China 4
China 4I. GREAT WALL OF CHINA.
The biggest man made structure ever built, is the Great Wall Of China. The Great Wall Of China is a wall that was built during the Chin dynasty. The Emperor during the Qin dynasty, Qin Shihuangdi, gave the order to build the wall. Parts of the enormous structure date back to the 4th century BC., but the earliest major work on the wall came during the Ch'in Dynasty, which lasted from 221 to 206 BC. The Great Wall Of China stretches about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from Bo Hai, a gulf off the Yellow Sea in the east, to a point deep in Gansu province in the west. The wall was origanally 6,000 miles ,but because of erosion and thievery the wall's length has shortened down to 1,500 miles.
In about 214 BC, the emperor Shih Huang Ti ordered the different parts of the wall to be
connected. The emperor Shi Huang united the different parts of China into one country and ordered the existing sections of the wall to be connected to form one long wall as a protection against invading nomads, or wandering tribes, from the north. The nomads he was especially concerned about were the Hsiung-nu, sometimes thought to be forebears of the Huns. One reason the Great Wall was built was to keep Chinese farmers from leaving their farms,and the second reason was for protection. The wall helped in wars because it provided square stone windows ,which let the soldiers in the wall, fire there weapons at invaders. But sometimes the wall didn't help ,because invaders went around it,or over it.
The wall is simple in structure. It is built of dirt, stone, and brick. Its height ranges from 15 to 30 feet (5 to 9 meters), with watchtowers rising at regular intervals above it. It is 15 to 25 feet (5 to 8 meters) wide. Along the top runs a 13-foot- (4-meter-) wide roadway. The wall took about 300,000 forced slaves and laborers to build. Behind the wall there are at intervals permanent camps for troops.
The wall's use as protection against invading nomads ended in 1644 with the collapse of the Ming Dynasty. The wall protected the people inside because it was 30 feet tall and sometimes invaders couldn't get over,but ussually they found a way. Parts of the wall fell into disrepair, but in the 20th century parts were rebuilt. Since that time the great wall has been extended, rebuilt many times, and destroyed in part. But it still stands and has become one of the major tourist attractions in the world. A new visitors' site was opened at Mutianyu, northeast of Beijing, in 1985. It shares the tourist traffic that was previously concentrated at Beading, northwest of the city.
I. THE LAND
China is one...
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