China’s iconic Great Wall, actually a
network of fortifications rather than a single structure, is the product
of countless labors over a period of some two thousand years. Qin Shi
Huang took the remnants of truly ancient fortifications, walls, and
earthworks begun in the fifth century B.C. and linked them into a
unified wall circa 220 B.C. as part of a massive project to protect
China against marauding barbarians from the north.
By
the time construction on most of the stone-and-brick Great Wall, with
its turrets and watchtowers, was completed during the Ming dynasty
(1368-1644) the chang cheng had become the world’s largest human-made object.
A
recent government mapping project revealed that the entire Great Wall
structure spans some 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers) from the Korean
border west into the Gobi desert. Of that total 3,889 miles (6,259
kilometers) were actual wall, while 223 miles (359 kilometers) were
trenches and (1,387 miles) 2,232 kilometers were natural defensive
barriers, like rivers or steep hills, incorporated into the system.
Though
new sections of the wall have recently been uncovered, several sections
of the structure have vanished during the past half century or so. Mao
Zedong himself encouraged destruction of parts of the wall and reuse of
its materials in the 1950s, and rural farmers still make use of the
wall’s earth and stone for practical purposes.
Some
50 percent of the original ancient structure has already disappeared,
and perhaps another 30 percent lies crumbling into ruins—even as Chinese
and international organizations struggle to preserve what remains of
this unique treasure.
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