New seven wonders of the world: The Great Wall of China

(María Ruby Ladino C.)

This was listed as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World just five years ago
in 2007, at the culmination of an intensive global voting campaign organized by
The New Seven Wonders Foundation. This foundation felt the people of the planet
should have a say in deciding on exactly which these new wonders are and also
felt that the campaign would bring people closer together, plus, promote tourism in
the countries lucky enough to ‘own’ these awesome monuments.

Parts of its 8,850 kilometer length date back to approximately the 7th century BCE
when the ancient states of Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi and Zhongshan, each built defensive
walls and fortifications along their borders. These walls, very little of them remain
today, were mainly constructed out of earth and gravel packed between wooden
frames and were erected to keep out the Xiongnu people from the north. Some
experts believe that maybe as many as a million workers died during the
construction.

The Great Wall of China, runs from Shanhaiguan in the east all the way to Lop
Lake in the west and includes 6, 259 kilometers of stone and brick wall, 359
kilometres of trenches and 2, 232 kilometers of natural defences such as hills and
rivers.

The history of this amazing structure began, with the Qin Dynasty walls. These
walls fell into disrepair over the years and the concept of state protection behind
fortified walls to keep enemies out wasn’t resurrected until during the famous Ming
Dynasty during the 14th century AD when long running problems with the Mongol
tribes of both Outer and Inner Mongolia prompted the construction of much
stronger walls — these were made out of stone, bricks and rammed earth and had
an estimated 25,000 watchtowers and were especially strong in the area close to
Beijing, which was the Ming capital.

The Great Wall was essential in protecting the Ming Dynasty Empire during the
Manchu invasions that started in 1600 AD and continued until 1644, when the
Manchu’s were victorious and the Ming Dynasty fell and was replaced by the Qing
Dynasty instead. The Qing’s were pretty ferocious people and after a series of
battles were able to add Mongolia to their empire and, as a direct result of this, the
previously never ending maintenance of the Great Wall was no longer necessary,
so parts of it resulted in a poor state.
During its incredibly long life, the Great Wall kept out raiders who were hungry for
the fabled riches of China, was manned by millions of soldiers based in thousands
of fortresses and fortified posts from which warning signals were passed down its
length by use of fires and their smoke and by mirrors flashing coded signals. On
some stretches of the wall, it was wide and strong enough for horsemen to gallop
along en masse and for whole battalions of heavily armoured and armed troops to
march, which must have been an imposing sight indeed.

Gates and other entrances through the walls also came in extremely useful as tax
collection points as it was an easy matter to check what travellers and merchants
were bringing in and out of the Empire and to impose customs dues accordingly.