Great Wall of China
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.:This article discusses the man-made structure. For the largest known super-structure in the universe, see Great Wall (astronomy).
The Great Wall of China (Traditional Chinese: 長城; Simplified Chinese: 长城; pinyin: Chángchéng), also known in China as the Great Wall of 10,000 Li¹ (Traditional Chinese: 萬里長城; Simplified Chinese: 万里长城; pinyin: Wànlĭ Chángchéng), is an ancient Chinese fortification built from the end of the 14th century until the beginning of the 17th century, during the Ming Dynasty, in order to protect China from raids by the Mongols and Turkic tribes. It was preceded by several walls built since the 3rd century BC against the raids of nomadic tribes coming from areas now in modern day Mongolia and Manchuria. The Wall stretches over a formidable 6,350 km (3,946 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 (refer to University of Washington: A. The Main Caravan Routes (b) The “Central Route” or “Middle Route.”). Image:GreatWallNearBeijingWinter.jpg
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History
A defensive wall on the northern border was built and maintained by several dynasties at different times in Chinese history. There have been four major walls: Image:Map of canal and wall.gif
- 208 BC (Qin Dynasty)
- 1st century BC (Han Dynasty)
- 1138 - 1198 (Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period)
- 1368-1620 (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. It was located much further north than the current Great Wall, and very little remains of it. The great wall of china is full of poop
The Great Wall seen today was built during the Ming Dynasty, on a much larger scale and 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 not to keep out people, who could climb the wall, but make it difficult for semi-nomadic people outside the wall to cross 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 (嘉峪关), 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 (烽火台 fēng huǒ tái) 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 they took three days for the Manchu armies to pass. After they conquered China, the Wall was of no strategic value as the people whom 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 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". Their bodies were not entombed in the wall, however. A body buried in the wall would have weakened its structure, so workers were buried nearby instead.
Condition
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 bulldozed because the Wall is in the way of construction projects. Intact or repaired portions of the Wall near developed tourist areas are plagued with persistent and even obnoxious hawkers of tourist kitsch and fake Rolex watches.Walls
Significant passes (Traditional Chinese: 關口; Simplified Chinese: 关口; pinyin: guān kǒu) include:- Shānhǎi Pass (Shanhaiguan) (山海關)
- Jiayu Pass (嘉峪关),
- Jūyōng Pass (居庸關)
- Niángzi Pass (娘子關)
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 glutinous rice and eggwhite.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.
Specialized defense weapons
In addition to the usual military weapons of the period, specialized wall defense weapons were used.Reproductions of weapons are displayed at the wall!
Recognition
Image:GWC Herbert Ponting.jpg The Wall is included in lists of the "Seven Medieval Wonders of the World" but was of course not one of the classical Seven Wonders of the World recognized by the ancient Greeks.
The Wall was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
The Chinese have a saying, 不到长城非好汉 bú dào Chángchéng fēi hǎo hàn, roughly meaning "you're not a real man if you haven't climbed the Great Wall".
There is a longstanding disagreement about how visible the wall is in space. The notion of its visibility from outer space greatly predates manned space flight.
Legend says the First Emperor (Qin Shi Huang) once dreamed his soul traveled to the moon. From here, he was dismayed to see his entire kingdom amounted to nothing more than a tiny dot. The story says at that moment he decided to build a mighty wall stretching along his kingdom's northern border and beyond, in hopes of expanding his kingdom (and its wall) to the point of visibility even from the moon.
Richard Halliburton's 1938 book Second Book of Marvels said the Great Wall is the only man-made object visible from the moon, and a "Ripley's Believe It or Not" cartoon from the same decade makes a similar claim. This myth has persisted, assuming urban legend status, sometimes even entering school textbooks. Arthur Waldron, author of the single most authoritative history of the Great Wall written in any language, has speculated that the myth of the Great Wall's visibility from outer space might go all the way back to the fascination with the "canals" some people during the late nineteenth century believed to exist on Mars. (The logic was strange and simple: If Earthlings can see the Martians' canals, the Martians might be able to see the Great Wall.) But in fact, the Great Wall simply cannot be seen by the unaided eye from the distance of the moon, much less that of Mars. Even its visibility from near-earth orbit is questionable. And, in any case, it is not any more visible than many other man-made objects.
One shuttle astronaut reported that "we can see things as small as airport runways [but] the Great Wall is almost invisible from only 180 miles (290 km) up." Astronaut William Pogue thought he had seen it from Skylab but discovered he was actually looking at the Grand Canal near Beijing. He spotted the Great Wall with binoculars, but said that "it wasn't visible to the unaided eye." An Apollo astronaut said no human structures were visible at a distance of a few thousand miles. U.S Senator Jake Garn claimed to be able to see the Great Wall with the naked eye from a space shuttle orbit in the early 1980s, but his claim has been disputed by several professional U.S. astronauts. Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei said he couldn't see it at all.
From low-earth orbit, about a thousand times nearer than the moon, it may be visible under favorable conditions. Features on the moon that are dramatically visible at times can be undetectable on others, due to changes in lighting direction. The Great Wall is only a few meters wide — sized similar to highways and airport runways — and is about the same color as the soil surrounding it.
Veteran U.S. astronaut Gene Cernan has stated: "At Earth orbit of 160 km to 320 km high, the Great Wall of China is, indeed, visible to the naked eye." Ed Lu, Expedition 7 Science Officer aboard the International Space Station, adds that, "...it's less visible than a lot of other objects. And you have to know where to look."
Leroy Chiao, a Chinese-American astronaut, took a photograph from the International Space Station that shows the wall. It was so indistinct that the photographer was not certain he had actually captured it. Based on the photograph, the state-run China Daily newspaper concluded that the Great Wall can be seen from space with the naked eye, under favorable viewing conditions, if one knows exactly where to look. ([1]) Image:Great Wall of China.jpeg
See also
Further reading
Roland Michaud (Photographer), Sabrina Michaud (Photographer), Michel Jan, The Great Wall of China (2001) ISBN 0789207362
Arthur Waldron, The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1990.
External links
- Great Wall of China
- Pictures of Great Wall of China
- Great Wall Hiking
- CBC.ca News: "Great Wall invisible from space": Chinese astronaut
- Snopes urban legend site Great Wall's lack of visibility from space
- Great Wall of China & Volunteer of Great Wall
- Great Wall of China
- Map of Great Wall
Notes
¹ 10,000 li = 5,760 km. (3,580 miles). In Chinese, 10,000 figuratively means "infinite", and the number should not be interpreted for its actual value, but rather as meaning the "infinitely long wall".
