Great Wall, Beijing

1 more image

Our first major stop was the Great Wall. It was very crowded! We took a rollercoaster to the top, and then walked atop the wall. Even though it was a hot and sunny day (outside of the city), many women carried umbrellas. The umbrellas would often get in our way and had to be dodged constantly.

Need I say more? The Great Wall of China is the only piece of infrastructure that can be seen from outer space without the telescopes and satellite things. To me, it is the greatest wonder in the world, don't even mention the 7 wonders. It is the most majestic structure I have ever seen and the amazing thing is I can't even imagine how they built it. It is a important part of China's history. Many have conquered Everest, North and South poles, Antartica and the Artic. Perhaps the greatest challenge left is to finish scaling all the 10000 miles of the invincible Great Wall.

We went to a common tourist section of the wall that has been restored. The day was overcast so no blue sky pictures. The wall is massive and it is a strenuous climb considering the number of other climbers and the uneven step surfaces. The view would be superb on a clearer day.

Don't miss seeing the Great Wall.
Ask to see the section that has the two Gondalas. Ride the highest one up to the wall, and take a tour towards the east untill you come to the LUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pay your 40RMB, get on the slide, and make sure no-one is in front of you. You'll want to go back if your in for excitement.
I want to get a group to go up at night with carbine lights on your head.

4 more images

Well I think this must be the No 1 attraction in Beijing and a high percentage of visitors must visit. The scale is hard to comprehend and obviously we only saw a tiny part of it. We were taken to Juyongguan, about one hour from our hotel, a freezing December morning, about -8 degrees C, we were almost the only visitors, in the summer the weather is better but the crowds are huge we were told, we can do cold!!
A warning the steps are uneven and some very steep, to climb anywhere near to the top you need to be pretty fit and surefooted. Almost made it but was about knackered by that time!.
One of life's great must sees I think.

The Great Wall is absolutely a must-see attraction in China. Regardless from where you see the parts of this Great Wall, this construction is certainly impressive.

The Chinese name "Chang Cheng" or long wall came into existence because of its length. Every time the Great Wall was reconstructed --in Qin, Han and Ming Dynasties -- its length exceeded 5,000 km (10,000 li) -- It's named Wan Li Chang Cheng or the long wall of 10,000 li. Actually, the long wall of 10,000 li is more than its stated length. The Great Wall reconstructed during the Ming Dynasty alone exceeds 7,300 km in length. According to records put down in Chinese literature, as many as 20 principalities and dynasties took part in reconstructing the Great Wall.

About 4th century B.C. the northern parts of the three principalities Of Yan, Zhao and Qin happened to border on the nomadic Xiong Nu and Dong Hu, with whom frequent contacts had been kept and border incursions frequently occurred by the nomads, which seriously disturbed normal life in the area. Therefore, the long walls to defend against the Hu were constructed by the three principalities in the north. These earlier walls, built sometimes in the east, sometimes in the west, sometimes in the south and sometimes in the north, were unconnected with each other. They formed the main foundation of the long wall of 10,000 li by Qin Shi Huang -- first sovereign of Qin.

Since the Qin, various dynasties, including Western Han, Eastern Han, Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, Sui, Liao, Lin and Ming, rebuilt the Great Wall on extensive scale and extended it. The engineering projects undertaken in the Han and Ming dynasties were the largest. The Han Dynasty Great Wall with its system of fortifications and beacon towers exceeded 10,000 km in length from Dunhuang, Gansu Provedwestward to western Xinjiang Region.

4 more images

There are many different possibilities to walk on the wall...I have tried the 10 km walk from Jinshanling to Simatai and it was absolutely amazing! We began the tour from Jinshanling and this way you´ll get breathtaking views :) It wasn´t the easiest walk but it certainly was worth it! And there are relatively few tourists...but you can´t escape from the ladies who sell postcards and drinks. Another great thing was an 800-meter long cable just before the Simatai section...you can enjoy the ride down...wow...it was just great :P

And then Badaling, which is always crowded and the most renovated part of the wall. It´s also the closest to the city. There are cable cars and guard rails and it´s easy and pretty safe to walk on the wall there...

The main reason that most people go to China is to see the Great Wall of China. The easiest way to see it is by taking a bus out to Badaling. This ancient Chinese fortification was built from the end of the 15th century until the beginning of the 16th century, during the Ming Dynasty, in order to protect China from raids by the Mongols and Turkic tribes. It was preceded by several walls built since the 3rd century BC against the raids of nomadic tribes coming from areas now in modern day Mongolia and Manchuria. The Wall stretches for 6,350 km (3,946 miles), from Shanhai Pass on the Bohai Gulf in the east, at the limit between China proper and Manchuria, to Lop Nur in the southeastern portion of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The primary purpose of the wall was not to keep out people, who could scale the wall, but to insure that semi-nomadic people on the outside of the wall could not cross with their horses or return easily with stolen property. The Kokes Manchus crossed the Wall by convincing an important general Wu Sangui to open the gates of Shanhai Pass and allow the Manchus to cross. Legend has it that they took three days for the Manchu armies to pass. After they conquered China, the Wall was of no strategic value as the people whom the Wall was intended to keep out were ruling the country (becoming the Qing Dynasty).

The government ordered people to work on the wall, and workers were under perpetual danger of being attacked by brigands. Because many people died while building the wall, it has obtained the gruesome title, "longest cemetery on Earth" or "the long graveyard". Their bodies were not entombed in the wall, however. A body buried in the wall would have weakened its structure, so workers were buried nearby instead.

Great Wall of China. Probably one of the most famous sites to visit in the world, even by the satellite who detects it from thousands of kilometres in space.

This majestic structure is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 is around 6700 kilometres long.

This great structure started construction during the leadership of Shi Huang Ti, the first emperor of the unified China. ( Before that, there was around 6 kingdoms and Shi Huang Ti managed to "merge" them into one kingdom, thus making him the emperor.)

Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of the wall. which took around ten years to finish.

The wall stretched from Linzhao (in the eastern part of today's Gansu Province) in the west to Liaodong (in today's Jilin Province) in the east.

This majestic masterpiece is also an indication of the power of the emperor at that
time.