China at its best....or worst

Ch'in Shih Huang TI, the first unified Chinese emperor, planned to build the Great Wall of China. About 2,600 years ago he did this to keep the Huns out of china. The Great Wall is made up of brick and plaster being 25 feet high and 30 feet thick. The Emperor of China forced about 1,000,000 people from their homes to work on the wall. The workers were forced to build watch towers every 100 yards to spot enemies and to signal to the warriors on the wall that a battle approached. Workers that died while building the wall were buried underneath the wall. The wall was worked on for hundreds of years . About 1,000 years after Ch'in Shih Huang Ti, the new Chinese emperor decided to make the wall even longer to protect unprotected area.

In 1215 Genghis khan (one of the mongols) finally penetrated the Great Wall after four years of continuous attacks. The mongols were the only ones who ever defeated China after the Great Wall was built. After so many invasions and attacks on the Great wall the wall started to wither away. Many portions of the Great wall are damaged and destroyed, but the Chinese have reconstructed the wall how it was many years ago.

In order to build the wall Workers and Slaves had to get big brick blocks to where the wall was to be built. Many of the places where the wall was going to be built was too far away for bricks to be brought and built into the wall. So instead of carrying big heavy bricks The workers used very tightly compacted dirt as bricks.

When I went to the wall it was very impressive and big, The wall was built on the tops of mountains and hills to make it even harder to penetrate the wall. The Great Wall was not straight of flat. It was windy and had lots of stairs. Parts of the wall I could see have been overgrown and destroyed.

The many many stairs along the wall were very uneven and small. Some steps, though, were 2-3 feet tall! Along the wall there where look out points like you might see on a castle. Some of the watch towers you could go up. On top of the watch towers you could see a long way. The wall is built on top of hills and mountains so you have to walk down or take a big long slide. The slide was fun, windy, fast, and long. Even though the drive to get to the wall is long, I think it was still worth it.

Part of the wall

looking up at the wall

Another part of the wall

Part of the wall on mountain tops

Part of the wall on the right

an overgrown and destroyed watch tower