China 2008 # 5 - Great Wall

长城

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 6th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during the rule of successive dynasties.
Several walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC.
The most famous is the wall built between 220–200 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang; little of it remains; it was much farther north than the current wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia.
At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men.
It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.

JuYongGuan - 2009










Manuel
#309