wall do people most enjoy?
People frequently ask me what my “favorite” section of the Great Wall is. I don’t have one — I simply like them all, though for different reasons. Where you should visit the Wall depends on how much time you have, your level of interest in seeing the sites of important Ming battles along it, your interest in hiking, and your level of aversion to seeing other people when you’re there. I find that people who have the opportunity to learn about the history behind the Wall and why most of the popularly-held conceptions about it are false, and who make an informed choice based on the above factors thoroughly enjoy their visit. That said, if you have the time and don’t mind doing some walking, Jinshanling is probably the best spot to visit. An important battle happened there, the vistas are good, the number of other tourists is low, and there’s an opportunity to see some unrestored wall.
As interesting as the Great Wall may be to some people, history can be pretty dry. What do you do to bring the Wall alive for your audiences?
During my research, I pay particular attention to collecting interesting tidbits about vice, cruelty, corruption, and natural resource overuse along the Great Wall. I share these nuggets with visitors in the form of anecdotes, direct quotes from Ming officials about the Wall, and ballads composed by ordinary (and therefore illiterate) soldiers that reflect their own experiences on the Wall.
Are you intrigued? If you want to learn more about the Great Wall of China from David first-hand, please join us for an Interactive Great Walls Discussion with David Spindler on Feb 16 at 3pm Pacific time / 6pm Eastern time. Click HERE for pricing, details and registration information.