GREAT WALL OF CHINA

It was preceded by several walls built since the 3rd century BC against the raids of nomadic tribes coming from areas in modern-day Mongolia and Manchuria.

The Wall stretches over a formidable 6,352 km (3,948 miles), from Shanhai Pass on the Bohai Gulf in the east, at the limit between China proper and Manchuria, to Lop Nur in the southeastern portion of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

HISTORY OF THE GREAT WALL

A defensive wall on the northern border was built and maintained by several dynasties at different times in Chinese history. There have been five major walls:

• 208 BC (Qin Dynasty)
  
• 1st century BC (Han Dynasty)
  
• 7th century CE (Sui Dynasty)
  
• 1138 - 1198 (Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period)
  
• 1368 - 1640 (from Hongwu Emperor until Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty)

The first major wall was built during the reign of the First Emperor, the main emperor of the short-lived Qin dynasty. This wall was not constructed as a single endeavor, but by joining several regional walls built by the Warring States. The walls that were linked together at this time consisted of rammed earth with watch towers built at regular intervals. It was located much further north than the current Great Wall with its eastern end at modern day North Korea. Very little of this first wall remains - photos reveal a low, long mound.

The government ordered people to work on the wall, and workers were under perpetual danger of being attacked by brigands. Because many people died while building the wall, it has obtained the gruesome title, "longest cemetery on Earth" or "the long graveyard." Possibly as many as one million workers died building the wall.

The later long walls built by the Han, the Sui, and the Ten Kingdoms period were also built along the same design. They were made of rammed earth with multi-story watch towers built every few miles. These walls have also largely vanished into the surrounding landscape, eroded away by wind and rain.

In military terms, these walls were more frontier demarcations than defensive fortifications of worth. Certainly Chinese military strategy did not revolve around holding the wall.

The Great Wall seen today was built during the Ming Dynasty, starting around the year 1368 and lasting till around 1640. This new wall was built on a grand scale with longer lasting materials (solid stone used for the sides and the top of the Wall) than any wall built before. The primary purpose of the wall was to make it difficult for semi-nomadic people outside the wall (such as the Mongols under Altan Khan and the Oirats under Esen Taiji) to raid into China with their horses or return with stolen property.

The Ming Dynasty Great Wall starts on the eastern end at Shanhai Pass, near Qinhuangdao, in Hebei Province, next to Bohai Gulf. Spanning nine provinces and 100 counties, the final 500 kilometers have all but turned to rubble, and today it ends on the western end at the historic site of Jiayu Pass, located in northwest Gansu Province at the limit of the Gobi Desert and the oases of the Silk Road.

Jiayu Pass was intended to greet travelers along the Silk Road. Even though The Great Wall ends at Jiayu Pass, there are many watchtowers extending beyond Jiayu Pass along the Silk Road. These towers communicated by smoke to signal invasion.

The Kokes Manchus crossed the Wall by convincing an important general Wu Sangui to open the gates of Shanhai Pass and allow the Manchus to cross. Legend has it that it took three days for the Manchu armies to pass. After the Manchu conquered China, the Wall was of no strategic value, mainly because the Manchu extended their political control far to the north, much farther than any previous Chinese dynasty.

The last great wall of the Ming really was a military fortification of some strength. However, military historians are generally dismissive of the net value of this great wall. It was astonishingly expensive to build, maintain and garrison. The money the Ming spent on the wall could have been spent on other military capabilities such as European style artillery or muskets. The fact remains that the great wall was of no help at all in the Ming dynasty's fall.

CONDITION OF THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

While some portions near tourist centers have been preserved and even reconstructed, in most locations the Wall is in disrepair, serving as a playground for some villages and a source of stones to rebuild houses and roads. Sections of the Wall are also prone to graffiti. Parts have been destroyed because the Wall is in the way of construction sites.

Intact or repaired portions of the Wall near developed tourist areas are often plagued with hawkers of tourist kitsch. The Gobi Desert is also encroaching on the wall in some places. Some estimates say that only 20% of the wall is in a good condition.

WATCHTOWERS AND BARRACKS

The wall is complemented by defensive fighting stations, to which wall defenders may retreat if overwhelmed.

Each tower has unique and restricted stairways and entries to confuse attackers.

Barracks and administrative centers are located at larger intervals.

MATERIALS

The materials used are those available near the site of construction. Near Beijing the wall is constructed from quarried limestone blocks. In other locations it may be quarried granite or fired brick. Where such materials are used, two finished walls are erected with packed earth and rubble fill placed in between with a final paving to form a single unit. In some areas the blocks were cemented with a mixture of sticky rice and egg whites.

In the extreme western desert locations, where good materials are scarce, the wall was constructed from dirt rammed between rough wood tied together with woven mats.

In addition to the usual military weapons of the period, specialized wall defense weapons were used. Reproductions of these weapons are displayed at the wall.

Retrieved from Wikipedia.org, the Free Encyclopedia

BEIJING TOURS & TRAVEL

BEIJING HOTELS & ACCOMMODATION

A vast, spectacular, beautiful country of contrasts in landscape, climate and culture, where peaceful rice fields and monastery villages exist alongside buzzing ultramodern mega-cities.