The Great Wall is perhaps China’s
most famous and most mythologized site. Several sections are
conveniently visited from Beijing, including at Badaling, the most
popular site, about 70 km (43 mi.) northwest of Beijing and at Mutianyu,
90 km (56 mi.) northeast of Beijing. These impressive brick and earth
structures date from the Ming dynasty, when the wall was fortified
against Mongol forces to the north. It has been built in several stages
and was at its prime time more than 8000 km long.
The Ming sections of the wall are only a
late stage in a long history, much of which has little to do with the
present structures.
The wall is most often associated with the First
Emperor of China (Qin Shi Huangdi, reigned 221- 210 BC ) , who after
unifying China by conquest undertook to link up previously existing
sections of walls belonging to conquered states, but on a course far to
the north of the present wall.
The First Emperor mobilized massive
conscripted labor forces, by some accounts up to a million strong, to
conduct this building campaign. The
wall served as a symbolic reminder of dynastic authority and also of
cultural distinction between settled agrarian culture and cities on the
Chinese side and pastoral horsemen on the other. It continues today to
serve as a marker of cultural and national identity.
Locality:
The Great Wall spans a staggering
8000km across China. The most visited sections of the wall can be found
around Beijing. Badaling and Mutianyu are the most popular sights both
of which are within 90km from Beijing.
Several sections of the Great Wall
of China, a man-made phenomenon that has become a symbol of Chinese
civilisation, can be viewed in the Beijing area. In Yanqing county in
northwest Beijing is the 600-year-old Badaling Fortification,
representative of the Ming dynasty sections of the Great Wall. Other
sections can be seen at Jinshanling, Mutianyu and Simatai.
The Great Wall, 4,000 miles
(6,350km) long, was built in stages from the 7th century BC onwards,
snaking its way across the mountains and valleys of five provinces in
northern China as a mammoth defence bulwark.
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