We love the Great Wall of China. It’s probably the most amazing thing we’ve seen in the year we’ve been here. That means it trumps things like the Terra Cotta Army, riding camels in the desert, Buddhist temples, and the rest. We want to share some of what we saw and experienced in our five hours on the wall.
The wall was built about 200 BC near the northern border of China. One of things we should have realized in retrospect is that the wall is built on the tops of mountains. Its purpose was to protect the China nation from Mongolian raiders.
The wall builders were combinations of soldiers and conscript laborers from local towns. I can’t even imagine bringing the building materials up the mountainside to the site of the wall. It is probably built of rammed earth, covered with stone.
It is said many workers died in the construction of the wall. A fallen worker was buried in the earth and the wall construction continued over the grave.
Guard towers are built periodically where watches are kept. There are white bricks in the doorway which mark the divisions between the areas that each guard had to watch.
Did the wall work to keep out the Mongols? A local story is told that Attila the Hun tried to cross the wall, but was repelled initially. But he found a way through. He just bribed the guards.
The Chinese, especially the kids, love to pose for pictures on the wall.
Hello up there!
Hello down there!
The wall can get quite steep in places.
After a while the wall peters out to a primitive state.
It was a hot day when we visited, but inside the guard towers, it was cool and refreshing.
Can you say “take a load off” in Chinese?
I hope you get a sense of the beauty and grandeur of this wall!
Misadventures in the Middle Kingdom 