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Wall part of complex defense network
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The Great Wall is believed by many to be one of the greatest architectural masterpieces of mankind — as such, it is often called one of the Eight Wonders of the World.
People often credit Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BC), the first emperor of a unified China, as the builder of the Great Wall. But construction of the wall actually started during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (476-221 BC), long before Qin Shi Huang’s time, and it was rebuilt for several times in later dynasties.
However, the first emperor did order additional construction and connection of various sections of defensive walls to form the Great Wall in northern China to fend off nomadic invaders. Unfortunately, most of the ancient walls built during the Qin time have disappeared and the existing wall we see today was mostly constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Built with bricks, rammed earth, stone and wood, the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty stretches more than 8,850 kilometers from Hushan in northeast China’s Liaoning Province to Jiayuguan in northwest China’s Gansu Province. Most Chinese people call it Wanli Changcheng, meaning literally “Ten Thousand Li Long Wall.” Li is a traditional Chinese measure of distance, equaling 500 meters or half a kilometer.
The average height of the wall stands at 7.8 meters, but in some sections, it reaches 14 meters. Since most segments of the wall were built along mountains, the height of the wall rises in more level places and drops on steep ridges.
To ensure that two heavy, horse-drawn carts could rumble along side-by-side along the top of the wall, most portions of the Great Wall are quite wide, measuring an average of 6.5 meters at the bottom and 5.8 meters across the top of the wall.
While planning the route of the wall, the builders made the best use of advantageous topographic features, such as high mountains, steep cliffs and sharp river bends, to amplify the wall’s function of defense and also to save labor and resources.
In earlier days, the walls were mainly built by filling wooden frames with earth and small stones. After the earth and stones were tamped solid, the wooden frames were removed.
During the Ming Dynasty, mass production of bricks and tiles became popular. As a result, the Ming Great Wall was mostly built with bricks of different sizes and shapes, depending on whether they were used for the wall body, stairs, battlements or gates.
The bricks made the wall stronger and last longer both in battles and in the fight against the elements.
The serpentine Great Wall is not just a wall. In ancient China, it was a sophisticated defense system consisting of barrier walls, watchtowers, beacon towers, ramparts, fortresses, passes and garrison towns.
For instance, on the battlements on top of the wall, there were holes and gaps to use to observe the other side and to shoot arrows and stone missiles. There also were flights of stairs for foot soldiers and wide horse roads leading to the wall’s top to transport food, fuel and ammunition.
The wall also was equipped with drainage gutters and water spouts to prevent it from being flooded by torrential rains.
Usually, the beacon towers were not a structural part of the wall, but built on high and easily visible peaks along the wall. The garrison troops stationed at different sections of the wall used smoke during the day and fire at night to communicate with each other and to send out warning signals.
In 1987, the Great Wall was listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. It is praised as “an outstanding example of the superb military architecture, technology and art of ancient China.”Pictorial dictionary 关 (guan) Pass
Guan, also called guanqia (关卡), guankou ( 关口 or guan’ai (关隘) in Chinese, is a pass usually built at a waypoint or a strategic location.
For instance, Jiayuguan Pass and Shanhaiguan Pass are the two most famous passes built along the Great Wall. Constructed in the form of a fortress and serving as a frontier gateway, such passes were an essential part of the defense system of the wall in ancient times.
In addition to thick walls, big gates and turreted watchtowers, Jiayuguan Pass boasted three defense lines: a moat, the outer city and the inner city.
Built with rammed earth, bricks or stones, such passes were manned by troops when they still played a role in the national defense. Today, they are usually manned by ticket collectors since many have become tourist spots.
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