The Great Wall of China is an immensely long man-made wall that was built to keep out invaders. The Great Wall spans nine provinces and its total length is 6,700 km (3,948 miles). The Great Wall extends from ShanHaiGuan (the 'Old Dragon Head'), a seaport along the coast of BoHai, in the east (near BeiDaiHe resort) to JiaYuGuan Pass in GanSu Province in the west. Like a giant dragon, the Great Wall of China winds its way across grasslands, deserts and mountains.

Introduction and History

Although the Great Wall was originally built for protection, the wall stands as a tribute to the amazing ingenuity of the Chinese.

Listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987, the Great Wall ('Chang Cheng' in chinese) is a true marvel and a testament to the long history of the Chinese Civilisation.

Today, people from all over the world visit to walk on the Great Wall of China, to stand on a watchtower and view the wall snaking into the distance. This treasure is now protected so that future generations can see the Great Wall with the same wonder and amazement as we do now.

Some parts of the Great Wall of China have almost disappeared. Some parts have been overwhelmed by the elements. Some have been by the desert. Others eroded by local people recycling the wall's materials for constructions in their villages. Nevertheless, the Great Wall in large part still stands in silent splendor, enduring the passage of time and greeting the changes of the seasons as it has done for many hundreds of years.

Early Great Walls

The history of the Great Wall is a long one - it was built over many hundreds of years. Walls were first built to keep invaders away from the farming villages on the Chinese border. These walls were built at weak points in the natural landscape or where the threat was perceived as greatest.

Some of these walls eventually became of greater strategic importance when the localised defences were gradually joined to form the Great Wall of China. At those times that the Chinese territory expanded northward, earlier walls became secondary defences when a more northernly wall was built.

In the early days, the Great Wall was as much a demarcation of territory as a defence as such, but as the Great Wall became stronger, it's defence role increased. Where possible, natural barriers were integrated into the path of the wall. This is particularly true for mountains - their height was used to gain both a greater view and for advantage in defense.

The Great Wall of China was built by soldiers, civilians, farmers and prisoners, primarily during three dynasties: the Qin, the Han and the Ming, although the Sui Dynasty and the Ten Kingdoms period also played a part.

The building styles of each dynasty added their own flavor and advanced the techniques learned from the previous.