The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is an ancient series of walls and fortifications, totalling more than 20,000km in length, and is one of the most extensive construction projects ever completed. The Great Wall is located in northern China and is perhaps the most recognisable symbol of China and its long and vivid history. It was originally conceived by Emperor Qin Shi Huang (c. 259-210 BCE) in the third century BCE as a means of preventing incursions from barbarian nomads. The best-known and best-preserved section of the Great Wall was built in the 14th through 17th centuries CE, during the Ming dynasty. Though the Great Wall never effectively prevented invaders from entering China, it came to function as a powerful symbol of the Chinese civilisation's enduring strength.

> [Image Description]: An aerial landscape photograph showing the stone Great Wall winding across lush green mountain ridges.

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Watch this video to see what the Great Wall of China looks like today:

 * Video Title: The Great Wall of China in 4k - DJI

 * Channel: sawyerhartman

 * URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dIjk65vNw0

Qin Dynasty Construction

Though the beginning of the Great Wall of China can be traced to the fifth century B.C., many of the fortifications date from hundreds of years earlier, when China was divided into a number of individual kingdoms during the so-called Warring States Period.

Around 220 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China under the Qin Dynasty, ordered that earlier fortifications between states be removed and a number of existing walls along the northern border be joined into a single system that would extend for more than 10,000 li (a li is about half a kilometre) and protect China against attacks from the north.

Construction of the "Wan Li Chang Cheng," or 10,000-Li-Long Wall, was one of the most ambitious building projects ever undertaken by any civilisation. The famous Chinese general Meng Tian initially directed the project, and was said to have used a massive army of soldiers, convicts and commoners as workers.

Made mostly of earth and stone, the wall stretched from the China Sea port of the Shanhaiguan District, nearly 5,000km into Gansu province. In some strategic areas, sections of the wall overlapped for maximum security (including the Badaling stretch, north of Beijing, that was later restored during the Ming Dynasty).

From a base of 4.5 to 15 metres, the Great Wall rose some 4.5 to 9 metres high and was topped by ramparts 4 metres or higher. Guard towers were also distributed at intervals along the wall.

> [Image Description]: A traditional portrait illustration of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

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Great Wall of China Through the Centuries

With the death of Qin Shi Huang and the fall of the Qin Dynasty, much of the Great Wall fell into disrepair. After the fall of the later Han Dynasty, a series of frontier tribes seized control in northern China. The most powerful of these was the Northern Wei Dynasty, which repaired and extended the existing wall to defend against attacks from other tribes.

The Bei Qi kingdom (550–577) built or repaired more than 1,400km of wall, and the short-lived but effective Sui Dynasty (581–618) repaired and extended the Great Wall of China a number of times.

With the fall of the Sui and the rise of the Tang Dynasty, the Great Wall lost its importance as a fortification, as China had defeated the Tujue tribe to the north and expanded past the original frontier protected by the wall.

During the Song Dynasty, the Chinese were forced to withdraw under threat from the Liao and Jin peoples to the north, who took over many areas on both sides of the Great Wall. The powerful Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty (1206–1368), established by Genghis Khan, eventually controlled all of China, parts of Asia and sections of Europe.

Though the Great Wall held little importance for the Mongols as a military fortification, soldiers were assigned to man the wall in order to protect merchants and caravans traveling along the lucrative Silk Road trade routes established during this period.

> [Image Description]: A traditional Chinese painting depicting soldiers and horses near a gate of the Great Wall.

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Wall Building During the Ming Dynasty

Despite its long history, the Great Wall of China as we know it today was constructed mainly during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).

Like the Mongols, the early Ming rulers had little interest in building border fortifications, and wall building was limited before the late 15th century. In 1421, the Ming emperor Yongle proclaimed China’s new capital, Beijing, on the site of the former Mongol city of Dadu.

Under the strong hand of the Ming rulers, Chinese culture flourished, and the period saw an immense amount of construction in addition to the Great Wall, including bridges, temples and pagodas.

The construction of the Great Wall as it is known today began around 1474. After an initial phase of territorial expansion, Ming rulers took a largely defensive stance, and their reformation and extension of the Great Wall was key to this strategy.

The Ming wall extended from the Yalu River in Liaoning Province to the eastern bank of the Taolai River in Gansu Province, and wound its way from east to west through today’s Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu.

Starting west of Juyong Pass, the Great Wall was split into south and north lines, respectively named the Inner and Outer Walls. Strategic “passes” (i.e., fortresses) and gates were placed along the wall; the Juyong, Daoma and Zijing passes, closest to Beijing, were named the Three Inner Passes, while further west were Yanmen, Ningwu and Piantou, the Three Outer Passes.

All six passes were heavily garrisoned during the Ming period and considered vital to the defence of the capital.

> [Image Description]: An educational illustration titled "Labor Force of Great Wall Construction" showing workers carrying stones, a soldier taskmaster, and a soldier sentry.

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Watch this video to follow the process of building the Great Wall of China:

 * Video Title: How and Why the Great Wall of China

 * Channel: Smithsonian Channel

 * URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23oHq632B6E

Task – Build a Great Wall of China Model

You can make this as big or small as you like. You can choose what materials you want to make it – Styrofoam bricks (craft store – Spotlight etc.), clay, or cardboard. When you have completed it, add it to your Ancient China display. This will be a great focal point and will give you the chance to tell others what you have learnt about the Great Wall of China.

> [Image Description]: A collage of five photos showing children building a Great Wall model using small foam bricks and the finished clay/foam projects.

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Tea Ceremony

> [Image Description]: A photo of three tea bowls on a wooden table with labels: "Oolong Tea", "Green Tea", and "Black Tea".

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According to legend, tea was first discovered by the legendary Chinese emperor and herbalist, Shennong, in 2737 BCE. It is said that the emperor liked his drinking water boiled before he drank it so it would be clean, so that is what his servants did. One day, on a trip to a distant region, he and his army stopped to rest. A servant began boiling water for him to drink, and a dead leaf from the wild tea bush fell into the water. It turned a brownish colour, but it went unnoticed and was presented to the emperor anyway. The emperor drank it and found it very refreshing, and cha (tea) came into being.

The Erya, a Chinese dictionary dated to the 3rd century BCE, records that an infusion of some kind of leaf was used as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BCE).

While historically the origin of tea as a medicinal herb useful for staying awake is unclear, China is considered to have the earliest records of tea drinking, with recorded tea use in its history dating back to the first millennium BCE. The Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) used tea as medicine. The use of tea as a beverage drunk for pleasure on social occasions dates from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) or earlier.

Try tasting a few different types of tea, in a tea ceremony with your family.

[Mark Complete]