The Great Wall of China is one of the seven new world wonders. This wall is one of the greatest sighs in the world. To add to that, it as well is the longest wall in the whole world and is there for one of the new world wonders.
Facts
The wall covers about the half of Northern China and is there for 21196.18 kilometres long. The Chinese name for the wall is 长城, Chángchéng channg-chnng, which stands for ‘Long Wall’. In 770-221 BC the first section of the great wall was built by a Qi State duke in the (Pre-) Warring States Period. He built the it to protect himself and to prevent invasions from others states that were close by. Other sections of the wall followed and still today the wall is repaired and constructed you will read more information about the history and purpose in the following paragraphs.
History and purpose
The history of the great wall of China began in 771-476 BC. The first emperor of china, Qin Shi Huang, wanted to protect his Qin Dynasty against attacks form inner Asia. The walls were build using forced labour and the materials used to build the wall were mainly earth and sand. The later dynasties, the
Han (202 BC – 220 AD) the Northern Qi (550 AD – 574 AD), the Sui (589 AD – 618 AD) and the Ming (1369 AD – 1644 AD), extended and rebuilt the wall on places that required this.
Even though the wall was a useful and successful way to stop and hinder attacks, it sometimes failed to stop its enemies. One example was in 1644 when the Manchu Qing conquered parts of the wall and replaced the Ming. The Manchu Qing gained all the power and became rulers of china.
Restoration and protection
The great wall of china is one of new great wonders of the world and therefor it needs to be protected at any cost. Because of the fact that the number of tourists per year increases, restoration is needed in order to protect the wall.
Tourism is one of the reasons the wall ‘is falling apart’. To add to that, litter is often found along the wall. Furthermore, sometimes Chinese characters are carved on the stone, local citizens take away bricks to build or rebuild their houses and an even more serious problem, some sections of the wall are used as sheep pens by farmers through digging holes in the wall. Also, Infrastructure cuts of some parts of the wall because the demand for new and more highways and railways increases.
In order to protect the wall, the government has made laws on September 20th 2006. On December 6th 2006 these laws went into effect. The laws made to protect the wall from both visitors and locals are punished with fines that can vary between 1000 (124,892 Euro) and 50000 Chinese Yuan (6244,61 Euro). Some of the laws are for example:
- Take away earth, bricks, stones and plant crops.
- Vandalism and graffiti
- Span or fix any establishment, fixtures, or equipment irrelevant to the Great Wall protection.
- Drive or span over the wall using any vehicle.
- Carry any items that may destroy the wall.
- Organize activities on the sections that have not been developed into tourist areas.
- Any other activities that are forbidden by laws and regulations on protection of cultural relics.
The penalty you will get depends on the crime you have made. For example, numbers 3, 4 and 5 are considered as minor crimes. However, when the damage done is serious, you will receive a fine which can vary between 10000 and 50000 Chinese Yuan.
So before you go and visit the great wall of China, make sure you have taken a look at the laws.
Culture, legends stories
The great wall of China has many myths, legends and stories. One of them is about a girl names Meng Jiangnu and her loved husband Fan Xiliang. This love story is one of China’s best known legends and is called: “Meng Jiangnu Weeps” or “Meng Jiang Bringing down the Great Wall with Her Tears”. The story goes as follows:
Once upon a time there were two childless couples living closely to one another. One family had the family name Meng and the other had the family name Jiang. Once, Meng planted a gourd vine. Eventually it grew over to the other side of the fence where the Jiang family lived. The decided to split the gourd but when they tried to cut the gourd into two pieces, a baby girl magically appeared lying inside the gourd. They decided to raise the girl together and they called het Meng Jiang Nu, which means Meng and Jiang’s daughter. Jiangnu was loved, kind and pretty. One day, she found a man hiding in the bushes. When the man came out of the bushes, Jiangnu immediately fell in love with the handsome man named Fan Xiliang. They fell in love and shortly after they married. Three days after the wedding, Xiliang was taken by the officials because he needed to help to build the wall.
A year passed and still there was no news from Xiliang. Jiangnu once had a dream about her husband. He was freezing on the wall. When she woke up, she immediately started knitting warm clothes for him. She wanted to go and look for him. She made a long and exhausting journey but eventually she arrived at the wall. She heard the new that her husband had passed away. She immediately started to cry and stayed at the wall for three days to grief for her dead husband. Then, a small part of the wall started falling apart with a loud noise. It was believed that Jiangnu had broken down the wall with tears only. Emperor Qin Shihuang was touring the wall at that exact time and he saw and heard the noise. At first he wanted to punish Jiangnu but when he saw the pretty woman, he was determined to marry her instead. She said she she would only marry the emperor under three conditions: firstly, her husband should get a decent burial. Secondly, the emperor and his people needed to go into mourning for Jiangnu’s husband. And lastly, she wanted to go to the ocean. The emperor agreed after a long time. After the funeral Jiangnu went to visit the ocean. In order to reunite with her husband and to escape the emperor, she threw herself into the ocean.