As a marvel of all marvels under the sun and above the soil, the Great Wall of China has generated excitement and intrigue for centuries.
"He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man." For those "true men" it is hard not to take back home something that help recall their lifetime experience -- photos, video clips and souvenirs -- after climbing onto the Great Wall in China.
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Don Alder playing on the Great Wall
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Don Alder, one of the best acoustic guitarists in the world, got his own way for the celebration: the first cut on his new tune album "Not A Planet" is a song dedicated to the world wonder -- " The Wall."
The 4-minute-odd song is so breezily brimming with perfection that it takes merely the first few bars to completely arrest listeners. One of Alder's fan reviewed: "This song really is delightful! ...There is nothing that can compare to the skill and determination you exemplify in your writing and performing -- Like that of the builders of the wall!"
"The inspiration came from actually being on the Great Wall of China with a guitar," Alder told Xinhua at the Canadian Guitar Festival held on August 1-3 in Kingston, Ontario.
"I can't imagine the profound thinking that went into the creation of the Great Wall. When I got on the Great Wall I was inspired, went into song writing mode and came up with a new song idea. Of course I called it 'The Wall,'" he said.
While Alder composed the song in 2006, his connection with the Great Wall dates back 20 years earlier to 1986, when he accompanied his best friend Rick Hansen on his famous "The Man In Motion World Tour."
Alder and Hansen were good friends as teenagers and after a day of fishing, the two were returning home when they had an accident and Hansen suffered a spinal injury, but Alder came away without injury. Hansen went on to become a world-class wheel chair athlete and he wheeled almost 40,000 kilometers in a wheelchair through 34 countries raising awareness about spinal cord research.
As a member of Hansen's world tour, Alder and his colleagues took great efforts to help him wheel onto the Great Wall and viewed this as one of the great achievements of the tour. During the 20 years after the tour the memory of that trip kept coming back to Alder's mind until he finally composed "The Wall" in 2006.
Alder was touched both by the symbolic meaning of the Great Wall and of his friend's determination of achievement. For him, " The Wall" is a eulogy of the strength of human unity.
"If you take a team of people and put them together you could accomplish great things. The inspiration of the song is people coming together and create great things," he said.
