The Great Wall of China長城

With a history of more than 2,000 years,the Great Wall of China is one of the greatest wonders in the world.Owing to its architectural grandness1and historic significance,it is one of the most attractive places of interest all around the world.As a result,it was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987.

The Great Wall was continuously built from the 3rd century B.C.to the 17th century A.D.on the northern border of China as the great military defense project.The total length adds up to more than 20,000 kilometres.The main body of the great project consists of walls,horse tracks,watching towers,and shelters2on the wall,and includes fortresses3and passes along the Great Wall.The Great Wall winds up and down across deserts,grasslands,mountains and plateaus4,stretching from the east to the west of China like a huge dragon.

Construction History

The construction of the Great Wall began during the Spring and Autumn period and lasted into the Warring States period.All the states of Qin,Wei,Zhao and Yan had built hundreds of miles of walls to defend their own borders and to protect their people.These unlinked walls were the embryonic5form of the Great Wall.In 221 B.C.,the first Emperor,Qin Shi Huang ordered all the walls to be linked up and reinforced.

The Wall took on its present form during the Ming Dynasty.Already known as the Ten Thousand Li Wall at that time,it stretched about 6,300 kilometres.The early walls were made of packed earth and wood.And they were later replaced by stones and bricks.Sometimes mountain ridges were even taken directly as the body of the Wall.

Miracle in History

The Great Wall,a miracle in human history,is a treasure of Chinese civilization and is regarded as a symbol of the Chinese nation.No other ancient building in the world has been constructed for so long a time,on such a great scale and at so high a cost.Dr.Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) once commented that the Great Wall is the most famous work in China and a truly marvelous6sight on earth.

The Great Wall is both a cultural relic and a natural landscape.It has been widely known among domestic and foreign tourists that there is a famous saying which goes,“One is not a true man unless he climbs up the Great Wall(不到長城非好漢).”

Meng Jiangnv’s Bitter Weeping

There are many legends and stories about the Great Wall.One of the popular legends is about Meng Jiangnv.It was said that Meng Jiangnv’s husband was taken by force to work on the Great Wall soon after they got married.When autumn came,Meng Jiangnv worried that her husband would suffer from the cold in the north.So she walked all the way to the construction site of the Great Wall,taking padded7clothes which she had made for him.But when she got there,she was told that her husband had already died from exhaustion and had been buried at the foot of the Great Wall.

Meng Jiangnv could not help crying.She sat on the ground and wept bitterly.Suddenly with tremendous noise,a 400-kilometre-long section of the Wall collapsed over her bitter weeping.Meanwhile,a pit was found containing piles of skeletons8.She couldn’t identify9her husband among them,so she threw herself into the sea together with some pieces of skeleton.Later,a temple named after Meng Jiangnv was built at the foot of the Great Wall to commemorate10her loyalty11to her husband.Since then,Meng Jiangnv’s story has been passed down from generation to generation.

Notes

1.grandnessn.宏偉；壯大

2.sheltern.庇護所

3.fortressn.堡壘；要塞

4.plateaun.高原

5.embryonic form 雛形

6.marvelousadj.非凡的

7.paddedadj.有填充物的

8.skeletonn.骨骼；骨架

9.identifyv.識別；辨認

10.commemoratev.紀念

11.loyaltyn.忠誠