Tag Archives: Ursula Wicker

The Great Wall of China

Now for some of those amazing facts I promised you on Monday’s blog.  The Great “Wall” is in fact many walls, many stretches of which are not interconnected.

The Great Wall of China from the visitors center

The first portions of The Great Wall were built between 220 and 206 B.C. at the command of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.  This “Great Wall” actually incorporated earlier walls constructed as far back as the 5th Century B.C.  Most of this original wall no longer exists.

The Great Wall of China

Most of the current existing wall was built during the Ming Dynasty.  This later wall is earth encased in stone and brick, whereas earlier construction was mostly of stamped earth and gravel held in place by wooden framing.

The Great Ursula next to Doug the Mediocre

So, just how long is The Great Wall?  Originally it was believed that if you placed all the various segments together, the wall would measure approximately 5,500 miles/8,850 kilometers.  That estimate turned out to be wrong by a considerable margin because it only included the Ming Dynasty portions of the wall.  If you include earlier portions you arrive at a considerably longer number — 13,170.69 miles, or 21,196.18 kilometers.

The Great Wall of China

That means you could criss-cross the United States at it’s average width from ocean to ocean almost 4½ times!

The Great Wall stretching into the distance

Alas, only about 8.2% of Ming-era wall remains today.  Most of it has collapsed, and much of what remains — almost 75% — is falling into ruin.

The Great Wall of China

Despite it’s enormity and contrary to popular myth, The Great Wall is not visible from the Moon.  Indeed, most astronauts report that it’s not even visible from even low Earth orbit.  Despite that, The Great Wall is impressive enough that it should be on everyone’s bucket list.

The Great Wall of China

On Fun Photo Friday I’ll present my favorite shots of this incredible feat of engineering.

The Great Wall of China

Well, you knew it was going to come to this sometime before we left Beijing.  Admit it.  After all, no blog about China is complete without at least a reference to The Great Wall, and Beijing is situated pretty close to a portion of it.  And in case you’re wondering why we’re here, it’s always been one of Ursula’s dreams to stand upon this enormous structure.

The Great Ursula on the Great Wall

According to our Great Guide Jim Mao, the Great Wall was built because the Mongolian hoards and others from the north were basically using China to the south as one big ATM machine, and the Chinese got tired of them constantly invading to make withdrawals.  So, at it’s most basic, The Great Wall was ancient China’s attempt at “Border Control.”

The Great Wall of China

If you don’t believe me, this is my photo from an earlier blog of the U.S. version (only our version is a whole lot uglier and will never make it as a UNESCO World Heritage Site):

The Great Wall of the United States of America

The Great Wall is the single largest structure ever made by man.  I’ll have more on that, including some awesome statistics, on Wednesday’s blog.

The Great Wall of China

While we were traversing this small portion of The Great Wall we stumbled upon one of our countrymen who was fulfilling a long time ambition of his — to sit upon The Great Wall while capturing it in a painting of his very own making:

An American Tourist doing his “Dream Painting”

In this next photograph you’ll see two uniformed guards.  Look closely and you’ll note no weapons in those holsters.  The police throughout China were also conspicuously without weapons.  You’ll also see a discreet earpiece in the right ear of the guard closest to the camera.  What may not be immediately obvious to you is the third guard, and I noticed this wherever we saw uniformed guards in military garb.  In each instance, approximately ten or so feet to one side, you’ll always find another person standing nearby with a very watchful eye on the crowd.  The covert guard in this case is the warmly dressed chap with his back to the wall, smiling toward the two uniformed guards.  They’re usually not so obvious to spot.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall in this area generally follows natural ridge lines for easy defense.  In other areas you’ll see segments drop along the sides of hills.

The Great Wall of China

Wherever we went we were greeted with throngs of people.  Many were very amused at the stocky, bearded American wearing a People’s Army winter guard hat with a rather large, rather conspicuous red star.  Hey, at least it was warm, and it has since found a home amidst my extensive hat collection.  We were stopped several times and asked if people could pose with us for a photograph.  Others tried to covertly snap a shot until I invited them to come over and pose next to us as well.

Great Wall Crowds

I’ll have more information and photos for you on Wednesday, and Fun Photo Friday will highlight my favorite shots of The Great Wall.

The Great Crowd on the Great Wall