wall of china essay

The Great Wall of China Descriptive Essay

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Introduction

The Great Wall of China is a long continuous wall which was erected with the sole intention of securing the Chinese border in the northern border against intruders (Man 103). The Great Wall consists of several walls which were built over a lengthy period of time.

The construction is claimed to have began during the dynasty of Emperor Qin Shi Huangi who ruled the country in the early 200 BC to the 16 th century during the Ming dynasty.

The essay will take the form of an informative speech whose intention is to further shed light on who built the Great Wall of China, when it was built, the reason behind building it and how wide and long the wall is as well as how it has been built.

The Chinese were among the first countries to experience civilization in the world. During the civilization period, they acquired the art of building houses and other structures and this helped greatly during the construction of the Great Wall.

As early as 8 th century BC, various states such as Wei, Qin, Yan, Qi, and Zhao constructed extensive walls in an attempt to defend their territorial borders from their warring neighbors (Yamashita and Lindesay 53).

However, all these efforts were better noticed during the reign of the Qin dynasty that after conquering the states which had been opposing him, he embarked on the building of the great wall so as to connect and enclose all the states that now belonged to him and protect them from external intruders.

During the Ming Dynasty, after the Oirats had defeated the Ming army in 1449 (in what was famously referred to as the Battle of Tumu), the Great Wall idea was revived.

The Great Wall proved quite useful to the Ming Dynasty, especially towards the end of its reign because it ensured that the empire remained protected against possible invasion by the Manchu (this was around 1600).

At this time, the wall had a total length of 5,000 kilometers, starting at the Gansu Province in Linyao all the way to the Liaoning Province (Man 105). As we talk today, the great wall is estimated to stretch 4,163 miles (about 6,700 kilometers).

It starts in the Gansu Province at the Jiayuguan Pass and stretches all the way to the Hebei Province in the Shanhaiguan Pass. The wall runs through the large plains in the northern border of the country. Although people have come up with several discussions as to how the wall came to be, it is widely believed that it was the efforts emperor Qin that the wall was extensively built.

The construction formation of the Great Wall also differed at different historical periods. For example during the Qin dynasty the pass gates were not constructed using stone and the wall lacked any fortresses.

However, during the construction of the Han Greta Waal that passes through the Gobi Region, the main fortification was moats (Roland and Jan 67). A beacon tower was also constructed at intervals of 1.25 kilometers along these moats. The beacon towers were used during the time of war.

When one column was lit, this was a sign that the advancing troops were less than 500.When two columns were lit, it meant that the advancing troops were less than 3,000. By using the columns of smoke, the defenders were always aware on the magnitude of what to expect.

Laborers who took part in the construction of the wall included the common people, soldiers, and criminals (Waldron 18). Different construction materials found use during the constructions process of the wall, over the centuries. Compacted earth was used in the construction of the original Great Wall.

Local stones were then used to surround the compacted earth. In a bid to ensure that the construction costs of the wall remained down, there was extensive use of local construction materials. In the later years, bricks were used to construct the Ming wall.

Where the Great Wall passed through the Rocky Mountains, builders made use of the stones found on these mountains. However, they were forced to use rammed earth in the planes, while juniper tamarisk and sanded reeds found use in the desert.

Scientists have now revealed that the remaining section of the Great Wall in the Gansu Province, consist of several layers of rammed earth (Waldron 18).

Between 202 BC and 220AD, during the Han Dynasty period, the most popular construction materials were crude stones and earth while between 1368 and 1644, during the Ming Dynasty, bricks had substituted stone and earth as the construction material of choice, thanks to their light weight and size; it was easier to make and carry them.

From statistical records, it is estimated that some 500,000 common people and 300,000 soldiers took part in the construction process of the initial Great Wall during the reign of Emperor Qin. Over 1,000 individuals are believed to have lost their lives in the process of constructing the Great Wall during the Din Dynasty.

The construction of another section of the great wall under the Northern Qi Dynasty took place in 555 A. D., and the entire section consisted of 450-kilometre. It started from Nankou, all the way to Shanxi, passing through Datong and Beijing.

During this time, the labor force is estimated to have been approximately 1.8 million people (Roland and Jan 71). The construction and living conditions were also extremely poor during this time and as a result, high number of workers lost their lives.

Works Cited

Man, John. The Great Wall . London: Bantam Press, 2008. Print.

Roland, Michaud and Jan, Michel. The Great Wall of China . New York: Abbeville Press, 2001. Print.

Waldron, Arthur. The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Print.

Yamashita, Michael and Lindesay, William. The Great Wall – From Beginning to End . New York: Sterling, 2007. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2019, March 21). The Great Wall of China. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-great-wall-of-china/

"The Great Wall of China." IvyPanda , 21 Mar. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/the-great-wall-of-china/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'The Great Wall of China'. 21 March.

IvyPanda . 2019. "The Great Wall of China." March 21, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-great-wall-of-china/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Great Wall of China." March 21, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-great-wall-of-china/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Great Wall of China." March 21, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-great-wall-of-china/.

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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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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 summary

Great Wall of China , Chinese Wanli Changcheng , Defensive wall, northern China. One of the largest building-construction projects ever carried out, it runs (with all its branches) about 4,500 mi (7,300 km) east to west from the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli) to a point deep in Central Asia. Large parts of the fortification date from the 7th to the 4th century bce . In the 3rd century bce the emperor Shihuangdi connected existing defensive walls into a single system fortified by watchtowers. These served both to guard the rampart and to communicate with the capital, Xianyang (near modern Xi’an ) by signal—smoke by day and fire by night. Originally constructed partly of masonry and earth, it was faced with brick in its eastern portion. It was rebuilt in later times, especially in the 15th and 16th centuries. The basic wall is about 23–26 ft (7–8 m) high; at intervals towers rise above it to varying heights. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

Great Wall of China

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The Great Wall of China is a barrier fortification in northern China running west-to-east 13,171 miles (21,196 km) from the Jiayuguan Pass (in the west) to the Hushan Mountains in Liaoning Province in the east, ending at the Bohai Gulf. It crosses eleven provinces/municipalities (or ten, according to some authorities) and two autonomous regions (Inner Mongolia and Ningxia).

Construction of the wall began in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE) under the First Emperor Shi Huangdi (r. 221-210 BCE) and continued over hundreds of years throughout many different dynasties. The Great Wall in the present day is almost completely the work of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1664 CE) who added the distinctive watchtowers and expanded the length and width of the wall. The now-famous national monument fell into decay following the Ming Dynasty, when the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912 CE) took power and expanded the border of China northwards, making the wall obsolete. Restoration and preservation efforts only seriously began in the 1980's CE, and the wall was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 CE.

The Original Wall

During the time known as The Warring States Period (c. 481-221 BCE), the different regions of China fought for control of the country during the collapse of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (771-256 BCE). One state emerged victorious from this struggle: the state of Qin which is pronounced 'chin' and gives China its name. The general who led Qin to victory was King Ying Zheng who took the name `Qin Shi Huangdi' (First Emperor) after conquering the other states.

Shi Huangdi ordered construction of the Great Wall to consolidate his empire and protect it against invasion. The seven warring states each had walls along their border for defense which Shi Huangdi destroyed after he took power. As a sign that all of China was now one, the emperor decreed a great wall would be built along the northern border to defend against the mounted warriors of the nomadic Xiongnu of Mongolia; there would be no more walls marking boundaries between separate states in China because there would no longer be any separate states.

His wall ran along a line further to the north than the present one, marking what was then the border between China and the Mongolian plains. The wall was constructed by unwilling conscripts and convicts who were sent north under guard from all over China for the purpose. Shi Huangdi was not a benevolent ruler and was more interested in his own grandeur than the good of his people. His wall was not regarded by the Chinese people under the Qin Dynasty as a symbol of national pride or unity but as a place where people were sent to labor for the emperor until they died.

The Ming Dynasty Wall

The present wall, whose image is so well known, is not Shi Huangdi's wall from c. 221 BCE. There is actually very little of the original wall left today. When the Qin Dynasty fell in 206 BCE, the country split into the civil war known as the Chu- Han Contention (206-202 BCE), fought between the generals Xiang-Yu of Chu (l. 232-202 BCE) and Liu-Bang of Han (l. c. 256-195 BCE), the two leaders who had emerged as the most powerful of those who had helped topple the Qin Dynasty.

When Liu-Bang defeated Xiang-Yu in 202 BCE at the Battle of Gaixia , he became the First Emperor of the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) and continued construction of the wall as a means of defense. He was also the first emperor to use the wall as a means of regulating trade north along what would eventually become known as the Silk Routes (better known as The Silk Road ) which the later Han Dynasty emperor Wu Ti (r. 141-87 BCE) expanded and opened for trade between China and Europe in 130 BCE.

The following dynasties all made their own contributions and repairs to the wall until the Ming Dynasty initiated a massive building project to protect the country from invading nomads from Mongolia, the very same incentive that had played a part in Shi Huangdi's original vision. This similarity in purpose may explain the belief that the present wall dates from the Qin Dynasty. The Ming built the wall featuring over 25,000 massive watchtowers and ranging in height from 16-26 feet (5-8 m), 20 feet across the bottom (6 m) and 16 feet across the top (5 m).

The Liaoning Wall

In addition to creating the massive wall, the Ming Dynasty also enclosed their most important agricultural center, Liaoning Province, behind a walled fortification known as the Liaoning Wall (also known as the Liaodong Wall). This wall has been a source of controversy between China and North Korea since 2009 CE when the Chinese government claimed they had only recently discovered portions of the Great Wall close to the border with North Korea by the Hushan Mountains.

North Korea has asserted that the 'newly discovered Great Wall' actually belongs to them and is not part of China's Great Wall. The section of wall in dispute is no doubt part of the Liaoning Wall. This wall in no way can be compared with the Great Wall and was never built to be. It was a simple defensive barrier constructed to hamper invasions of Liaoning from the north and was constructed of earth, stone, and whatever else was available. Moats were dug on either side of the wall to further impede an invading force.

As it turned out, the Liaoning Wall and the Great Wall were equally useless in repelling invasion. Manchu invasions from the north began in c. 1600 CE and continued until 1644 CE when the Great Wall was opened to the invaders. China was again in turmoil at this time as a rebellion had been mounted against the Ming Dynasty. The Ming general Wu Sangui (l.1612-1678 CE), who had declared himself emperor, opened the Great Wall to the Manchus in a deal whereby they would help him defeat the rebels. Instead, the Manchus seized power, expelled the Ming Dynasty, and established the Qing Dynasty. The victory of the Manchus over the Ming meant that the border of China was now some distance north of the Great Wall, and since it was no longer of any use in defense, it was neglected and fell into ruin until the rise of the Republic of China in 1912 CE, when it was found useful in controlling immigration and emigration.

Modern Day Preservation & the Moon Fallacy

There were efforts over the years to maintain the structure, but no concerted effort existed until as recently as 1980 CE when the wall was made a priority of the Chinese government as a tourist attraction and source of revenue. It was not designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site until 1987 CE, but even with that designation the wall is slowly crumbling. Today, according to historians and preservationists who monitor the site, there are only about 600 miles (372 km) of the wall left in stable condition.

There are many modern misconceptions concerning the Great Wall of China. The best known and most often repeated is that it is the only human-made structure on earth that can be seen from space; this is not true. The origin of this claim is the English essayist Sir Henry Norman, who wrote in 1895 CE that the wall was "the only work of human hands on the globe visible from the moon." His observation was based on the fact that people on earth could see craters and canals on the moon, and so someone on the moon would be able to see something as long and massive as the Great Wall on earth. Many people seem to believe that the claim the wall can be seen from the moon is based on first-hand accounts of astronauts or the work of scientists and astronomers, but it is actually the creation of a man who wrote when space travel was not even possible. Modern day scholars and scientists, as well as those who have traveled to the moon, have debunked this claim repeatedly.

Other fallacies concerning the wall are that it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, that it dates from the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE, and that it was built as a symbol of national pride. The last two claims, as seen above, are clearly false, as is the first; the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were all located in the Mediterranean region of Greece , Egypt , and Turkey . The Great Wall is, however, among those chosen as one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the New 7 Wonders Foundation in 2007 CE. The Great Wall is visited by over four million people a year, and even though it cannot be seen from the moon, is among the most recognizable human-made structures in the world.

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Bibliography

• Ancient China by Joshua J. Mark , accessed 15 May 2020.
• Ebrey, P. B. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Great Wall of China Controversy , accessed 1 Dec 2016.
• New Seven Wonders of the World , accessed 1 Dec 2016.
• Tanner, H. M. China: A History From Neolithic Cultures through Great Qing Empire. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2010.
• The Battle of Gaixia by Joshua J. Mark , accessed 15 May 2020.
• The Great Wall: UNESCO Heritage Site , accessed 1 Dec 2016.
• Waldron, Arthur. The Great Wall of China. Cambridge University Press, 1992.

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Why the Great Wall WAS, and STILL IS, So Important

Stretching thousands of miles, the Great Wall is the longest man-made structure in the world, but that isn't its only significance.

It was important in defending China from northern invasion for centuries, and has become a national symbol , and China's top tourist sight.

Great Defensive Infrastructure

During the Warring States Period (475–221 BC), overlords of China's northern states began to build walls and high mountain watchtowers on their borders, to defend against invasion .

Before the Great Wall was built, the northern nomad tribes often ravaged northern China. The nomads' fierce horsemen were stronger than the Han Chinese infantry. But, after the Wall was built, the nomadic tribes could no longer raid and intrude into northern China.

The Great Wall protected China's economic development and cultural progress , safeguarding trading routes such as the Silk Road, and securing the transmission of information and transportation in northern China.

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Symbol of the Chinese Nation

The Great Wall represents the unification of China . It came into being when the First Emperor of Qin had the walls of Yan, Zhao, and Qin joined up after the Warring States Period.

The Great Wall is a testimony to the history and strength of China . It was built by millions of Chinese workers over a period of more than 2,000 years (4th century BC–17th century AD).

The Great Wall is also a great subject of Chinese literary art . A sentence in the Chinese national anthem is sung to praise and memorize the Wall. What's more, many phrases and sayings have been carried down from generation to generation to commemorate this magnificent man-made wonder.

Popular Tourist Attraction

The Great Wall is famous all over the world and attracts 4 million tourists every year. It attracts tourists for its historical and archeological value, as well as the majestic scenery seen from the Wall.

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Recommended Great Wall Experiences

If you want to walk on the Great Wall and admire its majestic scenery, please see our recommended tours below for inspiration:

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Not interested in the above tours? See more popular Great Wall Tours , or tell us about your interests and requirements. China Highlights will help you to create your own Great Wall Tour .

Learn More about the Great Wall

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• Why the Great Wall WAS, and STILL IS, So Important?
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Discover China's History Along the Great Wall

One of the world's greatest feats of engineering reveals the ingenuity of the ancients.

" The Great Wall impresses everyone who sees it for the first time, from children to adults, from the general tourists to scholars,” says Henry Ng, the manager of the World Monuments Fund’s China projects. “The vastness of the structure helps children grasp the great achievements in human history—from the Great Wall to the great pyramids—and can help inspire them to learn more about human achievements over the millennia.”

Constructed over a period of 2,000 years, the stone sentry actually consists of many great walls, some dating back to the fifth century B.C. The first emperor of China , Qin Shi Huang, ordered these earlier long wall sections linked and extended with watchtowers to protect the new empire from marauding northern tribes. Succeeding emperors and dynasties continued the construction, spreading westward into the Gobi desert to guard the Silk Road . All together, the walls may have stretched more than 30,000 miles.

“Because the walls were defensive structures, you can learn about building and engineering skills throughout ancient China as well as its military history and strategies,” Ng says.

“The wall raised my daughter’s awareness of China’s long history,” says Beijing resident Pan Ningxin, who took her daughter Mengmeng, eight, to the wall at Badaling. “We talked about the function of the Great Wall when it was built, so she got some idea of the wars between nations and how dynasties change.”

Early sections of the wall were built from layers of rammed earth and local materials—red palm fronds in the Gobi desert, wild poplar trunks in the Tarim Basin, reeds in Gansu. Many of these sections have eroded over the centuries; the Great Legacy of an Ancient Time Wall as we know it largely dates from the Ming dynasty from the 14th to the 17th centuries. The Ming wall stretches nearly 4,500 miles from Shanhaiguan Pass on the Bohai Sea to Jiayuguan Pass in the Gobi.

People of the Ming dynasty layered stone and brick over packed earth, building walls 20 feet wide at the base and nearly 30 feet high that twist along the steep mountain ridges north of Beijing . Surrounded by misty green hills with watchtowers that disappear into low-hanging clouds, the wall is a place for reflection—the sense of history and the craftsmanship required to build it permeate the ancient stones.

“We wonder about the builders, the soldiers who were stationed at some of these lonely outposts, the nearby villagers who may or may not have appreciated the garrisons near them,” says Jennifer Ambrose, who lives with her family north of Beijing and visits the Great Wall several times a month. “We explore around the wall, surprised to find remains of older walls that predate the Ming by centuries.”

Forced laborers used pulleys to haul stone slabs nearly seven feet long and weighing a ton up the steep mountainsides. Some 10,000 watchtowers and beacon towers are located every 200 to 300 yards for quick communication. While drums were the main form of communication before 200 b.c., soldiers later used fire and smoke signals to broadcast the size of an enemy force. Each tower along the wall had a ready supply of burnable materials should the need arise. During the Ming dynasty the sounds of cannon warned of approaching danger.

Children will delight in wandering the ramparts, lined with battlements and parapets and wide enough for five horses to ride abreast. “We encourage our seven-year-old son, Myles, to explore the construction as much as he can,” Ambrose says.

“To look for signs of pieces that are missing, like bars on the windows, or to try to figure out from which direction invaders were expected to come based on the slots through which archers shot. Often a visit will leave us with more questions that we try to research afterward, like, Why was the Ming wall built in this direction when an earlier wall, still visible, was built so many meters in another direction?”

With more than 4,000 miles to explore, there are hundreds of places where you can visit the wall. Sites near Beijing offer the easiest access. Skip the crowds at Badaling, and head for Jinshanling, two hours northeast of the capital, which offers stunning views and invigorating hikes. Children will love seeing the lights that illuminate a 1.8-mile section at night. An alternative: At Huanghuacheng, about an hour and a half north of Beijing, the wall skirts Jintang Lake and the crescent-shaped Huanghuacheng Reservoir. In summer, the mountain slopes are covered with huanghua (yellow wildflowers) that gave the town its name. “We most frequently go to the Huanghuacheng area because there are several access points, all rather close together, but different enough to be interesting,” Ambrose says. If you can, visit the Great Wall when it’s blanketed with snow. “The snow enhances the crenellations, making the wall look more castlelike than normal,” Ambrose says. “My son’s imagination really gets going—when we go to Juyongguan in the snow, he pretends he’s in a battle, stuffing snow into the cannon and throwing snowballs over the edge at imaginary foes.”

For a quieter, less developed area ideal for young children, visit Mutianyu, a village just over an hour north of Beijing that dates from the 16th century. “This area is forested with crown pines and also full of fruit trees on the hills and in orchards—chestnut, apple, pear, and apricot,” says Jim Spear, who has lived in Mutianyu for 17 years and runs The Schoolhouse lodgings. “My kids roamed all over the local mountains, climbed trees, picked wildflowers, and gathered wild edibles with guidance from our neighbors. This is exactly what the local kids do when they’re not busy with their studies and on vacations.”

Enclosed cable cars can transport you straight from the valley to the top of the wall. “But many of our visitors like to get off the beaten track and take walks with their kids to nearby unrestored sections of the Great Wall—what we call the ‘wild wall,’ ” Spear says. “The wild sections there are overgrown and crumbling and the ruins give one a sense of how ancient and great this civilization is.”

Know Before You Go

Insider Tip : The Great Wall was designed for protection, but don’t forget the forts that were another part of China’s defenses. The 16th-century Yaoziyu Fort, for example, is the best preserved of Huanghuacheng’s six forts. Changyucheng Village was founded 500 years ago to guard one of the wall’s most important passes.

Books for Kids :

The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy; illustrated by Mou-Sien Tseng (1992): This beautifully illustrated book tells the old Chinese folktale of seven brothers with extraordinary abilities, who band together and use their powers to challenge the emperor’s mistreatment of his workers on the Great Wall.

Books for Parents :

The Great Wall: From Beginning to End by William Lindesay and Michael Yamashita (2007): The story of Lindesay’s hike along the entire Ming wall, from the Yellow Sea to the desert foothills of the Qilian Mountains, is accompanied by Michael Yamashita’s photos.

• Nat Geo Expeditions

Voices of the Pipa by Jiang Ting (2003): The elegant Chinese pipa , somewhat similar to a banjo, dates back 2,000 years in China’s history. Ting has played the pipa since childhood and won first prize in China’s national pipa competition in 1996. Here, on this album, she plays ancient and modern Chinese compositions, plus her own melodies.

Helpful Links :

Great Wall Website : This collection of essays lays out the history of the many long walls that comprise the Great Wall, analyzes the popular folktale of Meng Jiangnu, and answers commonly asked questions about the wall (such as, Is it visible from the moon? No.). Be sure to check out the Travel Guide section, which details the various sites and best times to visit the wall.

Beijing Kids : This is an essential resource for families visiting Beijing. Produced by local expat families, the website provides a directory of hotels, restaurants, and educational centers in the city; tips on family-friendly events and activities in the area; and readers’ personal experiences traveling to various Great Wall sites.

“The Great Wall of China,” In Our Time : BBC radio host Melvyn Bragg discusses the Great Wall of China with Chinese historians in this episode of In Our Time . The scholars vividly describe the differences among the many sections of the Great Wall and talk in depth about its origins.

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15 Facts About the Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is one of the oldest, largest, and most celebrated achievements of human ingenuity, but there are still a few things you might not know about China’s ancient landmark.

1. Building the Great Wall of China took more than 1800 years.

The Great Wall wasn’t the first fortification erected in Chinese territory to protect citizens from foreign invaders. As far back as the 8th century BCE, barriers were going up to repel nomadic armies. When Qin Shi Huang seized power over a collection of neighboring principalities in 221 BCE and kicked off the Qin dynasty, he began construction on a 5000-kilometer wall to safeguard his territory. Later dynasties continued this work and added their own flourishes. While construction began under the Qin dynasty, the recognizable segments that we think of when we visualize the Great Wall were largely the handiwork of the Ming dynasty, which created these facets between the 14th and 17th centuries CE. 

2. It isn’t one consistent wall, but rather a collection of walls.

There’s a pervasive misconception that the Great Wall of China is one long uninterrupted structure. In fact, the wall is more accurately described as a 20,000-kilometer network of walls spanning the northern border of ancient and imperial Chinese territories.

3. The Great Wall of China contains a surprising ingredient.

The Great Wall is largely crafted from unremarkable building materials like earth and stone. More interestingly, glutinous rice—known colloquially as “sticky rice”—was incorporated into the mortar recipe thanks to its cohesive properties. Modern studies have indicated that the amylopectin of the rice (the substance that makes it sticky)  helps explain the wall’s strength and endurance. 

4. Wall construction was a common punishment for Chinese people who were convicted of a crime.

In a particularly extreme version of modern community service, Great Wall construction, maintenance, and surveillance were regular duties of people convicted of crimes during the Qin dynasty. To distinguish outlaw laborers from their civilian colleagues, authorities shaved their heads, blackened their faces, and bound their limbs in chains. Transgressions ranging from homicide to tax evasion were all punishable with wall duty. The work was dangerous—some estimates state that 400,000 workers perished while building the wall. 

5. Roosters were brought to the Great Wall of China to honor the dead.  

With so many lives lost during construction, grieving family members feared that the spirits of their loved ones would be forever trapped within the structure that cost them their lives. In an effort to grant deceased laborers spiritual emancipation, a mourner would cross over the wall with a rooster in tow. This tradition was believed to help guide a soul away from the fortification. 

6. An ancient poem predicts the construction of the Great Wall of China.

The Shijing , a collection of ancient Chinese poems written between the 11th and 7th centuries BCE, predicts proper construction of the Great Wall of China with an entry describing a king’s efforts to fend off military invaders via development of a defensive barrier.

7. The Great Wall of China pays tribute to mythical and historical figures. 

Lining the Great Wall are shrines and tributes to figures from Chinese history. Guan Yu , a 3rd-century general who served during the Han dynasty, is honored with temples built on the wall. Additionally, various points on the wall pay homage to Tiānwáng, the four heavenly kings of Buddhism. 

8. The wall was actually not that great at keeping out invading forces.

Despite all the effort that went into making the Great Wall the premiere component of China’s military defense system, many of the country’s enemies throughout history managed passage across the barrier. Manchurian invasion through the wall in the 17th century resulted in the fall of the Ming dynasty . 

9. Historically, other cultures have been fonder of the Great Wall than China.

China’s celebration of the Great Wall as a tourist draw and landmark is a relatively recent phenomenon, having only blossomed in the 20th century as a result of international interest. China first took note of the wall’s wide appeal in the 19th century, following its engagement in relations with other Asian and European countries. Travelers and merchants returned to their home countries with stories they translated into art and print, creating an enchantment with the Great Wall that helped spark Chinese appreciation for the structure.

10. People have been exaggerating for centuries about the wall’s visibility from space.

Despite numerous accounts to the contrary, the Great Wall of China’s reputation for extraterrestrial visibility stands strong to this day. One good sign that this claim is specious lies in the fact that it dates back two centuries before humankind mastered space travel. English scholar William Stukeley outlined the idea in his Family Memoirs , written in 1754. The myth got a boost from journalist Henry Norman’s 1895 book The Peoples and Politics of the Far East , as well as a 1932 Ripley’s Believe It or Not! cartoon strip. More reliable sources—astronaut Neil Armstrong among them—assert that the Great Wall is by no means visible from the moon , much less outer space. At best, the wall can be spotted from a low orbit, sunlight and weather permitting.

11. Thousands of miles of the original wall have disappeared.

Today, the surviving elements of the Great Wall of China stretch to a whopping 13,171 miles. Impressive though the measurement may be, it’s quite a decrease from what is believed to be the wall’s peak length during the Ming dynasty. More than 1200 miles’ worth, or approximately one third , of the construction from this period no longer stands.

12. Pieces of the Great Wall of China were recycled to build civilian homes in the 1960s and ’70s. 

During the 20th century sociopolitical movement known as Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government did quite a bit of damage to the Great Wall. Mao Zedong and the Red Guard recognized the wall as little more than a relic whose materials would better serve in the development of housing. Between 1966 and 1976, miles of the wall were stripped of bricks and repurposed to build civilian homes. 

13. Certain standing portions of the Great Wall of China might vanish before 2040.

Predictions about the Great Wall’s fortitude have grown increasingly dire during the 21st century. Natural weathering and human-imparted erosion may result in the disappearance of certain parts of the wall before 2040. Portions of the wall in the Gansu province are thought to be in particular jeopardy. 

14. New sections of the Great Wall of China are still being discovered.

Previously unknown stretches of the Great Wall have been discovered in recent decades . In the past 10 years, archaeologists have located some of the wall's northernmost sections standing in and on the border of present-day Mongolia. 

15. The Great Wall of China goes by many names around the world.

“The Great Wall of China” is a nickname commonly used by Americans, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, while other Western nations prefer a humbler designation: “The Chinese Wall.” Within China, the wall has known a number of monikers, having been introduced in its inceptive days as “The 10,000-Li-Long Wall” (according to the 1st century BCE publication Records of the Grand Historian ) and “The Long Wall of 10,000 Li” (in Book of Song , published during the 5th century CE), a li being a unit of measurement equivalent to about a third of a mile. Over time, the wall earned some more ostentatious handles, including “The Purple Frontier” and “The Earth Dragon.” Ultimately, China christened its human-made wonder with a simple but appropriate name: “The Long Wall.”

A version of this story was originally published in 2016; it has been updated for 2023.

Essay on Great Wall of China

Students are often asked to write an essay on Great Wall of China in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Great Wall of China

Introduction.

The Great Wall of China is a magnificent ancient structure. Built over 2000 years ago, it stretches over 13,000 miles and is a symbol of China’s rich history.

Why was it built?

The Great Wall was built primarily for defense. Chinese emperors wanted to protect their lands from invasions, especially from the northern tribes.

Construction

Building the Great Wall was a massive task. Millions of workers used local materials like stone, wood, and earth to construct it.

Significance Today

Today, the Great Wall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It attracts millions of tourists and is a symbol of Chinese ingenuity and resilience.

250 Words Essay on Great Wall of China

The great wall of china: an architectural marvel.

The Great Wall of China, an enduring symbol of human tenacity, represents a pinnacle of ancient defensive architecture. Its construction, spanning several dynasties, is a testament to the strategic foresight and engineering prowess of its builders.

Historical Significance

The Wall was primarily built to protect the Chinese empire from northern invasions. It served as a physical barrier, but also a psychological deterrent, showcasing the might of the empire. The Wall’s historical significance is further underscored by its role in trade regulation, as it facilitated the Silk Road commerce.

Architectural Ingenuity

The Wall’s architectural ingenuity is evident in its adaptation to the diverse topography of China. It traverses rugged mountains, vast deserts, and dense forests, demonstrating the builders’ advanced understanding of engineering and construction techniques. The beacon towers, an integral part of the Wall, served as communication hubs, illustrating a sophisticated early warning system.

Cultural Symbolism

Over time, the Great Wall has transcended its original purpose, becoming a symbol of national identity and unity. It embodies the spirit of perseverance and resilience, qualities that are deeply ingrained in Chinese culture.

Preservation and Challenges

Despite its robust construction, the Wall faces preservation challenges due to natural erosion and human activities. Its preservation is crucial not only for historical reasons but also for its value as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major tourist attraction.

500 Words Essay on Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China, a monumental feat of ancient defensive architecture, stands as a testament to human ingenuity and resilience. Its construction spans several dynasties, reflecting the evolution of architectural techniques and strategic thinking over the centuries.

Historical Overview

The origins of the Great Wall can be traced back to the 7th century BC. During this period, separate walls were constructed by different states to protect their territories from invasions. It was Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, who initiated the project of joining these walls into a unified defense system in the 3rd century BC. The Wall underwent several enhancements and extensions under different dynasties, notably the Han, the Northern Qi, and the Ming.

Architectural Marvel

Symbolic significance.

Beyond its practical military purpose, the Great Wall has a profound symbolic significance. It embodies the Chinese people’s spirit of perseverance and their ability to unite for a common cause. The Wall stands as a symbol of national identity and cultural heritage, reflecting the civilization’s rich history and its enduring strength.

Modern Relevance

Today, the Great Wall serves as a major tourist attraction, offering insights into China’s past and its architectural prowess. However, it is also facing challenges due to natural erosion and human activities. Conservation efforts are underway to preserve this iconic structure for future generations.

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Short Essay on the Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is the top ten new wonders of the world 2012. Located in China it stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Lake in the west. The entire wall is about 21,000 km long. The main part of the wall is 2,500 miles long and stretches through all sorts of mountains. The wall is thirty feet high and twenty-five feet thick at its base.

The Huns and barbarians had no farming land and they used to entre china and killed and invade the people for food and wealth. The wall was constructed to protect China and its people from Huns and barbarians and also restrict the entry of invaders coming from the Silk Road.

“There in the mist, enormous, majestic, silent and terrible, stood the Great Wall of China. Solitarily, with the indifference of nature herself, it crept up the mountain side and slipped down to the depth of the valley.” – W. Somerset Maugham

The construction of the wall started during the Qin dynasty at 221 BC. The emperor Qin Shih Huang aimed at protecting china from invaders who regularly attacked Chinese farming villages. The Great wall surrounded the central part of China, which was the most important part of China.

It took more than hundred years in completing The Great Wall. The wall started deteriorating with the passage of time because of natural disasters, strong winds dusts and storms. It was constructed again in the 15th century by Emperor Meng Tien.

Many people died during the construction of the wall, people who constructed the wall were treated inhumanly and were not even allowed to take rest during the construction of the wall. It is said that their bodies were sealed inside the Great Wall of China.

There are many stories related to the people who constructed the wall. This is the reason Many people feels that the Great Wall of China did more harm to china than gain because the construction of this wall not only results in deaths of the people, building and it also restricted people to entre China through Silk Road. Silk Road was an important road for traveling and for trading purposes.

The Great Wall of China is an amazing work of mankind of all time.This Wall showcases Chinese expertise, their strength and hard work. It is the only man made structure visible from the outer space to the astronauts.

More than twenty dynasty of china was involved in the construction of the wall.This wall has attracted many tourists from all over the world, every year thousands of people from all age of life young and old, comes to China to see The Great Wall of China.

It is great Chinese symbol. For some it is the symbol of protection as it protected China from the nearby invaders and for some it is a symbol of ancient Chinese history.

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The great wall of china: construction of the world’s largest project ever undertaken.

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The Great Wall of China is an approximately 21,196 km long series of several walls constructed across northern China with an objective to protect the region from its enemy forces. These walls were built on difficult terrains such as mountain ridges and passes, rivers, and deserts to thwart the intrusion attempts into the mainland China.

Along with the walls, Chinese rulers constructed a number of tall towers at suitable places. The towers were guarded to keep an eye towards the northern plain and were used to send alerts by lightning a fire in case of attacks. The smoke would be seen by soldiers posted farther along the wall and would alert them to be prepared for the impending attack.

Most of the walls were constructed and destroyed for 2000 years. Chinese rulers used to construct and destroy walls at different places for several reasons. Therefore, the earlier walls have collapsed but a stone wall constructed by the last dynasty of China (Ming dynasty) still exists.

Chinese builders and rulers used to call these walls as Changcheng (meaning "long wall"). Some of the rulers even used to call them as border walls or frontier walls. However, the American and European visitors started calling them the great wall.

1. History of the Great Wall of China

The following points describe the history of the Great Wall of China:

• In ancient times, the Chinese used to build walls around their houses, villages, and towns for protection.
• Back then, China was divided into different factions. These regions used to be in conflict with each other and the ruler of each region used to build walls to protect their area.
• Early walls were made of packed gravels. Rulers used to build such walls for temporary protection.
• However, in 221 BCE, Qin Shihuang united all the regions and became the first emperor of united China. He wanted to protect China from northern enemies (known as Nomadic people). Therefore, he ordered to construct the first-ever long wall of China. This wall was made by connecting the existing gravel walls, by repairing them and building new walls where required. The first great wall, Qin Wall, took around ten years for construction.
• A number of rulers reigned and died while fighting against the nomadic people, but the construction of the walls continued for years.
• Later on, during the rule of Ming dynasty, the construction of the wall reached its peak. Significant sections of stones and bricks were used to construct the walls during the Ming regime.
• At present, most of the visible portion of China's great wall was constructed during the rule of the Ming dynasty.

2. Location of the Great Wall of China

The location for construction of the wall was not predetermined. When northern enemies attacked one area, the Chinese rulers used to build the wall at that place. Later, the northern enemies would find a different location to attack from, which made the Chinese build more walls.

Sections built across deserts and plains are tall and wide, while the wall is narrow and shorter in the mountains. Across flatlands, the wall is straight and for other stretches, it is twisted and turned to follow the hills.

3. Materials Used in Construction

The following points describe the materials used during the construction of the Great Wall of China:

• Before the Qin walls, the rulers of different regions used locally available materials and local building methods to construct the wall.
• During the construction of Qin walls, indigenous people were forced to work as labor and were coerced to dig the ground by hands. This excavated earth was then mixed with the gravel, twigs, and tree plants.
• Clay, wood, and stones were used as facing material for the wall construction.
• The supply of materials was provided by hand, on the backs of animals, and via carts pulled by animals.
• During the construction of Ming walls, bricks were first used as a building material for the walls.
• Bricks were formed by mixing the earth and water. The mixture was baked in a small kiln constructed near to the walls.
• For the construction of the Ming wall, they used a different mortar, which was made up of sticky rice flour. This mortar was so strong that the wall has stood firm even after 600 years.
• Over steep and dangerous mountain passes, they used to form human chains and passed bricks from one to another. In winters, they splashed water on the ground to facilitate the movement of stone blocks along the icy roads.

4. Construction Methodology of the Great Wall of China

The construction of the walls is divided into two parts. The first one is the walls constructed during the Qin dynasty, and second, the walls constructed during the Ming dynasty.

4.1 Construction of Walls During Qin dynasty

Hangtu method was used for the construction of the wall during the Qin dynasty. Hangtu means the tamping (hang) of earth (tu) layer by layer until the wall becomes solid. Hangtu walls were easy to construct in a plain area. Though, in the mountainous area, stones were used in place of earth to give more rigidity to walls. In these areas, labors used to cut the stones from the mountains in the vicinity and used it for the construction of walls.

4.1.1 Construction Methodology

The following points describe the Hangtu method used during the construction of Qin Walls:

• Firstly, workers made the framework for the construction of the walls using wood.
• After that, the workers poured the layer of earth inside the framework.
• Then the layer of earth was tamped using wooden poles with stone filling at the end. Process of pouring and tamping continued till the wall reached the desired height.
• Following this, they removed the wooden frameworks and used them for the next section of the wall. This process was continued till the desired end of the wall was reached.

4.2 Construction of Walls During Ming dynasty

In the initial years of the rule of the Ming dynasty, the workers continued to construct the walls using the Hangtu method.

After 1500 CE, northern enemies (Mongol nomads) started to settle along the borders of China. With time, their numbers grew around the borders, making them wanting to trade for food and other goods. However, Ming dynasty rulers didn’t want to establish any relationship with the Mongols, due to which the Mongols launched an attack on the Chinese.

The Mongolian army was much powerful than the Chinese army. Hence, this war went on for decades. Finally, the Chinese decided to build another long wall to protect the entire border. This time, they wanted to construct stronger walls than before.

4.2.1 Construction Methodology

The following points describe the construction method used during the Ming dynasty:

• The basic plan of construction was the same as the Hangtu method. However, the workers used stone and bricks instead of wooden frames and earth.
• For the construction of high walls, a solid foundation was needed. Therefore, to provide a solid foundation, workers dug two parallel trenches of around 2 feet deep. They then filled the trenches with the stones.
• After that, they used the bricks to construct the wall on top of the two trenches. The gap between the two walls was filled with rubble and earth.
• The top of the wall was covered by a brick layer so that a road could be created over it.
• Builders also provided the drainage system such that the system funneled the rainwater away from the wall.
• The Ming wall base was wider and the wall tapered as it was reaching the top. Most of the walls had a bottom base of around 6 feet and top base of around 5 feet.
• The road along the top of the wall was wide enough to allow soldiers and horses to travel.
• Crenellated battlements of 7 feet height were constructed on top of the wall. Battlements were the crucial features in structures designed for defense.
• The height of Ming walls was kept around 23 to 26 feet on open ground, whereas in the mountainous regions, the wall height was limited to a few feet. Some stretches in the mountains are so steep that the wall looks like a stairway to the sky.

No, the Great Wall of China is composed of a series of walls. These walls were built from approximately 470 BCE to 1670 CE.

The exact length of the Great Wall of China is not known. It may never be known as many parts of the wall have vanished over time. Also, it is not one continuous wall. In 2012, China announced that the official length of the wall is 21,196.2 km. This distance would cover the United States almost five times.

These walls are mainly located across northern China.

The Chinese ruler constructed the walls to block raids by northern enemies (known as nomads).

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Great Wall of China

Workers constructed several different walls in northern China and southern Mongolia beginning in the 600s bce . Some of the walls run parallel to each other. In the 200s bce the Chinese joined some of the sections together to make one long wall. Since that time the wall has been extended and rebuilt many times. The main wall that exists today winds across the Chinese countryside for some 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers).

The Chinese stopped using the wall for protection in the mid-1600s. The wall fell into ruin, but in the 1900s parts of it were rebuilt. The Great Wall was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

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The Great Wall of China, Essay Example

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Japanese Art Ukiyo-E

The ukiyo-e was acknowledged as an artistic style that depicted paintings of the floating world. The ukiyo-e was a style of Japanese art that applied thick wooden blocks in order to demonstrate entertainment, historical occurrences and landscapes. The artwork was in favor in Edo during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Utagawa Hiroshige had been a Japanese artist who specialized in ukiyo-e art. He lived from 1797 – 1858. Hiroshige had been one of the last artists that was able to perpetuate the tradition of Japanese block art. In the Edo era there had been a significant interest in traveling to other lands (Hiroshige 7; Forrer 21).

The concepts of foreign lands enabled Hiroshige to become inspired with his art. The details of Tokyo are still applied in the Japanese block art due to the premise that not much of the landscapes have been modified since the Hiroshige block wood drawings. Artists who included Ivan Bilibin of Russia and Vincent van Gogh were inspired by Hiroshige’s depictions on the block forms. One of the most well-known works that had been created by Hiroshige is the One Hundred different Views of Edo. The depictions of the entertainment rooms were interesting due to the extensive attention to detail that is emphasized in his art. Hiroshige detailed the social distinctions between Japanese women in his block wood art. The geisha were attired in a certain manner and the regular ladies and housewives would be attired in other attire. All of Hiroshige’s art depict peace without aggression (Hiroshige 9; Forrer 25).

Hiroshige demonstrated his ability to paint impressionist paintings with his paintings that depicted thirty six different angles of Mount Fuji. The colors that had been applied by Hiroshige were more vivid than the colors that were applied in art in Europe (Hiroshige 11; Forrer 31). Hiroshige was a master of demonstrating the distinctions of social class in Japan. This is evident in his art work. Hiroshige went to substantial detail in order to ensure that the Geisha engaged in all types of pleasuring activities as a form of making a living and maintaining their social status in Japanese society. Hiroshige went to such detail that he would demonstrated the blush in the facial expression of the Geisha when they were resting or entertaining in one of the entertainment rooms (Hiroshige 7; Forrer 21).

Hiroshige differentiated the women who were geisha from the women who were not geisha by the attire. The women who were mothers and housewives are depicted as having their bow on the back of their dress. The women who are purported to be geisha would have the bow fastened to the front of their dress. In addition, he would show the women who were geisha with more subtle distinctions. These distinctions would include having the robe open slightly. This would infer that the women were engaged in a pleasuring activity. The robe would not be demonstrated wide open, the robe would be opened slightly and flushed with colors of red in order to create an image in the observers’ imagination. Hiroshige demonstrated that the people who were in the privileged classes always dressed with an extensive amount of clothing. The women who were peasants and farmers would attire themselves in less clothing that would have less emphasis on the brightness of the colors.  Hiroshige helped to perpetuate the legacy of Japanese block art (Hiroshige 12; Forrer 26).

Great Wall of China

The architectural wonder that will be explored is the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China is acknowledged as the Long wall of the ten thousand li. It is one of the defensive fortifications that was constructed in order to defend the middle kingdom of China from the barbarians.

The Great Wall of China was initiated during the Chunqiu period that ranged from 722 – 441 B.C.E. A substantial amount of the Great wall was constructed during the period of the Warring States (453- 221 B.C.E.)(Du Temple 16; O’ Neill 55).

These eras required the building of the Great Wall due to the attribute of being period of extensive struggle between seven Chinese dynasties for the Control of the middle kingdom China. The building of some of the walls can be attributed to the conflicts that were had with the feudal lords. The section of the Great Wall that was constructed in 408 B.C. E. in order to provide defense to the Wei from the Qin. Many of the vestiges which were preserved in central China were built many years before the Great wall. The Yan and the Zhao constructed the Great Wall against the barbarians in the years 300 B.C. E. eighty years later, Qin Shi Huang, the patriarch of the Empire that would endure for ten thousand generations, committed to the endeavor of restoring and creating the connection of the divided sections of the Great Wall which had been constructed in 300 B. C. E (Du Temple 17; O’ Neill 17).

Qin Shi Huang also connected the other parts of the wall that extended from the Lanzhou to the valley of Huanghe. The Great Wall of China was the primary fortification that had been built during that era.  In the reign of the Han dynasty, the Great Wall of China was extended from 3700 miles from the Bohai Sea to Dunhuang. The assault by the Turks, Mongols and Tunguz caused the Great Wall of China to be a necessity in addition to a thing of architectural splendor (Du Temple 18; O’ Neill 44).

Subsequent to the collapse of the Han dynasty, the Great Wall of China entered into a medieval phase. The endeavors of maintenance and construction were stopped and were only performed occasionally. The great wall had a garrison of one hundred and eighty thousand Chinese troops that were stationed on the command depots along the Gansu. Additional work was performed on the Great Wall during the fifth to seventh century A.D. In that era, China had developed such a military force that there had been no longer a need to construct defensive fortifications Du (Temple 16; O’ Neill 55).

This perception continued for almost one thousand years. When the Ming emperors ascended to power and required expelling the Mongols in the era that spanned between (1368 -1644 A.D) the long lost tradition that had been initiated by Qin Shi Huang was reinitiated. In the era of the Ming dynasty, more than three thousand five hundred miles of reinforced walls were built. The stones that were used were extremely fitted. The Great Wall become guarded by twenty five thousand deports and 15, 000 military outposts. The roads that were atop the Great Wall of China caused the movement of troops to be extremely efficient or during the times of peace, the Great wall facilitated the transmission of communication. The Great Wall of China is the only architectural wonder of the world that can be clearly identified from space (Turnbull 5).

Works Cited

Du Temple, Lesley. The Great Wall of China . Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publishing Company, 2002. Print.

Hiroshige, And? & Chris Uhlenbeck. Hiroshige: Shaping the image of Japan . Leiden, Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2008. Print.

Forrer, Mathi. Hiroshige: prints and drawings . Leiden, Netherlands: Prestel, 2011. Print

O’ Neill, Joseph R. The Great Wall of China . Edina, MN: ABDO Publishing Company, 2009. Print.

Turnbull, Stephen. The Great Wall of China 221 BC – AD 1644 . New York, NY: Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2007. Print.

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Great Wall of China 'Severely Damaged' by Workers — What Happened

Police received the report of the damage on Aug. 24 and the alleged suspects were detained.

A section of the Great Wall in China was severely damaged after construction workers dug out a large gap as a shortcut to get their equipment through.

The wall was “severely damaged” after a man and woman widened a pre-existing gap in the ancient wall to move their excavator to a nearby construction site in an effort to save time, according to a statement from the police department in Youyu County, as per The New York Times . Police said this caused “irreversible damage to the integrity” of the wall. 

The Great Wall of China stretches across China’s northern border with a history that dates back more than 2,000 years. In 1987, the beloved wall was listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO .

The section that was damaged sits near the township of Yangqianhe.

Most of what remains of the Great Wall of China for travelers to see today was built during the Ming dynasty between 1368 AD and 1644 AD. The wall, which is more of a series of walls and fortifications rather than one continuous wall, was originally built as a wartime defense.

Today, many travelers flock to the man-made wonder as an easy day trip from Beijing.

Getting to China just got a lot easier as well since the country dropped its mandatory COVID-19 testing for incoming travelers last month. China first eased international travel rules in March , but previously required travelers to take a COVID-19 test before their departure.

However, the U.S. Department of State still warns against visiting the country, issuing a “Level 3” travel alert and urging Americans to “reconsider travel to Mainland China due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions.”

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2 People Dug 'Shortcut' Through Great Wall of China?

Police said the incident resulted in "irreversible damage" to the great wall., taija perrycook, published sept. 1, 2024.

About this rating

In 2023, images of severe damage to the Great Wall of China went viral on both Reddit and TikTok . Multiple media outlets, including CNN , NBC , the BBC , Smithsonian Magazine , and Vice also reported that two people used an excavator to create a path through the more than 13,000 mile-long relic of the Ming Dynasty.

One Reddit post gained more than 65,000 upvotes. " Be nice AI is still a baby," one of the top comments read.

In the Shanxi region of China, two people drilled a hole in the Great Wall of China "to make a shortcut". by u/esberat in Damnthatsinteresting

However, we looked into the claim and found that the images were authentic, meaning they were not AI-generated or otherwise digitally altered. The photos originated from the official police report posted to Chinese social media platform Weixin – also known as WeChat.

The police report, posted the Youyu County Public Security Bureau, confirmed that two suspects – a 38-year-old male and a 55-year-old female) – used an excavator to create a shortcut through the Great Wall, "causing irreversible damage to the integrity of the Ming Great Wall and the safety of cultural relics."

According to Google Translate, the full report was as follows:

The Thirty-two Great Walls in Youyu County is a section of the Ming Great Wall. It is named after the 32nd beacon tower where the Ming Great Wall enters Youyu. The existing border walls and beacon towers are relatively intact. It is a provincial cultural relic protection unit and is well-known for its majestic and vast ancient frontier style. It has important protection and research value.   However, part of the Great Wall has been severely damaged in recent days. August 24At around 4:20 p.m., the command center of the county public security bureau received a report that a gap had been dug in the Thirty-Two Great Walls in Yangqianhe Township.   After receiving the alarm, the Criminal Investigation Brigade rushed to the scene. After checking the traces on the scene, the police initially determined that the ancient Great Wall was damaged by excavation by large machinery. Subsequently, the police patrolled and tracked the area and found an excavator and a man and a woman in the neighboring county of Horqin. After questioning on the scene, it was found that the ancient Great Wall was destroyed by the two people. The police summoned the two people back to the county public security bureau for further investigation. Upon investigation, it was found that the suspects Zheng (male, 38 years old, from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia) and Wang (female, 55 years old, from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia) used an excavator to dig a large gap in the original gap of the ancient Great Wall to save distance during construction near the Thirty-two Great Walls, so that the excavator could pass through the gap, causing irreversible damage to the integrity of the Ming Great Wall and the safety of cultural relics.   At present, the two suspects have been criminally detained according to law and the case is under further investigation.

The report included both pictures included on the viral Reddit post, and an additional photo of the police officers standing on either side of the two suspects; the police blurred their faces to protect their identity.

(Youyu County Public Security Bureau)

State-owned news outlet China Daily reported that the police charged the two with destroying a cultural relic.

In sum, because the Youyu County Public Security Bureau posted the viral photos, confirmed the details of the damaged section of the Great Wall, and charged two people with the damage, we rate this claim "True."

China's Great Wall Damaged by Workers Looking for Shortcut . 5 Sept. 2023. www.bbc.com , https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-66714547.

Gan, Mengchen Zhang, Nectar. 'Two People Detained in China for Allegedly Damaging Great Wall with Excavator'. CNN , 4 Sept. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/04/china/china-great-wall-damage-excavator-intl/index.html.

Great Wall of China | Definition, History, Length, Map, Location, & Facts | Britannica . 27 Aug. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Wall-of-China.

'Great Wall of China "Irreversibly" Damaged by People Looking for Shortcut'. VICE , 5 Sept. 2023, https://www.vice.com/en/article/great-wall-of-china-damaged-by-people-looking-for-shortcut/.

Magazine, Smithsonian, and Sarah Kuta. 'Construction Workers Plow a Shortcut Through the Great Wall of China'. Smithsonian Magazine , https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/construction-workers-cause-irreversible-damage-to-great-wall-of-china-180982876/. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

TikTok - Make Your Day . https://www.tiktok.com/@abcnewsaus/video/7275566210459241735?_r=1&_t=8pDw8KCYAiV. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

- YouTube . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2N_NDyMYlw. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

办公室. '【夏季行动】三十二明长城被人挖出缺口 右玉刑侦当天破案'. Weixin Official Accounts Platform , https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/PNWdmbZXS7esmGQiUZqurw. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

王晗. Excavator Used to Damage Section of Great Wall, Two People Detained . https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202309/04/WS64f5a6aca310d2dce4bb3d00.html. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.

By Taija PerryCook

Taija PerryCook is a Seattle-based journalist who previously worked for the PNW news site Crosscut and the Jordan Times in Amman.

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