Why was the great wall of china built?
Why was the great wall of china built?
Why was the great wall of china built?
The Great Wall of China was built primarily to purposely drive away the Mongol nomads and barbarians away from the northern parts of the country during the Qin Dynasty in 221-206 BCE: 723 beacon towers and 7,062 lookout towers explain the reason for building this magnificent wall. It is believed that Ch'in Shih Huang Ti, the first unified emperor of China, forced approximately 1,000,000 people living inside China to initially worked with bricks and earth from wooden frames to make the first sets of walls. It is also believed that over a million people died, upon finishing the first set of the walls, in building the first Great Wall of China during the Qin Dynasty.
After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty continued the strengthening and elongation of the walls by adding layers of red willow reeds and twigs and gravels to the soils and bricks. These are much stronger than what the Qin Dynasty have built. The walls successfully served as a barrier and protection for Chinese people for many years under different dynasties. However, finally, after continuous invasion attempts, in 1215, Genghis Khan became the first Mongol to penetrate the walls and took over the Northern China for years, and later spread over most of China. This piece of history made the claim that the Mongols became the first successful rulers to invade part of China after the great wall was established. The Mongols ruled most of China until they fall in 1368, during those times, the Great Wall of China was left from construction and reconstruction.
After the Qin walls, however, several additional walls were added the following millennia by some less powerful and small dynasties, but the major construction was made under the Ming Dynasty (1388-1644 CE). The Ming Dynasty made the longest and the most concrete walls by having the product of the methods used by the preceding dynasties. The Ming Dynasty concreted the walls over the most dangerous terrains in China including those in the steepest mountains and grasslands. They made a standard measurement of the walls with 25 feet high (7.6 meters), 15 to 30 feet wide at the base (4.6 to 9.1 meters), and from 9 to 12 feet wide at the top (2.7 to 3.7 meters), with guard stations and watch towers placed at regular intervals. The Ming Wall begins at Yalujiang River, presently located Heilongjiang province, through Liaoning, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia provinces, to Gansu, reaching a total length of about 5,200 km or 2,400 miles. These are the walls we are now familiar today.
After many wars fought in and defended by The Great Wall of China under several dynasties, the walls came into rest for a long time with many reconstructions and restoration until the Japanese invasion in The Second World War. Unlike wars during ancient dynasties, the walls served not simply as a watch tower for soldiers, but several battles between Chinese and Japanese soldiers literally took place in The Great Wall of China. Several seesaw battles were fought in many passes in the walls, which ended in the defeat of underarmed Chinese soldiers.
Due to several restorations under many centuries, the walls built by dynasties before the Ming Dynasty were not visible anymore due to natural erosion and manmade activities. The walls that we can see today are those mostly built by the Ming Dynasty. In 1987, UNESCO listed The Great Wall of China as one of the world heritage sites. Today, The Great Wall of China is constantly visited by millions of tourist all over the world in a year. The first section opened to tourist and the most visited today in 1957 is the Badaling, near Beijing. It was also the portion of the great wall where the most famous Nixon visit in China landed. Since the visit of Nixon, The Great Wall of China increased its tourist visits every year, which led to more comprehensive campaigns to preserve the wonder of the world.
In 2009, recent discovery added additional 290 kilometers or 180 miles to the length of The Great Wall of China. Additional portion built by the Ming Dynasty was discovered, which is located from Hushan mountains in the northern Liaoning province to Jiayuguan in western Gansu province. It is believed that it was submerged by sandstorm in that particular area over time. Presently, selected areas of the Great Wall of China gain visitors from all over the world for purposes of sight seeing, relaxation, photo taking, hiking, and further studies regarding the past Chinese culture.
Today, with its over 2,000 years of establishment, The Great Wall of China signifies not only the history and the Chinese culture but also the strength of the country and the dedication of its people.
China - A Synopsis Of Years China-Russia Investment Opportunities Know more about import tariff China Committees Propose Making More Efforts To Support E-commerce In China NPC & CPPPC Conference New policy allows China exporters to keep their dollars Dickies first store in China ReportsnReports : China Interventional Cardiovascular Device Industry Report, 2010 To reach 1.3 billion people, you will need the best China couriers Why the Value of Your Savings Depends on China and Japan and What to Do About It Quake shakes up China's components supply The newest and safest cruises in Halong Bay Vietnam by Indochina Sails Yuelu Mountain Changsha Hunan China Travel Guide Mica mining & crushing plant supplier in China