The Great Wall at Sunset Photograph by Mitchell R Grosky

The Great Wall at Sunset

by Mitchell R Grosky

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Title

The Great Wall at Sunset

Artist

Mitchell R Grosky

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

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.

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.
---From History.com

The Great Wall of China is the world's longest wall and biggest ancient architecture. Its winding path over rugged country and steep mountains takes in some great scenery. It has a stunning array of scenery from the beaches of Qinhuangdao, to rugged mountains around Beijing, to a desert corridor between tall mountain ranges.

Chinese name: 长城 (Chángchéng /channg-chnng/ 'Long Wall')
Other name: 万里长城 (Wàn-Lǐ Chángchéng /wann-lee channg-chnng/ 'Ten-Thousand-Li-Long Wall', i.e. 'the 5,000-Kilometer-Long Wall')

Here are 25 facts you should know to really appreciate the Great Wall...
10 Great Wall Numbers You Should Know
The Great Wall at Jinshanling
1. The official length is 21,196.18 km (13,170.7 mi) — (6+ dynasties' worth)
2. Most of today's relics are the Ming Dynasty Great Wall: length 8,851 km (5,500 mi).
3. The Great Wall is more than 2,300 years old.
4. The Ming Great Wall crosses 9 provinces and municipalities: Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu.
5. Badaling is the most visited section (63,000,000 visitors in 2001). And in the first week of May and October, the visitor flow can be up to 70,000 per day.
The Great Wall at Simatai
6. The average height of the Great Wall at Badaling and Juyong Pass is 7.88 meters, and the highest place is 14 meters high.
7. Nearly 1/3 of the Great Wall has disappeared without trace.
8. Since 1644, when the Ming Dynasty was overthrown, no further work has been done on the Great Wall (for military purposes — some has been restored for tourism).
9. Great Wall reconstruction and protection began with Badaling in 1957.
10. In December 1987 the Great Wall was placed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO.

15 More Top Great Wall Facts

The Great Wall at Jiankou
1. The Great Wall of China cannot be seen from space by the human eye without aid.
2. The Great Wall is not a continuous line: there are side walls, circular walls, parallel walls, and sections with no wall (high mountains or rivers form a barrier instead). In the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC), glutinous rice flour was used to bind the Great Wall bricks.
3. The Great Wall labor force included soldiers, forcibly-recruited peasants, convicts, and POWs.
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. There 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 so she could bury them.
6. The Gubeikou Section of the Great Wall has bullet holes in it, evidence of the last battle fought at the Great Wall .
The Jiayuguan Fortress
7. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), many Great Wall bricks were used in building homes, farms, or reservoirs.
8. The northwestern Great Wall sections (e.g. in Gansu and Ningxia provinces) are likely to disappear in 20 years, due to desertification and change in human land use.
9. The Jiankou Section of the Great Wall, known for being steep and winding, enjoys the most appearances on Great Wall picture books and post cards.
10. The most famous section of the Great Wall — Badaling — has been visited by over 300 heads of state and VIPs from around the world. The first of which was Soviet statesman Klim Voroshilov in 1957.
11. The Great Wall of China is the longest man-made structure in the world.
Badaling Great Wall
12. Glutinous rice played an important role when building the wall. It helped fix the bricks in place and bound the bricks together so tightly that weeds cannot grow in many parts.
13. The Great Wall Marathon is held in October every year on Mutianyu Great Wall.
14. The film The Great Wall starring Matt Damon was not filmed on the Great Wall. It tells a story that brave human beings fought against a monster.
15. Badaling Great Wall was the first section of the wall to open for tourists
---From China Highlights