Facts about the Great Wall of China

Winding through China like an intimidating stone serpent, the Great Wall of China has earned its reputation as one of the Seven Wonders Of The Wall. It has been said that if the Great Wall were to be dismantled and rebuilt at the equator, there would be enough material to circle the globe. Generations of soldiers, peasants and prisoners numbering in the millions toiled to their death during it build it. Yet today, the Great Wall is just a shadow of its former glory.

Built in the Ming dynasty between 1368 and1644, few people realize this popular tourist attraction is really the last and the youngest in China’s succession of 16 “great walls” dating back to to the 5 B.C. After the famous Manchu invasion of 1644 triggered the fall of the Ming Dynasty, construction of China’s last Great Wall ceased. Wind, rain, winter freezes and earthquakes have done their share of damage toppling large sections of the wall. But some of the most beautiful artifacts were stolen immediately after the Ming dynasty collapsed and the thefts continued for the next 360 years.

Looters ransacked the watchtowers and stole the decorative tile, fine carvings, engraved stone, wooden doors and shutters. Locals hauled granite slabs and stones to use for construction in their villages. Up from the cracks of loosened masonry, trees, plants and bushes took root and now huge stretches of the wall have transformed into a wild nature wall.

Today, only two-thirds of the original Ming Wall remain and these intriguing ruins are considered the largest and most complex architectural relic on earth. But with tourism to China increasing every year, increasing sections of the wall are in danger of being further destroyed. New roadways carry more and more visitors to distant sections of the wall than ever before. Graffiti has been scrawled on 500-year old masonry stones. Fast-food containers litter the walkways. Local entrepreneurs set up tourist traps in the shadow of the wall. And the Chinese government has done little to preserve its country’s most amazing historic artifact.

It is a tragedy that this wall built by the ancients to protect their lands from barbarians has failed to be protected from a barbarian disregard of history.