Great wall of China Beijing
Great wall of China, symbolizing China’s ancient civilization and plays an important role nowadays in connecting the friendship between Chinese and foreign visitors.
The Great Wall stretched for more than 6,700 kilometers (4,000 miles) from Liaodong (Liaoning Province) in the east to Jiayuguan in Jiangsu Province in the west. It’s the largest man-made construction on the earth and also considered as the longest cemetery in the world as over millions people died for the construction of it.
The construction of the Great Wall started in the 7th century BC. By then, it was called Warring-state period, China was divided into 7 kingdoms, named: Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei and Qin, among them, Qin was the most powerful one and finally in 221 BC, Emperor of Qin unified great China and restarted the construction of the Great Walls which built by different kingdoms.
The major function of the Great wall is to protect the country from the Northern Barbarian people (Mongolian, Manchurian.etc). And since Qin Dynasty, many other dynasties continue to build the Great Wall, but most parts of the Great Walls built by Qin, Han, Qi and other dynasties were collapsed and gone since it undergone the nature for thousands years. Most of the Great walls we see today were the work in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). When Emperor Zhuyuanzhang (founder of Ming Dynasty) established Ming, he started the reconstruction of the Great Wall immediately, and its construction continued from the beginning of Ming to the end of it for more than 200 years.
The total length of the Great Wall lies in Beijing is about 620 kilometers (400 miles), and there’re Six section of the Great Walls officially opened to the tourists, they are: Badaling, Juyongguan, Mutianyu, Gubeikou, Simatai and Jinshanling. Among them, Badaling is the most famous section, but it’s too touristy and commercialized. Mutianyu is the most beautiful part (highly recommend), Juyongguan is the closest to Beijing city (50 Kilometers/31 miles) and its steep. And Gubeikou, Jinshanling and Simatai are favorite parts for Great Wall hikers.