Report by Caitlin Mewett Mids c- The Great Wall of China page: 1
The Great wall of China was an ancient gigantic defensive project. It is one of the largest construction projects ever completed. The Great Wall of China is one of the greatest wonders of the world today.
The Chinese worked on the Great Wall for over 1700 years.When it was their turn, each emperor added pieces of the wall to protect their dynasties. However the wall was not a stable wall. It was more like a line of disconnected barricades.
The first Emperor Qin wanted a much greater barricade to protect his people from the Mongol trespassers from the north. He wanted a solid wall of 30 feet wide and 50 feet high.
Emperor Qin used peasants, captured enemies, criminals, educated people, and anyone who annoyed him, and put them all to work building the first part of the Great Wall. Labourers and workers were not paid for their effort, it was a type of slave duty.
Over 3000 people worked on the wall during the time of the Qin Dynasty. Rocks fell heavily on people, the walls caved in, and workers died of exhaustion,disease and many illnesses. Labourers/workers/farmers were fed only enough food to keep them alive. It is known that there is an old Chinese saying, "Each stone in the wall represents a life lost in the wall's construction".
This plan continued long after the first Emperor Qin’s death. Building the wall was a project that went on for many hundreds of years until the wall was over 3700 miles long. Almost every emperor used the same system/process that Qin used, forced labor.
The Wall is made up of dirt, mud, stone and brick. It is roughly between 5 and 9 metres tall and up to 8 metres wide. Also being 851.8 km (5,500 miles) long. A small,narrow road runs on the top of the wall. Towers, every couple hundred metres were built to store military supplies and weapons. They were constructed of watch posts and were used to send information around. Guards fired cannonballs or used smoke signals to communicate to the other towers of possible invaders.
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Construction Period: About 2,000 years from the Warring States Period (476 BC - 221 BC) to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
The main purpose of the Great Wall was to provide an amount of protection and warning against approaching northern (and occasionally southern) invasions. The Great Wall also helped the purpose of preventing invaders from bringing horses in or stolen possessions out. The Beacons could enable the passing of messages quickly along the wall. Special weapons were developed to enable the wall to be defended against attack, copies on display on the modern day wall. The many different sections of the Great Wall of China stretches across great amounts of Northern China, as far North as our modern day Russia, as far east as our modern day Pyongyang (the capital of North Korea), and as far west as Xinjiang province in modern day China.
The Great Wall is known to be very significant from China's legendary defence line, the country's number one historic tribute and a national symbol.
Although the vast majority of the remaining sections of the Great Wall were elevated during the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall represents a collective effort of millions of people from many of China's imperial dynasties and pre-imperial states, dating back to over 2500 years ago.
Another significant feature has been how popular this attraction has gotten over the last years. Tourist come from all over the world to china to see this amazing built structure.
Each year there are a large number of people that visit the great wall of china. The total is about 4 million each year with tourists from all ages. A one day pass is $17. The great wall of china has about 3,873,000,000 bricks! and weighs about 116,190,000,000 pounds!! Thats like 8,299,285 elephants! Thats enormously heavy.
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Today, the Great wall has lost its strategic importance and has become a world-renowned tourist attraction. The labouring people of different dynasties demonstrated their intelligence and wisdom while building this great project. They left behind a precious heritage deserving our everlasting care.
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Bibliography
http://china.mrdonn.org/greatwall.html
- used website for information on 8/4/13 http://www.english-online.at/places/great-wall/great-wall-of-china-facts-history.htm -used website for information on 8/4/13 http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/facts/
-used website for information on 9/4/13 http://www.thechinaexpat.com/the-great-wall-of-china’s-purpose/ -used website for information on 9/4/13 http://wiki.answers.com/Q_How_has_the_wall_impacted_the_people_of_China_and_the_people_of_the_world#page -used website for information on 10/4/13 http://greatwallofchinaza.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/how-many-people-visit-great-wall-of.html
- used website for information on
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