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Don't litter
  The most common way to visit The Great Wall is via Beijing as most travelers will take a trip few hours to reach one of the main entrances of this great monument. Some people hire a private driver to take the trip where as some go in group trips. If you've hired a car to the Great Wall consider venturing a bit farther into the countryside where farming villages await. Don't be surprised if the locals invite you into their homes for a rest and some tea. On you way to The Great Wall, you will most likely detect sections of the Wall miles before you arrive to the entrance but these sections are unreachable by foot; some of the sections of the Wall are hundreds of feet above the main road. Once you arrive at the main entrance, you will notice the museum that explains all the history of how The Great Wall was built; it’s worth the visit. One recommendation is that you stay hydrated before you start climbing as you will quickly realize how steep some portions of the wall are. There are some vendors placed on the wall, so you can grab something to drink on the go. There are plenty of souvenir shops that sell everything from The Great Wall t-shirts to neat gifts so leave some time to purchase some goodies for your friends back home. The Great Wall extends 4,000 km (2,480 mi) from the East China Sea west to central Asia; estimates for the combined length of the varying structures range from 10,000 km (6,200 mi) to 20,000 km (12,400 mi). The construction techniques and materials used on the Great Wall varied by location. In the Taklimakan Desert, for example, you can still find sections of the Great Wall dating to the second century BC that were made by combining twigs, straw, rice, and sand. Other sections of the wall from this period were made of rammed earth. The more substantial brick-and-earth ruins that snake across the mountains north of Beijing date from the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th centuries). The first wall built along China's northern frontier dates to the seventh century BC, but is no longer standing. The oldest surviving section of wall dates to the fifth century BC and is in modern-day Shandong province. These and other sections were built to protect China's northern kingdoms from marauding nomadic tribes, such as the Xiongnu. Over subsequent centuries, more portions of wall were built, creating a motley collection of northern borders. It was the first emperor of a unified China, Qin Shihuang (circa 259-210 bc), founder of the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC, who linked together these various fortifications into a single defense network that would protect the entire northern frontier of his massive empire. By some accounts, Qin mustered nearly a million people, or about a fifth of China's total workforce, a mobilization that claimed countless lives and gave rise to many tragic folktales. (The most famous concerns Lady Meng, a woman whose husband was kidnapped on their wedding night to build the Great Wall. She traveled to file work site to wait for his return, believing her determination would eventually bring him back. In the end, she was turned into a rock, which to this day stands at the head of the Great Wall in the beautiful seaside town of Qinhuangdao, some 48C km [300 mi] east of Beijing.) Later dynasties repaired existing walls or built new ones. The Ming Dynasty, which took power in 1368, committed vast resources to wall building as a defense against increasingly restive northern tribe; The Ming wall, which is about 26 feet to and 30 feet wide at its base, could accommodate five horsemen riding abreast on its top. It incorporated small wall-top garrisons linked by beacon towers used for sending smoke signals c setting off fireworks to warn of enemy attack. In the end, however, the wall fai e: to prevent the Manchu invasion that toppled the Ming in 1644. | |
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Article Contributors Dale updated 1 year ago Anonymous user updated 1 year ago Anonymous user updated 1 year ago |
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