ENGLISH ARTICLES

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is an ancient Chinese fortification, built to protect the Empire of China since the 3rd century BC against the raids of ‘barbarians’ from Mongolia and Manchuria. The main purpose of the Wall was not to prevent people from crossing but rather to prevent them from bringing their horses.

The Wall stretches over a formidable 6,400 km, from the boundary with Korea on the Yalu River to the Gobi desert.
The Wall was built during the reign of The First Emperor, the main leader of the short-lived Qin dynasty. The Wall was not constructed as a single endeavor, but rather was created by the joining of several local walls built by the Warring States. It has been renovated and extended by several later dynasties, getting most of its current shape during the Ming Dynasty. The primary purpose of the wall was not to keep out people, who could scale the wall, but to insure that semi-nomadic people on the outside of the wall could not cross with their horses.

The Ming Dynasty Great Wall starts on the eastern end at Shanhai Pass, Qinhuangdao, in Hebei Province next to Bohai Gulf. Spanning nine provinces and 100 counties, it ends on the western end at Jiayu Pass located in northwest Gansu Province. Jiayu Pass was intended to greet travelers along the Silk Road. Even though The Great Wall ends at Jiayu Pass, there are watchtowers (extending beyond Jiayu Pass along the Silk Road. These towers communicated by smoke to signal invasion.

The Manchus crossed the Wall by convincing a crucial general Wu Sangui to open the gates of Shahai Pass and allow the Manchus to cross. Legend has it that they took three days for the Manchu armies to pass. After they conquered China, the Wall was of no strategic value as the people who the Wall was intended to keep out were ruling the country (becoming the Qing Dynasty).

The government ordered people to work on the wall, and workers were under constant danger of being attacked by brigands. Because many people died while building the wall, it is often called the “longest cemetery on Earth”.