presentation of the great wall of china

ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

The great wall of china.

The Great Wall of China was built over centuries by China’s emperors to protect their territory. Today, it stretches for thousands of miles along China’s historic northern border.

Anthropology, Geography, Human Geography, Social Studies, Ancient Civilizations, World History

The Great Wall of China is one of the most notorious structures in the entire world. The Jinshanling section in Hebei Province, China, pictured here, is only a small part of the wall that stretches over 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles).

Photograph by Hung Chung Chih

The one thing most people “know” about the Great Wall of China—that it is one of the only man-made structures visible from space—is not actually true. Since the wall looks a lot like the stone and soil that surround it, it is difficult to discern with the human eye even from low Earth orbit, and is difficult to make out in most orbital photos . However, this does not detract from the wonder of this astounding ancient structure.

For millennia, Chinese leaders instituted wall-building projects to protect the land from northern, nomadic invaders. One surviving section of such an ancient wall, in the Shandong province, is made of hard-packed soil called “ rammed earth ” and is estimated to be 2,500 years old. For centuries during the Warring States Period, before China was unified into one nation, such walls defended the borders.

Around 220 B.C.E., Qin Shi Huang, also called the First Emperor , united China. He masterminded the process of uniting the existing walls into one. At that time, rammed earth and wood made up most of the wall. Emperor after emperor strengthened and extended the wall, often with the aim of keeping out the northern invaders. In some places, the wall was constructed of brick. Elsewhere, quarried granite or even marble blocks were used. The wall was continuously brought up to date as building techniques advanced.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who became the Hongwu Emperor , took power in 1368 C.E. He founded the Ming Dynasty , famous for its achievements in the arts of ceramics and painting. The Ming emperors improved the wall with watchtowers and platforms. Most of the familiar images of the wall show Ming-era construction in the stone. Depending on how the wall is measured, it stretches somewhere between 4,000 and 5,500 kilometers (2,500 and 3,400 miles).

In the 17th century, the Manchu emperors extended Chinese rule into Inner Mongolia, making the wall less important as a defense. However, it has retained its importance as a symbol of Chinese identity and culture . Countless visitors view the wall every year. It may not be clearly visible from space, but it is considered “an absolute masterpiece” here on Earth.

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Great Wall of China

By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 18, 2024 | Original: August 24, 2010

The Great Wall of China is an ancient series of walls and fortifications, totaling more than 13,000 miles in length, located in northern China. Perhaps the most recognizable symbol of China and its long and vivid history, the Great Wall was originally conceived by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the third century B.C. as a means of preventing incursions from barbarian nomads. The best-known and best-preserved section of the Great Wall was built in the 14th through 17th centuries A.D., during the Ming dynasty. Though the Great Wall never effectively prevented invaders from entering China, it came to function as a powerful symbol of Chinese civilization’s enduring strength.

Qin Dynasty Construction

Though the beginning of the Great Wall of China can be traced to the fifth century B.C., many of the fortifications included in the wall date from hundreds of years earlier, when China was divided into a number of individual kingdoms during the so-called Warring States Period.

Around 220 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China under the Qin Dynasty , ordered that earlier fortifications between states be removed and a number of existing walls along the northern border be joined into a single system that would extend for more than 10,000 li (a li is about one-third of a mile) and protect China against attacks from the north.

Construction of the “Wan Li Chang Cheng,” or 10,000-Li-Long Wall, was one of the most ambitious building projects ever undertaken by any civilization. The famous Chinese general Meng Tian initially directed the project, and was said to have used a massive army of soldiers, convicts and commoners as workers.

Made mostly of earth and stone, the wall stretched from the China Sea port of Shanhaiguan over 3,000 miles west into Gansu province. In some strategic areas, sections of the wall overlapped for maximum security (including the Badaling stretch, north of Beijing, that was later restored during the Ming Dynasty ).

From a base of 15 to 50 feet, the Great Wall rose some 15-30 feet high and was topped by ramparts 12 feet or higher; guard towers were distributed at intervals along it.

Did you know? When Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered construction of the Great Wall around 221 B.C., the labor force that built the wall was made up largely of soldiers and convicts. It is said that as many as 400,000 people died during the wall's construction; many of these workers were buried within the wall itself.

Great Wall of China Through the Centuries

With the death of Qin Shi Huang and the fall of the Qin Dynasty, much of the Great Wall fell into disrepair. After the fall of the later Han Dynasty , a series of frontier tribes seized control in northern China. The most powerful of these was the Northern Wei Dynasty, which repaired and extended the existing wall to defend against attacks from other tribes.

The Bei Qi kingdom (550–577) built or repaired more than 900 miles of wall, and the short-lived but effective Sui Dynasty (581–618) repaired and extended the Great Wall of China a number of times.

With the fall of the Sui and the rise of the Tang Dynasty , the Great Wall lost its importance as a fortification, as China had defeated the Tujue tribe to the north and expanded past the original frontier protected by the wall.

During the Song Dynasty, the Chinese were forced to withdraw under threat from the Liao and Jin peoples to the north, who took over many areas on both sides of the Great Wall. The powerful Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty (circa 1271-1368), established by Genghis Khan , eventually controlled all of China, parts of Asia and sections of Europe.

Though the Great Wall held little importance for the Mongols as a military fortification, soldiers were assigned to man the wall in order to protect merchants and caravans traveling along the lucrative Silk Road trade routes established during this period.

Wall Building During the Ming Dynasty

Despite its long history, the Great Wall of China as it is exists today was constructed mainly during the mighty Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Like the Mongols, the early Ming rulers had little interest in building border fortifications, and wall building was limited before the late 15th century. In 1421, the Ming emperor Yongle proclaimed China’s new capital, Beijing, on the site of the former Mongol city of Dadu.

Under the strong hand of the Ming rulers, Chinese culture flourished, and the period saw an immense amount of construction in addition to the Great Wall, including bridges, temples and pagodas.

Construction on the most extensive and best-preserved section of the Great Wall began around 1474. After an initial phase of territorial expansion, Ming rulers took a largely defensive stance, and their reformation and extension of the Great Wall was key to this strategy.

The Ming wall extended from the Yalu River in Liaoning Province to the eastern bank of the Taolai River in Gansu Province, and winded its way from east to west through today’s Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu.

Starting west of Juyong Pass, the Great Wall was split into south and north lines, respectively named the Inner and Outer Walls. Strategic “passes” (i.e., fortresses) and gates were placed along the wall; the Juyong, Daoma and Zijing passes, closest to Beijing, were named the Three Inner Passes, while further west were Yanmen, Ningwu and Piantou, the Three Outer Passes.

All six passes were heavily garrisoned during the Ming period and considered vital to the defense of the capital.

Significance of the Great Wall of China

In the mid-17th century, the Manchus from central and southern Manchuria broke through the Great Wall and encroached on Beijing, eventually forcing the fall of the Ming Dynasty and beginning of the Qing Dynasty.

Between the 18th and 20th centuries, the Great Wall emerged as the most common emblem of China for the Western world, and a symbol both physical—as a manifestation of Chinese strength—and a psychological representation of the barrier maintained by the Chinese state to repel foreign influences and exert control over its citizens.

Today, the Great Wall is generally recognized as one of the most impressive architectural feats in human history. In 1987, UNESCO designated the Great Wall a World Heritage site, and a popular claim emerged in the 20th century that it is the only manmade structure visible from space ( NASA has since refuted this claim ).

Over the years, roadways have been cut through the wall in various points, and many sections have deteriorated after centuries of neglect. The best-known section of the Great Wall of China—Badaling, located 43 miles (70 km) northwest of Beijing—was rebuilt in the late 1950s, and attracts thousands of national and foreign tourists every day.

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• WORLD HERITAGE

See China’s Iconic Great Wall From Above

This is one of the world’s greatest feats of engineering.

China’s iconic Great Wall, actually a network of fortifications rather than a single structure, is the product of countless labors over a period of some two thousand years. Qin Shi Huang took the remnants of truly ancient fortifications, walls, and earthworks begun in the fifth century B.C. and linked them into a unified wall circa 220 B.C. as part of a massive project to protect China against marauding barbarians from the north.

By the time construction on most of the stone-and-brick Great Wall, with its turrets and watchtowers, was completed during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) the chang cheng had become the world’s largest human-made object.

A recent government mapping project revealed that the entire Great Wall structure spans some 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers) from the Korean border west into the Gobi desert. Of that total 3,889 miles (6,259 kilometers) were actual wall, while 223 miles (359 kilometers) were trenches and (1,387 miles) 2,232 kilometers were natural defensive barriers, like rivers or steep hills, incorporated into the system.

Though new sections of the wall have recently been uncovered, several sections of the structure have vanished during the past half century or so. Mao Zedong himself encouraged destruction of parts of the wall and reuse of its materials in the 1950s, and rural farmers still make use of the wall’s earth and stone for practical purposes.

Some 50 percent of the original ancient structure has already disappeared, and perhaps another 30 percent lies crumbling into ruins—even as Chinese and international organizations struggle to preserve what remains of this unique treasure.

21 of China's Most Spectacular UNESCO Sites

How to Get There

tourists explore the wall from Beijing. The most popular section (Badaling) is 42 miles (70 kilometers) from the city. This section boasts impressive views, and with crowds come all the modern trappings of development. Those seeking less popular or unrestored sections of the wall have many suitable choices within easy driving distance of Beijing.

The wall has endured centuries of seasons and remains ready to host visitors year round. The Beijing region has icy winters, but the hardy will find far fewer crowds than during the peak summer seasons. Autumn is often delightful near Beijing with mild weather (43° to 64°F/6° to 18°C) and reduced tourist crowds. Wind and dust can be common in springtime. China is a nation of festivals, so consider timing a visit to coincide with a celebration in the shadows of the wall.

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How to Visit

As is appropriate for a monument so massive, there are many ways to visit the wall. Some visitors aspire to admire the views from popular tourist sections, pose for pictures, walk the wall, and take advantage of amenities from restaurants and shops to cable car rides. Others choose to explore rugged sections of the structure on extended hikes and climbs of unrestored “wild wall” sections, though these can be dangerous and are often located in rural areas well off the typical tourist path.

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10 Things to Know about the Great Wall of China

By Simatai Great Wall

Four seasons scenery of Simatai Great Wall - Autumn by Simatai Great Wall Simatai Great Wall

1. The total length of the Great Wall is 21196.18 km

The Great Wall is the largest man-made project in the world. The complete route is over 20,000 km, stretching from the east seaside to the west desert in northern China, winding up and down across mountains and plateaus like a dragon.

Jiayu Pass by Zhixia Nayol / Tuchong Simatai Great Wall

2. There are 15 strategic passes from the East to the West

The Great Wall stretches across 15 northern Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, from the Bohai Sea in the east to the Gobi Desert, 2,500 kilometers away in the west. There are 15 geographically important passes built along the route.

The "First Pier" of the Great Wall at Jiayu Pass by FinalLap / Tuchong Simatai Great Wall

3. It took over 2,000 years to construct the wall

The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang took the remnants of ancient fortifications, walls, and earthworks and linked them into a unified wall circa 220 B.C.   This picture shows the "First Pier of the Great Wall" which was built with rammed loess in 1539 A.D.

Apricot blossoms bloom in the west section of Simatai Great Wall (2021-05-11) by Wu Qiang Simatai Great Wall

4. It is not a wall but a series of fortifications

The Great Wall is not a single-structured wall, it includes beacon towers, barriers, barracks, garrison stations, and fortresses along the walls, together forming an integrated defense system.

Maintenance and protection of the Great Wall (2021-08-11) by Wu Qiang Simatai Great Wall

5. Various materials were used to build the Great Wall

The Great Wall is a massive monument built with different materials. Most of the sections we see today were built with bricks and cut stone blocks, and lime mortar was used to hold the bricks together. Where bricks and blocks weren't available, tamped earth, uncut stones, and wood were used as local materials.

"Old Dragon's Head" at Shanhai Pass by Jianwangde Xingsheshijie / Tuchong Simatai Great Wall

6. The eastern beginning in the sea: Shanhai Pass

Shanhai Pass was a fortress built in the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) and is the first pass in the East of China. It is located outside of Qinhuangdao City on Bohai Bay and 305 km away from Beijing. Given its strategic location, it's reputed as the "First pass under heaven".

Jiayu Pass by Cai Xiaoxiang / Tuchong Simatai Great Wall

7. The western end in the Gobi Desert: Jiayu Pass

Jiayu Pass is famous for being the first frontier fortress at the western end of the Great Wall of China in the Ming Dynasty. Among the hundreds of passes of the Great Wall, Jiayu Pass is one of the most well-preserved passes in existence.

8. An ancient tale of love: the legend of lady Mengjiang

It's one of the four greatest love legends in ancient China. Lady Mengjiang's husband was sent to build the Great Wall, and never gave news. She departed to bring winter clothes to him but heard that he had already died. She weeped so bitterly that part of the wall collapsed. 

Character brick at Simatai Great Wall (2021-04-05) by Wu Qiang Simatai Great Wall

9. The workers from ancient times left marks on the bricks

Some say that the texts on the bricks is a method that General Qi Jiguang devised in order to assess the quality of the bricks made by the soldiers, and to clarify the responsibilities. However, historians questioned this.  Read more here

Juyong Pass Great Wall by Pingchangxin yq / Tuchong Simatai Great Wall

10. It is Chinese people's greatest cultural icon

The Great Wall is the product of countless labors over a period of 2,000 years, and is a feast of engineering. It also reflected the collision and exchanges between the agricultural and nomadic civilizations.  In the Yuan Dynasty (1272-1368), the Juyong Pass functioned as a major traffic artery from Beijing to Inner Mongolia. Since Yuan emperors often took this route between those places, temporary imperial palaces, temples, and gardens were constructed.

Simatai: “Museum of the Great Wall”

Simatai great wall, “first pass under heaven”: the shanhai pass, the general tower, the kirin screen wall, the fairy tower, eighth of the 15 passes: zijingguan, the lady's pass (niangzi pass), the “turtle ridge'': simatai great wall east 11th tower, interior architectural structure of the great wall.

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30 Amazing Great Wall of China Facts You Should Know

You must know that the Great Wall of China is the world's longest wall and the biggest ancient architecture. But do you know that the Great Wall is not a continuous line, it was not built at one time, nearly 1/3 of the Wall has disappeared, and it is highly poisonous...?

Read our 30 easy-to-read Great Wall of China facts for interesting info about its length, age, construction, location, and hidden secrets. Get some quick Great Wall expertise to enrich your knowledge or to share with your kids.

9 Quick Facts about Great Wall Construction

1. The Great Wall is more than 2,300 years old ( 9+ dynasties' worth ).

2. The official length is 21,196.18 km (13,170.7 mi) , half the equator! But, nearly 1/3 of the Great Wall has disappeared without a trace.

3. The typical height of the Great Wall is 5–8 meters (16–26 feet), around three to five times the height of an adult.

4. The First Emperor of Qin was not the first to build the Great Wall . He linked the northern walls of the states he conquered.

5. The Great Wall labor force included soldiers, forcibly-recruited peasants, convicts, and prisoners of war .

6. The main construction materials of the Great Wall were earth, stone, lime, and wood. From the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), bricks were largely used.

7. The Great Wall is not a continuous line : there are sidewalls, enclosing walls, parallel walls, and sections with no wall (high mountains or rivers form a barrier instead).

8. The main purpose of the Great Wall was for border defense but it also transmitted messages using beacon towers (communication) and allowed troops to travel in a faster way (transportation).

9. Since 1644, when the Ming Dynasty was overthrown, no further work has been done on the Great Wall for military purposes.

9 Mind-Blowing Great Wall Facts Unknown to Most

1. The Great Wall of China cannot be seen from space by the human eye without aid.

2. Glutinous rice mortar was used to bind the Great Wall bricks, which is much stronger than ordinary lime mortar, and also water-resistant.

3. The Great Wall is poisonous. Arsenic , "the poison of kings" was used to prevent erosion of the Wall by insects like ants.

4. Part of the Great Wall coincided with and protected the route of the ancient Silk Road .

5. The Great Wall also had test projects in Zhangjiakou of Hebei, to calibrate the quality and specifications of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty.

6. The Han people were not the only nation to build a Great Wall. The northern nomads also built their own walls for defense .

7. Large-scale battles were rarely fought at the Great Wall. It was not cost-effective for the nomads to attack its fortifications.

8. The most popular Great Wall legend is about Meng Jiangnv, whose husband died building the Wall. Her weeping was so bitter that a section of the Wall collapsed, revealing her husband's bones. But in reality, no bodies have been found buried in the Great Wall .

9. Writing on the Great Wall was not allowed, but in the Ming Dynasty, every brick was carved with the name of the worker and the dates for individual responsibility.

The Great Wall Today: 6 Facts

1. The Great Wall has remained in 15 of today's provinces and municipalities : Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Jilin, Henan, Heilongjiang, and Shandong.

2. The most visited sections of the Great Wall are around Beijing, but Inner Mongolia has the greatest amount of Great Wall in terms of length and sites.

3. Most of today's Great Wall was built in the Ming Dynasty , measuring 8,851 km (5,500 mi) , much of which is over 600 years old .

4. Great Wall reconstruction and protection began with Badaling in 1957 . In December of 1987 , the Great Wall was placed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO.

5. Many Great Wall bricks were used in building homes, farms, or reservoirs during the Cultural Revolution period (1966–1976).

6. Over 4,431 trademarks were named after the Great Wall: Great Wall Hotels, Great Wall Motors, etc.

6 Interesting Facts on Famous Great Wall Sections

1. The Gubeikou section of the Great Wall has bullet holes in it, evidence of the last battle fought at the Great Wall.

2. Shanhai Pass is the only section of the Ming Great Wall that meets the sea.

3. Badaling is the most visited section (with over 63,000,000 visitors in a year), and it is often overcrowded with domestic visitors.

4. Mutianyu is popular among international travelers — well-restored and family-friendly, it's suitable for combining with a half-day city sightseeing at the Forbidden City or Temple of Heaven.

5. The Jiankou section of the Great Wall, known for being steep and winding, enjoys the most appearances on Great Wall picture books and postcards. It is also the most challenging section for a Great Wall hike.

6. Simatai is not the only Great Wall section that is fully lit up with lights at night, and so is recommended for a night tour alongside Gubei Water Town, which it overlooks.

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Unesco social media, the great wall, factors affecting the property in 2021 *.

• Impacts of tourism / visitor / recreation
• Interpretative and visitation facilities
• Underground transport infrastructure

Factors * affecting the property identified in previous reports

• Underground transport infrastructure (Proposed high-speed railway between Beijing and Zhangjiakou, with station at Guntiangou)
• Materials and techniques used in restoration works undertaken in Suizhong County, Liaoning Province (issue resolved)
• Partial collapse of some platforms (issue resolved)

International Assistance: requests for the property until 2021

Missions to the property until 2021 **, conservation issues presented to the world heritage committee in 2021.

The State Party has continued its work implementing the Master Plan of the Great Wall 2018-2035, following its approval by the State Council of China, and has launched the National Culture Park of the Great Wall. The State Party’s efforts also included on-site conservation activities, capacity building for conservation professionals, a consolidation of the legal basis for the conservation of the property, research and training activities, public outreach activities, and the active use of new technologies for conservation. The State Party has also continued its cooperation with the State Party of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: in November 2019, the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage and Historic England jointly published Wall-to-Wall Dialogue: the Collection of Papers on the Symposium on the Conservation and Management of the Hadrian’s Wall and the Great Wall of China, as a result of the second ‘Wall-to-Wall Dialogue’ (9-13 November 2019). On 5 October 2020, the States Parties co-organised an international Online Symposium on the Presentation and Interpretation of the Hadrian’s Wall and the Great Wall of China, co-hosted by Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture and Newcastle University.

In response to the Committee’s Decision 43 COM 7B.58 , Paragraph 10, which urged the State Party “ to ensure that the potential impacts arising from increased visitation are addressed […] [and to] take all necessary measures to mitigate the impacts of mass tourism on the property […] [and] minimize the cumulative impacts of tourism infrastructure on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property ”, the State Party has reported that several measures have been taken to ensure sustainable tourism in the Badaling Section, including the establishment of a daily optimum carrying capacity of 65,000 visitors since 1 June 2019, the introduction of an online ticket booking system, and an early warning response system to enable real-time management responses. These carrying capacities and visitation numbers may need to be adjusted according to the post-COVID-19 rules and regulations.

As requested by the Committee in Decision 41 COM 7B.86 , the State Party has also submitted a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) for the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-Speed Railway, which started operating at the end of 2019. The HIA indicates that the high-speed railway does not have any negative impact on the property or the landscape environment of the Badaling Section.

Analysis and Conclusion by World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies in 2021

As indicated in previous decisions, the State Party is invited to comply fully with the requirements of Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines and to inform the World Heritage Centre in due course about any major development project that may negatively impact the OUV of a property, before any decisions are made that would be difficult to reverse.

Summary of the interventions

Decisions adopted by the committee in 2021.

• Draft Decision

44 COM 7B.200

7b.iii. omnibus.

The World Heritage Committee,

• Having examined Document WHC/21/44.COM/7B,
• The Great Wall (China) (C 438)
• Comoé National Park (Côte d’Ivoire) (N 227)
• Taï National Park (Côte d’Ivoire) (N 195)
• Encourages the States Parties concerned to pursue their efforts to ensure the conservation of World Heritage properties;
• Recalling the benefits to States Parties of systematically utilizing Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs) and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) in the review of development projects, encourages States Parties to integrate the EIA/HIA processes into legislation, planning mechanisms and management plans, and reiterates its recommendation to States Parties to use these tools in assessing projects, including assessment of cumulative impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value of properties, as early as possible and before any final decision is taken;
• Reminds the States Parties concerned to inform the World Heritage Centre in due course about any major development project that may negatively impact the Outstanding Universal Value of a property, before any irreversible decisions are made, in line with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines .

Draft Decision: 44 COM 7B.200

• Reminds the States Parties concerned to inform the World Heritage Centre in due course about any major development project that may negatively impact the Outstanding Universal Value of a property, before any irreversible decisions are made, in line with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines.

Documents examined by the Committee

Soc report by the state party.

* : The threats indicated are listed in alphabetical order; their order does not constitute a classification according to the importance of their impact on the property. Furthermore, they are presented irrespective of the type of threat faced by the property, i.e. with specific and proven imminent danger (“ascertained danger”) or with threats which could have deleterious effects on the property’s Outstanding Universal Value (“potential danger”).

** : All mission reports are not always available electronically.

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The Great Wall of China.

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China's Great Wall Is Crumbling In Many Places; Can It Be Saved?

Anthony Kuhn

Qiao Guohua patrols a 5-mile stretch of the Great Wall of China. Roughly a third of the wall's 12,000 miles have crumbled to dust, and saving what's left may be the world's greatest challenge in cultural preservation. Anthony Kuhn/NPR hide caption

Qiao Guohua patrols a 5-mile stretch of the Great Wall of China. Roughly a third of the wall's 12,000 miles have crumbled to dust, and saving what's left may be the world's greatest challenge in cultural preservation.

After centuries of neglect, the world's largest fortification, the Great Wall of China, has a band of modern-day defenders who are drawing up plans to protect and maintain the vast structure.

They're not a minute too soon: Roughly a third of the wall's 12,000 miles has crumbled to dust, and saving what's left of it may be the world's greatest challenge in cultural preservation.

Qiao Guohua is on the front line of this battle. He lives in the village of Jielingkou, not far from where the eastern end of the Great Wall runs into the Yellow Sea.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Jielingkou was a walled garrison for soldiers guarding the wall at a strategic pass. It's now a simple farming village of some 800 residents. Other sections of the Great Wall were built during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) or earlier.

When not tending his crops, Qiao patrols a 5-mile stretch of the wall, looking for and reporting to the government sections in danger of collapsing — and tourists who might want to make off with a brick or two as a souvenir.

Qiao Guohua, a resident of Jielingkou village, is paid a small sum of money by the local government to patrol a section of the Great Wall. He's come to know every feature of the wall and its surrounding landscape intimately. Anthony Kuhn/NPR hide caption

Qiao Guohua, a resident of Jielingkou village, is paid a small sum of money by the local government to patrol a section of the Great Wall. He's come to know every feature of the wall and its surrounding landscape intimately.

"Every stretch of this wall was built with the blood and sweat of the working people," he says. "After I tell folks how many people died building it, they begin to get in the habit of protecting the wall."

Qiao says he's certainly not doing this for the money — the local government pays him a mostly symbolic sum of $150 a year for his labors. Just recently it also issued him an imitation military jacket that says "antiquities protector" on the back in Chinese — and "U.S. Army" on the front.

He walks along his section of the wall in all four seasons. He knows intimately every feature: all 10 towers that rise above the wall, and the snakes, hares and other wildlife that inhabit the area.

For nearly two millennia, until the 1600s, the wall marked the frontier separating the agriculture-based civilization of China from the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppe, including the Mongols, Manchus and Xiongnu. The wall was designed not so much to keep the peoples apart as to regulate their commerce and interactions.

Qiao says the wall is still a sort of internal dividing line. He points to the north.

"On that side is a Manchu autonomous county," he says. "On this side are ethnic Han people. Over there, they bury their dead. On this side, we cremate ours. The policies are different."

As an ethnic minority, Qiao adds, the Manchus are exempted from the family planning policies that the Han face.

Qiao says that when he was a child, the wall's towers and battlements, made of brick more than 400 years ago, were still in excellent condition.

But during the 1970s, under Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution, officials encouraged people to dismantle the wall and use the bricks to build their own homes.

Qiao points to a large stone built into the wall of one village home.

"You don't see these stones anywhere else," he says. "It's ancient. See that? That piece was taken from the wall."

In another village not far away lives a man named Xu Guohua. He grew up playing on the Great Wall.

Kilns like this one were used to bake bricks for the construction of a section of the Great Wall dating from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Resident Xu Guohua, the descendant of an official who helped build the wall, discovered the kilns and included them in a museum he founded to display Great Wall artifacts. Anthony Kuhn/NPR hide caption

Kilns like this one were used to bake bricks for the construction of a section of the Great Wall dating from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Resident Xu Guohua, the descendant of an official who helped build the wall, discovered the kilns and included them in a museum he founded to display Great Wall artifacts.

A few years ago, he discovered more than 200 large kilns in which bricks that were used to make the Great Wall were baked. Xu has opened a museum full of Great Wall artifacts he's discovered. And he's found something else: a personal connection to the Great Wall.

One summer not long ago, a stretch of the wall near his home collapsed. In the rubble, Xu found a stone tablet. He uses a towel to wipe dust off the 4-foot-long slate-gray slab, revealing several carved Chinese characters.

Xu says the tablet confirms what is written in his family's genealogy: that a 17th century ancestor was an official who helped build this section of the wall.

"After four centuries, we descendants are still connected to him," Xu says. "We are still watching over the Great Wall and protecting it."

China Great Wall Society vice chairman Dong Yaohui (center) examines artifacts from the Great Wall with Xu Guohua (right), who opened a museum for these objects. Anthony Kuhn/NPR hide caption

China Great Wall Society vice chairman Dong Yaohui (center) examines artifacts from the Great Wall with Xu Guohua (right), who opened a museum for these objects.

Standing on the Great Wall above Xu's museum, I talk to Dong Yaohui, vice chairman of a civic group called the China Great Wall Society. He has just finished a multivolume compendium of local histories of the Great Wall.

The section of the wall we're on is in comparatively good condition, its parapets and towers largely intact. Dong says that roughly 10 percent of the wall is well-preserved.

But he estimates that a third has vanished completely, and that the remaining 60 percent is in various degrees of disrepair. Most of that is from natural erosion, but development projects also have damaged the wall, or even replaced parts of it with gussied-up replicas.

The job of saving what remains of the wall is too big a task for China's government alone, Dong says. China has enacted regulations to protect the wall, but many local governments are in impoverished areas and can't pay to maintain it. Dong's plan is to get companies and individuals to sponsor sections of the wall.

"See these bricks in the wall? Each one is very ordinary, but together in large numbers, they make a magnificent wall," he says. "Protecting the wall is the same idea. Each person or company we get to contribute to the effort is like a brick."

Dong Yaohui, vice chairman of the China Great Wall Society, walks on a relatively intact section of the wall near its eastern end. Dong was among three men who, in the 1980s, were the first Chinese known to have walked the wall's entire length from east to west. Anthony Kuhn/NPR hide caption

Dong Yaohui, vice chairman of the China Great Wall Society, walks on a relatively intact section of the wall near its eastern end. Dong was among three men who, in the 1980s, were the first Chinese known to have walked the wall's entire length from east to west.

Dong recently launched pilot sponsorship programs; the money will be used to pay local communities and governments to patrol and repair the wall. He envisions planting markers along the wall with information about each particular section's history and sponsors, and is pressing China's national government to adopt his sponsorship plan nationwide.

In the 1980s, Dong and two companions became the first Chinese to walk a 4,300-mile Ming dynasty section of the Great Wall, east to west, using more than 500 days to document its condition and the landscapes and communities along it.

"The Great Wall was constructed and defended in separate sections," he notes. "Nobody has left his or her footprints across the whole thing. I thought it would be a very exciting thing to be the first human being to do this."

Three decades after his own trek, Dong encourages students to follow in his footsteps, embarking on journeys of discovery and learning along the Great Wall.

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The Great Wall of China

Jul 17, 2014

831 likes | 2.18k Views

The Great Wall of China. Architecture of the Chinese Dynasty . Bibliography . Why was the Great Wall of China built?. To protect China from the Huns all other tribes . To declare where the Chinese border was. How many years did it take to finish the wall?. 300 years . 21 years.

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Presentation Transcript

The Great Wall of China Architecture of the Chinese Dynasty

Bibliography

Why was the Great Wall of China built? To protect China from the Huns all other tribes . To declare where the Chinese border was.

How many years did it take to finish the wall? 300 years 21 years

How far does the wall stretch? About 12.530 Kilometres About 8,850 Kilometres.

What century did construction first start? Between the 9th and 10th century. (B.C) Between the 6th and 7th century. (B.C)

You are correct!  The Great Wall was key to protecting agriculture and resisting cavalry of the Huns and other warrior tribes from the north. The advantages of the enormous barrier diminished with the advancement of gunpowder and other weaponry. The wall was originally built of stone, wood, grass and earth. In the Ming Dynasty bricks were produced in kilns set up along the wall. The bricks were transported by men carrying them on their backs, donkeys, mules and even goats had a brick tied to their head before being driven up a mountain.

You are correct!  Hundreds of thousands of men slaved to build the Great Wall of China, and it took about 300 years to complete. The workers used stones and packed earth to construct the wall. It was dangerous work and more than a million men are said to have died during the construction.

You are correct!  The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world. Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 8,851.8 kilometres from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2000 years, some of the sections are now in ruins or have disappeared. However, it is still one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to it’s magnificence architectural and historical significance.

You are correct!  The Great Wall of China was built over more than two thousand years. Construction on the first section began between the 7th and 6th century BC, and the last work on the wall was done between the 14th and 17th centuries.

Sorry, you are incorrecttry again!

Did you know? At one time, family members of those who died working on the Great Wall would carry a coffin on top of which was a caged white rooster. The rooster's crowing was supposed to keep the spirit of the dead person awake until they crossed the Wall, otherwise, the family feared the spirit would escape and wander forever along the Wall.

Did you know? During the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-78), the Great Wall was seen as sign of despotism, and people were encouraged to take bricks from it to use in their farms or homes.

Did you know? The Great Wall has often been compared to a dragon. In China, the dragon is a protective divinity and is synonymous with springtime and vital energy. The Chinese believed the earth was filled with dragons which gave shape to the mountains and formed the sinew of the land.

Did you know? In 2004, there were over 41.8 million foreign visitors to the Great Wall of China.

Bibliography http://explore.org/explore/china/films/102?gclid=COesnY2Nn6wCFaoB4goddwx43Q?gclid=COesnY2Nn6wCFaoB4goddwx43Q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China http://www.greatwall-of-china.com/ http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/greatwall.htm

The EndBy Chris LinakerPnP 2011 :D

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