WONDER STRUCTURE
JANUARY 18, 2022
The Great Wall Of China : One Place To Visit Before You Die
The Great Wall of China : one place to visit before you die. A site where you can witness the true wonder of man made structure.
The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications built across the northern borders of ancient Chinese states to protect against violent enemies from the Eurasian Steppe. The structure is actually a collection of many walls.
For hundred of years, the Great Wall has been built and rebuilt for three main purposes including kingdom border defenses, to protect China’s northern border and today for tourism.
The part that was built by the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) is the most favorite part by tourists. Its 8.850 kilometers (5.500 miles) length was indeed built to defend China from the Mongols invasion. This section is the only part of the wall that are still in good condition. But 30% of this Ming era Great Wall has disappeared due to nature causes and human activities.
The Great Wall is famous as one of the seven construction wonders in the world for not just its long history but also for its massive size and its unique architectural style as well. It begins in the east at Shanhaiguan (Shanhai Pass) in Hebei province and ends at Jiayuguan (Jiayu Pass) in modern Gansu province to the west.
In total the wall is 21.196 kilometers long, spanning in the west from Huashan Mountain and to Liaoning in the east. The wall crosses over ten provinces and cities including Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, and Liaoning. With this kind of distance it would take around 18 months to walk its length from one point to another end.
The wall that ends in ocean is located in Shanhaiguan District of Qinhuangdao, Hebei and is nearly 300 kilometers (190 miles) east of Beijing. It is where the Great Wall ends to the east and leads into the Bohai Sea.
In average, the height of the Great Wall is 5-8 meters (16-26 feet). It was designed to be at least three times the height of a man to make it difficult to get through the wall. Some wall even built along the ridges hence makes it looks taller.
The unity of the wall started around 220 BC when the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang united China. He initiated and designed the process of uniting the existing wall into one giant structure.
In Qin Dynasty era alone, Emperor Qin Shi Huang sent about 300.000 soldiers and 500.000 people to the construction sites. It was estimated around 20% of the country’s population at the time or almost one million people. In 446, during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) about 100.000 people were taken to the construction site.
According to the History Channel there are dead bodies inside the Great Wall. Many labor force during construction consisted of peasants, slaves, convicts and other people that the emperor decided to punish. Soldiers were also took part in building activities and managing the workers as well. About 400.000 of them died in the process of building the wall and many were buried inside of it.
The first complete Great Wall was linked together around 221 BC, the Qin dynasty connected together and expanded the existing walls that were built by prior kingdoms.
How does the Great Wall still standing for thousand years ? Turns out that the secret of the strength and longevity lies in the sticky rice that was used as its mortar. Chinese scientists have found that the inorganic component is calcium carbonate and the organic component is amylopectin. It comes from the sticky rice soup that added to the mortar.
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