In the north of China， there lies a 6，700-kilometer-long (4，161-mile-long) ancient wall. Now well-known as the Great Wall of China， it starts at the Jiayuguan Pass of Gansu Province in the west and ends at the Shanhaiguan Pass of Hebei Province in the east. As one of the Eight Wonders in the world， the Great Wall of China has become the symbol of the Chinese nation and its culture.
Lots of beautiful legends and stories about the Great Wall took place following along the construction， and since that time these stories have spread around the country. Those that happened during construction are abundant， such as Meng Jiangnu‘s story and the legend of the Jiayuguan Pass. Meng Jiangnu‘s story is the most famous and widely spread of all the legends about the Great Wall. The story happened during the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC).
It tells of how Meng Jiangnu‘s bitter weeping made a section of the Great Wall collapse. Meng Jiangnu‘s husband Fan Qiliang was caught by federal officials and sent to build the Great Wall. Meng Jiangnu heard nothing from him after his departure， so she set out to look for him. Unfortunately， by the time she reached the great wall， she discovered that her husband had already died. Hearing the bad news， she cried her heart out. Her howl caused the collapse of a part of the Great Wall. This story indicates that the Great Wall is the production of tens of thousands of Chinese commoners.
Another legend about the Jiayuguan Pass tells of a workman named Yi Kaizhan in the Ming Dynasty (1368BC-1644BC) who was proficient in arithmetic. He calculated that it would need 99，999 bricks to build the Jiayuguan Pass. The supervisor did not believe him and said if they miscalculated by even one brick，then all the workmen would be punished to do hard work for three years.
After the completion of the project，one brick was left behind the Xiwong city gate. The supervisor was happy at the sight of the brick and ready to punish them. However Yi Kaizhan said with deliberation that the brick was put there by a supernatural being to fix the wall. A tiny move would cause the collapse of the wall. Therefore the brick was kept there and never moved. It can still be found there today on the tower of the Jiayuguan Pass.
In addition to the above-mentioned stories about the construction of the Great Wall，there are also plenty of stories about current scenic spots. A famous one is the legend of the Beacon Tower. This story happened during the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC-711 BC). King You had a queen named Bao Si，who was very pretty. King You liked her very much， however Bao Si never smiled.
An official gave a suggestion that setting the beacon tower on fire would frighten the King‘s subjects， and might make the queen smile. King You liked the idea. The subjects were fooled and Bao Si smiled at the sight of the chaos. Later enemies invaded Western Zhou， King You set the beacon tower on fire to ask for help. No subjects came to help because they had been fooled once before. Thus， King Zhou was killed by the enemy and Western Zhou came to an end.
Beautiful stories and legends about the Great Wall help to keep alive Chinese history and culture. In each dynasty after the building of the Great Wall， many more stories were created and spread.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
We will visit the symbol of China's civilization-the Great Wall. It is one of the famous, grand and splendid ancient construction wonders in the world. It is just like a giant dragon in the northern part of China.
Construction of the Great Wall first began in the seventh century BC. At that time it was also called Spring and Autumn Warring States Period. The first wall that appeared in China was built by Kingdom Qi and Kingdom Chu. At that time, the kingdoms in order to defend themselves against the infringing enemy from own territories for self-protection. These high walls were the primitive type of the present day Great Wall.
In Chinese history, large-scale construction of the Great Wall was concentrated in three dynasties, they are Qin, Han and Ming dynasties.
In 221BC, Qin Shihuang unified China; he decided to link up all the separated high walls built by different kingdoms into the Great Wall. The Qin Great Wall started from Lintao, Gansu Province in the west and ended in Liaodong, Liaoning Province in the east, over 500 kilometers long.
The second large-scale construction on the Great Wall was carried out during the Han Dynasty. Apart from maintaining and utilizing the Qin Great Wall, they built an outer Great Wall about 500 kilometers to the north of the Qin Great Wall in order to ward off the Huns. They also had the Great Wall ectended towards the west for another 5000 kilometers long. The Han Great Wall started from Liaodong in the east to the Lop Nur Lake in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with a total length of 10,000 kilometers.
The last large-scale project on the Great wall was carried out in the Ming Dynasty. That is because the dethroned Mongol Yuan ruler still had the remnant forces and often made counterattack to Beijing, as well as the threats of newly raised ethnic tribe of “Nv Zhen”。 So started from the first year after Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty. The whole project took more than 200 years to complete. The total lenth of the Ming Great Wall was more than 6,000 kilometers from Yalu River in Liaoning Province in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in Gansu Province in the west. It passes nine cities, provinces and autonomous regions of Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Ningxia and Gansu.
The Great Wall, we see today, in Beijing is mainly the Ming Grest Wall. There was a 20-kilometer long valley named “Nankou, Juyongguan, Shangguan and Badaling”。 Juyongguan Pass was one of the important passes along the valley, and also one of the most famous passes of the Great Wall. The name “Juyong” in Chinese means “a place of poor laborers”。
Today we will visit the Badaling Great Wall, it is about 75 kilometers northwest of Beijing, and it is the best-preserved part of the Great Wall. Bada means in English “convenient transportation to all directions”。 It used to be more important than Juyong Pass in the defence of Beijing. The Badaling Great Wall averages 7.8 meters high, 6.5meters wide at its base, and 5.8 meters wide on the top, wide enough for five horses or ten soldiers walking abreast on the wall.
The highest point at Badaling is about 800-1,000 meters above the sea level. Here at Badaling section is with single side battlements while the parapet is on the other side. The outer of the wall is topped with crenellated battlements, which is about 2 meters high and with a square sized hole below for shouting arrows and also for keeping a watch over the enemy, while the parapets about 1 meter high is on the inner side.
Buildings on both sides of the wall at the commanding points, the top of the mountains or the turns are beacon towers. The beacon towers were used for makong signal of warning messages when the enemy was sighted. Fires were lit on the top of the beacon towers at night and the smoke signals in daytime. And the number of the fire and smoke signals could signify the number of invading enemies.
The watch-towers are lovated at regular intervals on the Great Wall for watching over the invading enemy, and it is usually of two stories. The ground floor was used to store weapons and had a number of window for archers. The upper floor has battlements, peep-holes and appertures for archers.
Today the Great Wall has lost its signifivance in defending the enemy, but in ancient times the Great Wall was not noly a strong defensive project but also played a very important role in military, economy and served as a link in promoting harmonious relationship among the nationalities for the whole country. Today, the Great Wall has become a famous tourist attraction in the world.
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