The Great Wall is very long, it crossed more than half of China. The Great Wall is starting out in the east on the banks of the Yalu River in Liaoning Province. The Wall stretches westwards for 12,700 kilometers to Jiayuguan in the Gobi desert, thus known as the Ten Thousand Li Wall in China. The Wall climbs up and down, twists and turns along the ridges of the Yanshan and Yinshan Mountain. Chains through five provinces—Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu—and two autonomous regions--Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, binding the northern China together(China Through A Lens).Great Wall is most build cross plains, mountains, and plateaus. Parts of the Great Wall are crossed the desert. “One of the highest sections of Great Wall is on the Badaling mountain, near Beijing. This section is about 35 feet, which is about 11 meters high, the wide at its base is about 25 feet(7.6 meters) and near 20 feet (6 meters) on the top. The watchtowers stand about 100 to 200 yeads (91 to 180 meters) apart along the wall. (Kai-Wing, Chow).” Watchtowers were made for people to look out at war time, so they can know when enemies come. It is about 40 (12 meters) feet high.
Thousands of years ago, Chinses people began to build the Great Wall. The building of the Great Wall was begin as early as the 600’s BC, at that time, the Great Wall was built to protect Chinese against invaders. Qin Shi huang, Emperor of Qin dynasty is the first ruler to conceive of the Great Wall. The building continued including the Han and the Sui dynasties. When the Ming dynasty bagan in 1369, much of the Great Wall have been crumbled. Because of the growing threat of a Mongol invasion, the Ming government began to build a major wall in late 1400’s. This is most of the wall that remains today. Like the earlier one, it protected China from attacktion and it also provided defense against a major invasion. Through the years, much of the Great Wall collapsed again. And the Chinese Communist have done all the restoration works since 1949(China Through A Lens).greatwall of China
The wall is about 4,000 miles long. And it is simple in structure. The Great Wall is built out of dirt, stone, and brick.() Most of the Great Wall is carried out by humans, and a lot of people died because of the building of the Great Wall(Aladdin, Paperbacks).“Its height ranges from 15 to 30 feet, with watchtowers rising at regular intervals above it. It is 15 to 25 feet wide. Along the top runs a 13-foot-wide roadway. Behind the wall there are at intervals permanent camps for troops.”(Tim, McNeese).
Today, the Great wall has lost its strategic importance and has become a world-renowned tourist attraction.
As a cultural heritage, the Wall belongs not only to China but to the world. The Venice charter says: “Historical and cultural architecture not only includes the individual architectural works, but also the urban or rural environment that witnessed certain civilizations, significant social developments or historical events." The Great Wall is the largest of such historical and cultural architecture, and that is why it continues to be so attractive to people all over the world. In 1987, the Wall was listed by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage site.
