Transcript Slide 1

Built for defense purposes, 2000 years ago.
6700 km long from the east to the west of China, the
only man-made object visible from Earth orbit.
Originally built in the periods of the Warring States as a
defensive fortification against invaders from the north
of China.
• It began as independent walls for
different states when it was first
built, and did not become the
"Great" wall until the Qin Dynasty.
• Emperor Qin Shihuang succeeded
to have the walls joined together and
extended to 10,000 li to fend off the
invasions from the Mongols in the
north after the unification of China.
• The Great Wall was renovated from time to time after the
Qin Dynasty. A major renovation started with the
founding of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and took 200
years to complete. The wall we see today is almost
exactly the result of this effort.
The Great Wall was built to prevent invasions from the North.
Historically, however, both the Mongols (Yuan 1271-1368) and the
Manchurians (Qing 1644-1911) from the north ruled China. The
Great wall did not play a military role. It has attracted thousands of
tourists from the world.
• The construction
of the Great Wall
drew heavily on
the local resources
for construction
materials.
• A great army of
manpower,
composed of
soldiers, prisoners,
and local people,
built the wall.
The Great Wall starts from Shanhaiguan Pass in the east
to Jiayuguan Pass in the west traversing provinces of
Liaoning, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner
Mongolia, Ningxia, Shanxi and Gansu.
• Shanhaiguan is a small, sleepy town
and port of the northern section of the
Bohai gulf, holding the access between
northeast China and north China. It is
in the Hebei Province.
• Shanhai Passsituated between the
Yanshan Mountains and the Bohai Sea.
• The No.1 pass of the Great Wall and
the key to the defense of two ancient
capitals - Beijing in the east and
Chang'an (Xi'an) in the west.
• The Badaling section of the
Great Wall snaking along the
mountains northwest of
Beijing was built at the
beginning of the Ming
Dynasty in the 14th century.
• Being 7.8 metres high and
5.8 metres wide at the top on
the average, it has battle forts
at important points, including
the corners.
Located 10 kilometers south of the
Badaling section of the Great Wall and
built in an 18.5-kilometre-long valley,
the pass has always been an important
gateway northwest of Beijing.
The name is believed to have its
origin in the workers and slaves
conscripted to build the Great
Wall in ancient times.
The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall
is linked to the Gubeikou section on the
east and the Badaling section on the
west. It is not far from Beijing, and is
one of the best sections of the Great
Wall.
Located in Miyun County northeast of
Beijing, the Jinshanling, like the
Simatai division, belongs to the
Gubeikou section of the colossal
defense barrier.
The battlements in the
Jinshanling are built along the
ridge of a mountain, where the
soldiers can resist the invading
enemy by taking advantage of
the high terrain.
Jiayu Pass is the first pass at the west end of the Great Wall and was
built in the Ming Dynasty. It is in the city of Jiayuguan in Gansu
Province.The walls on both sides of the pass extend across the desert
to join the mountains. It was a strategic passageway on the route to
the western regions of China.
The beacon towers on hilltops often
played a key role in military
communication in ancient war times.
Once the enemy pressed towards the
border, the signal from the beacon
tower would be sent by beacon (fires
or lanterns) during the night or by
smoke signals in the daytime.
Beautiful legends are centered on the construction
of the Great Wall. Among them the most noted is
the story about the collapse of a section of the
Great Wall caused by Meng Jiangnu's tears, which
has been spread widely in folk songs and
traditional operas.
It is said that 2,000 years ago when Qin Shihuang
(the First Emperor of the Qin) was building the
Great Wall, a young called Fan Xiliang was forced
to work on the construction of the Great Wall,
even on his wedding day.
His bride, a girl named Meng Jiangnu, waited at
home for her husband for five years but did not
hear a word from him. She set off alone to look
for Xiliang. After walking all the way on foot,
crossing mountains and rivers, Meng Jiangnu
finally got to the construction site of the Great
Wall, where she was told that her husband had
died and was buried under the Great Wall.
Hearing this sad news of the death of her beloved, she sat down
at the foot of the Great Wall and started crying. She cried day
and night, and her wailing made the wall fall.
A famous story is told about Baosi, Queen of
the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC 711 BC). She was highly honored, yet she
never cracked a smile. King You tried many
ways to put a smile on her face, but he failed
over and over again.
Guo Shifu, a treacherous court
official, came and offered advice:
"Set the beacon tower on fire and
fool your sovereign rulers."
That night, the carriage of the King and Queen reached Lishan
Mountain and gave the order. In a split second, the flames of the
fire lit up the sky and the sovereign rulers moved their troops to
Lishan Mountain.
Sure enough, Queen Baosi burst into laughter. Later, King You
repeated his joke. In 771 B.C., Quan Rong (a then ethnic group)
staged an armed rebellion against the Western Zhou dynasty.
King You urgently ordered the beacon tower set on fire, but all
the sovereign rulers did not come.