The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China

4,000 miles long

Can you see it from space?

YesOr NoThe wall itself is actually in sections and was built by a few different dynasties

Around 800 BC the Wall building began by the Zhou Dynasty.A little rustic looking basically mounded up dirt made up the wall.

The Warring period 475-221 BCAt this time the Dynasties were fighting for Power and the wall continued to be built.

Qin Dynasty 221-206 BC

Han Dynasty 206 BCE 220 CE

Sung Dynasty 960-1271

More Modern not as rustic as past dynastiesMing Dynasty 1368-1644The wall that exist today was built mainly by the Ming Dynasty

The Great Wall

Meng Jiang Nu weeping on the Great Wall This legendary story of Meng Jiang Nu is known to all in China. During Qin dynasty, most men in the country were forced by the emperor Qin Shi Huangdi to go build the Great Wall. Those who were forced to leave their homes to go build the Great wall could barely stay alive.There is a young lady name Meng Jiang Nu who was just married to her husband Fanqiliang

On the third night of their wedding, Fanqiliang was forced to go build the Great Wall. Few months later Fanqiliang died because of biter hunger and overwork. When the days got cold, Meng Jiang Nu worried about her husband and decided to look for her husband while sending the winter clothes. She walked for thousands of kilometers, conquered all the difficulties on the trip and finally arrived at the Great Wall.

What she only got was the bad news that her husband had died and his body was still under the wall. She was totally heart brokened by the news and wept very sadly at the foot of the wall. For the entire three days and three nights, she had never stopped weeping. Even the heaven was moved by her tears and then nearby tens of kilometers of walls began to collapse. When the wall collapsed, numerous dead bodies began to show up.

She cut her finger and let the blood drop drip to the dead bodies. She prayed that the blood would permeate into the body if it was her husbands body, instead the blood would flow away. In this way, Meng Jiang Nu had finally found the body of her husband and wept sadly at it.

The collapse of the Great Wall disturbed Qin Shi Huangdi, the emperor. When Qin Shi Huangdi came and saw Meng Jiang Nu, he was attracted by the beautiful lady, Meng Jiang Nu weeping at a dead body. Qin Shi Huangdi then forced her to be his concubine. Meng Jiang Nu pretended to obey the emperors order, but she asked the emperor to do three things for her

The first thing was to order a monk to chant her husbands name for 49 days (this was believed to be the way of bringing the dead peoples soul to heaven) and buried him as well. The second thing was that he should offer sacrifice to her husband together with those civil and military officials. The third thing was that she could go to travel in the water and mountain areas before getting married.

The emperor Qin Shi Huangdi agreed with her request and did all the things she asked. When the three things were done, Meng Jiang Nu bitterly scolded the emperor, jumped into the sea and committed suicide.

Later people built a Meng Jiang Nu temple at the place where she wept. Today the temple is located on the Fenghuangshan mountain 6.5 km east of Shanhaiguan, has become a famous scenic spot in Shanhaiguan, Hebei province, and the story of Meng Jiang Nu weeping on the Great Wall is sure to pass on from generation to generation and her story will continue moving the people of later generations.

Genghis KhanMongol Empire Biggest land empire in the history of the world

Genghis Khan Started the EmpireSome say the wall was built to try to keep the Mongols out of China

Kublai Khan grandson to GenghisKublai was more tolerant than most of the other Mongol Emperors

The wall was built for defense purposes butThe wall had gaps and armies could easily walk around the wall

The Wall is so long there was not enough men to man this great wonderArmies could throw up a ladder or scale the wall to get over it and there could be no one there to stop them.

The Great Wall Of ChinaIs a Massive creation that took over 2,000 years to build What we prominently see of the wall was built by the Ming Empire The wall was built by the dynasties to discourage them from attacking each other.It is One of the new seven wonders of the world.