As a symbol of China's history and heritage, many foreigners believe that the trip to China is not complete without a visit to the Great Wall. Some even bought the "I climbed the Great Wall" T-shirt as a fantastic souvenir to bring home.
.jpg) The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire during the rule of successive dynasties. It originated from several separate walls built by the small kingdoms to protect their own territories during China's Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.). After the whole country was unified in 220 B.C. by the first Emperor Qin Shi-huang, he ordered his general Meng Tian to force 300,000 labours to extend and connect the north sections of these walls to keep away the invasion from nomadic tribes.
At the successive dynasties like Han (202 B.C. - 220 A.D.), Ming (1368 - 1644 A.D) dynasties, large scale of constructions were implemented as the diplomatic relations with northern nomadic tribes remained unfavourable or instable.
.jpg) Like a huge dragon, the Wall (built in Ming Dynasty) winds its way through deserts, basins, plains and mountains of North China extending over 6,350 km (3,947 miles), from the bank of Yalu River (cross-border river with North Korea) to Jiayuguan of Gansu Province. In Chinese, the Great Wall is called Cháng-chéng, literally "long wall"; or Wàn-lǐ Cháng-chéng, literally "The long wall of 10,000 Li (Chinese unit of distance 2 Li=1 km).
No matter what to say, the Great Wall is the world's longest human-made structure, it is also the largest human-made structure ever built in terms of surface area and mass.
The most famous remaining sections of the Great Wall today were mainly built in Ming Dynasty, which were better preserved compared with other older walls. Many of them are located in the north of Beijing like Juyong Pass, Badaling, Mutianyu, Jinshanling and Simatai.
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