The Great Wall

Who Built the Great Wall?

 
The Wall was created by many different dynasties over a period of approximately 2,800 years.

The first ruler to order construction of the wall was Qin Shi Huang, the first Chinese emperor. 

• While segments of the wall were constructed as far back as the 8th century B.C.E., they were not conjoined until approx. 220 B.C.E. under the Qin Dynasty. 

• Today, It is the longest man-made structure on Earth.

• The Wall was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1987.

Cross-Link: The Seven Wonders of the World

Timeline of the Construction of the Wall

Qin's Great Wall and its current site:

15 Colossal Facts about the Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is Under Siege, Smithsonian (August 2008)

  Photograph of the Great Wall, 1907

 Multimedia Resources

  The Great Wall Documentary from National Geographic

  Tim and Moby Investigate the Great Wall on BrainPOP

   BBC Podcast "In Our Time" Episode: The Great Wall of China, also on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

 The Great Wall of China, a short story by Franz Kafka (1917)

  Excerpt from "Passion of the Cut Sleeve", a book discussing relationships in Ancient China

Nankow Pass, 1910

Teaching and Learning Resources

Can You See the Great Wall of China from Space? from Universe Today

Is China's Great Wall Visible from Space? Scientific American

Following the Great Wall of China, a lesson plan from EDSITEment

Taking Walls, Margy Burns Knight. Tibury House Publishers, 1992. A picture book exploring notable walls around the world.

Learn about the Great Wall Marathon

Following the Great Wall of China Lesson Plan from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Dimensions of The Great Wall of China 长城

• Length: 21,196.18 Kilometers long (13,170.70 miles)

• Height: 15-39 feet (varies at different points) 

• Width: Maximum is 32 feet thick (Varies)

Why built it

Military use:

States in agrarian societies prevented nomadic civilizations from easily entering their territories to plunder human resources as slaves.

To reduce the military pressure on the borders: it is possible to reduce the garrison.

The Great Wall of China at Jinshanlin

History

The Great Wall of China was not built over one single time period or dynasty, rather over several dynasties over the span of thousands of years.

Construction began around 220 B.C.E. when the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shi Huang, ordered the construction and fortification of the wall to protect from northern invaders.

Workers consisted of soldiers, convicts, and commoners (ordinary people with no rank or title) and was headed by general Meng Tian.

There is a famous story about these oppressed and enslaved laborers in China that is closely tied to the Great Wall of Qin:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Meng_Jiang

With the fall of the Qing Dynasty 清朝, construction of the wall came to a stop. The vast majority of the wall was built during the Ming Dynasty 明朝 (1368-1644). Under the Ming Dynasty, a period of prosperity along with the need to keep the Mongolians out, allowed the further construction of the Great Wall. 

During World War II, the wall was used as defense from the Japanese. Today, the Great Wall of China is considered a modern wonder of the world and one of the iconic symbols of Chinese culture. It represents the land size of China and a symbol of China's persistence to keep out foreign invaders and influence, something that plagued China throughout their history. 

A great "cartoon" video of the construction of the Great Wall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23oHqNEqRyo

- This video also discusses interactions with the Mongols.

For more information about the Great Wall of China, visit here

Modern Course of the Grand Canal

The Grand Canal

Sunrise on the Grand Canal, William Havel, 1816

Overview of the Grand Canal

• Vast inland waterway system
• Begun in 486 B.C.E.
• Largest engineering project in the world before the Industrial Revolution
• Longest Canal in the world

The Grand Canal, China from Building the World Blog, University of Massachusetts Boston

Engineering an Empire: The Great Canal in China

The Grand Canal in contemporary times

Most of the canals, such as the Sui and Tang Grand Canals, which are the most widely known in China, are now silted up, decommissioned, etc.

The Jiangsu section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal of the Yuan Dynasty is basically well preserved and still functioning. The Jiangsu section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is 683 kilometers long and is the waterway with the highest shipping value of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which is divided into the Southern and Northern Jiangsu Canals with the Yangtze River as the boundary.

The Sunan Canal is the main transportation channel for bulk building materials and other materials. The North Jiangsu Canal is the golden waterway for the southward transportation of coal from the north of the country, and now the annual freight volume is close to 120 million tons, of which the coal volume reaches 73 million tons.

The Northern Su Canal and the Jiangsu section of the South-North Water Diversion Line basically overlap in terms of water transmission channels.

Among them, South-North Water Diversion is one of the largest hydropower projects in China.

https://www.water-technology.net/projects/south_north/

Complete map of the Grand Canal in Shandong Province  (source)