The Great Wall extends over 6,000 kilometres in north China. It rises and falls like a magical dragon keeping the spiritual lifeline of our nation.
More than 2,000 years ago, the First Emperor of Qin ordered that the separate walls left over by the principalities be linked up to form a wall thousands of kilometres long.
The state of Qin conquered the country. General Meng Tian commanded 300,000 troops to beat back the attacks of the Huns in the north, take the Great Bend of the Yellow River and build the Great Wall ... The Great Wall extended from Lintao to Liaodong for more than ten thousand li. －－ from The Records of the Historian by Sima Qian
When hundreds of thousands of peasants, soldiers and prisoners built the wall in the mountains with their blood and sweat, they began to create a miracle in the world history, one of the greatest masterpieces left by mankind on the globe.
The Chinese made so great efforts to build the wall because they were determined to defend their civilization. The Great Wall was a line of demarcation between the agricultural civilization and the nomadic civilization. Outside the Great Wall were grasslands and deserts. Inside it were fields and cities, a society with a high level of civilization built on the foundation of agriculture.
Built in a period of about a thousand years, the Great Wall shows the firm will of the Chinese nation to defend its peaceful life. Even today, people are singing in the National Anthem: "With our flesh and blood, let us build our new Great Wall."
Of course, the Great Wall was mainly a defensive project at first. During the Han Dynasty, the Great Wall stood on the desolate land like a guard defending the Silk Road, the only route of trade between the east and the west. The Great Wall extended to distant places.
In a multi－national country, the defensive function of the Great Wall gradually disappeared. The Great Wall was rebuilt on a large scale during the Ming Dynasty.
During the Qing Dynasty when Emperor Qianlong crossed the Great Wall on his way to the Mountain Summer Resort, he was glad to find that the people of different ethnic groups inside and outside the Great Wall had become one family. The Great Wall kept apart the farming groups and the nomadic groups, but the separation enhanced their mutual attraction.
The Great Wall prevented disordered plunder and promoted ordered trade. Bartering tea for horses brought prosperity to many cities along the Great Wall. Some strategic passes and fortresses became important cities and towns.
Now the cultural discrepancies between the areas inside and outside the Great Wall have disappeared. The Great Wall has become a symbol of peace for various ethnic groups.
Today the Great Wall has no practical use any longer, but people are coming from everywhere to view its grandeur and express their feelings. "The sky is high； the fleecy clouds are bright. We watch the southbound wild geese out of sight." The Great Wall is encouraging the Chinese nation to march on for ever.
