What you don't know about the Great Wall of China (长城)

Everyone on the earth probably heard of the Great Wall of China. It is the symbol of China and pride of all Chinese people. How much do you know really know about the Great Wall. Do you know the wall was never a single continuous wall? Let's start from the beginning:

Who built it? The building of the wall started under the leadership of Qin Shi Emperor, the first emperor of China.

When was it built? It started approximately 2000 years ago during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206BC). Later emperors kept on building and restoring. Majority of the wall you see today was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Why such a long wall? To protect the Northern borders of China and to keep the Mongols out.

How does it work? Soliders were stationed at each watch tower. If one of the towers spots the enemy movement towards the border, the soliders will light a huge fire in their tower. The next tower over sees the fire will proceed to light a fire in its tower and so on so forth. This is a way to quickly inform everyon along the border to be on high alert and prepare for battle.

How long is it really? The Chinese refers to the Great Wall as "The long wall of 10,000 li" (万里长城). Li is a traditional Chinese unit of distance. It is equal to 500 meters or 1640 feet. However, the actual length including all of its branches of the wall is 8851.8 km.

What major cities does it stretches through? From east to west, Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin, Liaoning, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu.

(Image from www.enchantedlearning.com)

There are many sections of the wall that are well restored and popular amongst tourists from all over the world. Notable sections are:

Badaling (八达岭长城) - It is closest to city of Beijing and most popular section of the wall. It is where Nixon visited and was the finish site of a cycling course in the 2008 Summer Olympics. It has very steep inclines and has the highest point along the entire length of the wall.

Mutianyu (慕田峪长城) - Also very close to Beijing, but less crowded and less work to hike than Badaling.

Simatai (司马台长城) - A bit farther out of Beijing, however it has the most authentic part of the wall. It is of the original construction unlike Badaling which was built during the Ming Dynasty.

Jinshanling (金山岭长城) - It connects to section of Simatai.

Shanhaiguan (山海关长城) - this section is actually located in Hebei and Tianjin. It is about 3 hours of train from Beijing. The wall ends into the sea.

Interesting facts you might not know:

• The wall is not a single continuous wall.
  
• Since the wall was discontinuous, the Mogol found a way to go around and eventually conquered most of northern China. They started the Yuan Dynasty and ruled all of China until 1368 when the Ming defeated them. It was said the Mongols were greatest warriors, but lacked management skills.
• Over the 2000 years, approximately 50,000km of the wall were built. The earth's circumference is about 40,000km.
• There are more than 10,000 watchtowers and beacon towers on the wall

Travel Tips about the Wall

The Great Wall offers scenery that varies with seasons. But the winter months can be bitterly cold. Spring and fall are still the best time to go. Wearing good shoes is important unless hiking up is not your cup of tea. Then there are cable cart to take you to the notable peaks. If hiking down is not to your liking either, you can luge down!

There are vendors all along the major sections of the wall. No need to panic and pack tons of food and water for the hike. In fact, don't be surprised to see an old lady vendor carrying 50 pounds of stuff on her back passing you.

Majority of the Great Wall is not restored which the locals refer to as "Wild Walls". These sections can be pretty dangerous due to loose bricks, rocks and unruly vegetation. In addtion, China has no system of mountain and wilderness rescue. However, it is still becoming very popular to hike and camp in these areas despite the potential danger of completely being on your own.