15 Outstanding Facts about the Great Wall of China

15 Outstanding Facts about the Great Wall of China

A series of fortification is The Great Wall Of China built of stone, wood, brick and earth. It is one of the oldest and the largest human achievements. Holding a very important place in the history of China, The Great Wall has some amazing facts about it.

 

1. The Great Wall of China is not one consistent wall, butis rather a collection of walls. It is a 20,000 kilometer long network of walls.

 

1. During the Qin Dynasty, the convicted criminals were given duties at the Great Wall for regular construction and maintenance.

 

1. The Great Wall has been considered the longest cemetery in the world as many people have died while it was under construction. There is a well-known story of the “Men Jiangnu’s Bitter Weeping”— the story of a woman whose husband died while building the wall; her cry was so bitter that a part of the wall collapsed and revealed the bones of her husband which she could bury herself.

 

1. The Great Wall of China, ironically, is not a part of the Seven Wonders of the World, but rather it is a part of the “Seven Worlds of the Medieval World.”

 

1. After immense research it has been proven that The Great Wall is not visible from space even though it can be sighted from low orbits.

 

1. During the period of 1960s-1970s, the bricks of The Great Wall were taken in order to build houses for the civilians.

 

1. Unknown parts of The Great Wall were recently discovered in 2012. According to some archaeologists, the northernmost sections of the Wall are yet to be discovered.

 

1. The Great Wall has been built with an amazing material including the glutinous rice, also known as “sticky rice.” The substance which makes it sticky— amylopectin, has resulted in The Wall’s strength to endure.

 

1. It is believed that to provide the dead laborers with peace, the mourners used to cross the Wall with a rooster in tow in order to guide the soul away from the Wall.

 

1. The Wall has been given several names since the time it was constructed. The Americans, Germans, French and the people of United Kingdom commonly referred to it as the “The Great Wall Of China.” While the other Western countries called it the “The Chinese Wall.” Ultimately, the name it was given by the Chinese was “The Long Wall.”

 

1. There have been predictions that the Wall might lose its several sections before 2040.

 

1. The Great Wall was mainly built in order to keep out the invaders from China. But the Manchurian invasion was through the Great Wall, leading to the failure of its main aim.

 

1. The Wall is visited by over 10 million tourists every year. Its most famous sight—Badaling, is visited by over 300 heads of states and VIPs from across the world.

 

1. The Great Wall has several temples built on it to pay homage to the Chinese general, Guan Yu.

 

1. An ancient Chinese poem, The Shijing, had predicted the proper construction of The Wall.

 

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