There are many people who are living in this world and everyone has different

personalities. There are no two people who have the exactly same personalities.
Everyone in this world is unique in their own ways. One's personality is something
that does not change which makes one unique and special. As for me, I am a
responsible and sympathetic person, however, I am a self-centered person as well
who may have made enemies with a lot of people.
I am a pretty responsible person and I do what I am supposed to do. As
now, I am a student in school, therefore I do my homework every single day and
study for what I have learned at home. I also pay attention in class most of the
time as well. Besides that, I organize my work as well. At home, I am a child, so I
respect my parents and help them to do house works, such as doing laundries and
washing dishes. I clean my room once a week as well because that is my
responsibility as being a child. I also help out friends and classmates when they
need help. I give out advices and suggestions to them when they need support
and help as well. Generally, I can say that I am a responsible person who does my
duties.
Besides being a responsible person, I am also a person who is sympathetic.
I have been a sympathetic person when I was really young. For example, when I
walk on the street and saw some handicapped people or vagrants, I would help
them by giving them money or whatever things that I can do for them to have a
better living. When I see animals without a home, I feel sorry for them and I might
buy some food for them to eat. I used to donate money to the charities for
orphans with my family as well. I feel sympathetic to many people in the world
and therefore I do something to help them have a better living.
Even though I am a sympathetic person, however, I am a self-centered
person as well. Since I am the only child, I have been kind of spoiled by my
parents. When I was youn

'Myself' Essay....
ForumsEssay, Report, Composition & Dialogue Writing

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707,695
Hello,

I'm trying to describe myself in an essay (this is my 2nd trial in writing). But apparently
I've lacked with ideas. Could someone check this for me, please? Would you mind giving
me more ideas in order to produce a better essay. I'll appreciate any help.

My name is Maisara but I'd like to be called as Sara. I'm 29 years old and a married
woman. I'm the second child and the only girl among my 3 brothers in my nuclear
family. I'm very closed with my parents and all of my siblings especially with my
youngest brother since he lived with me and my husband.

I think my family tree is unique because I have a cross-cultural extended family. I have
uncles and aunts (from my father side) with a different religious beliefs and cultures
which are Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and Pagan. Therefore, we always had a great time
gathering together especially when it comes to a festival and celebration days like on
Eid Al-Fitr, Christmas, Chinese New Year, Diwali and wedding ceremonies as well. In fact,
this is a common situation in my country especially in my home town.

Malaysia actually has two regions which are Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo
(also known as East Malaysia) and they're separated by South China Sea. I live in Sabah
which is situated in Borneo. In my country, Sabah is also known as A Land below the
Wind'. We have several of mountains along with a green mountain ranges and natural
lifes. We also have lots of beautiful island and white sandy beaches along our coast. It's
a right destination for people who love snorkeling or scuba diving.

I also love to watch film, listen to music or visiting to my sibling's house in my spare
time. Other than that, I love to travel as well. My husband and I always spend our
holidays to go to new places whether it's in our country or to go abroad.

I took Psychology Counselling while I was in University. After I graduated, I work as a

Counsellor in Juvenile Centre which is been under Social Welfare Department for about
5 years. I love my job because it gives me a lot of experiences and shows me a different
range of life backgrounds and human behaviours specifically for the youth. All these
experiences are useful to myself and make me realize how I should be grateful for
having a nice and loving family.

However, sometimes I've had a hard time since there are a lot of challenges as well. But
even so, I've tried to look in a positive side, because I know dealing with human isn't an
easy thing. In order to improve my work performance and myself, I believe there are still
many things I have to learn, and need to strive for having a better life in the future.
Thank you in advance for any help.

I am a self-driven, motivated female. I have always been an academically bright

student. I have capability to work under extremely stressful conditions. Being
qualified in Agricultural sciences, I am used to working long and hard hours,
around the clock. In fact, my work keeps the fires burning for me. Besides having
Masters qualification in Agronomy (Crop Sciences) from one of the best
universities of the world, i.e. Punjab Agricultural University, I have also done
Masters in Bioinformatics and a Masters Diploma in Environmental Sciences.

Throughout my academic tenure, I have always attained good grades and I have
also been a merit scholarship holder in Punjab Agriculture University also.

My interests include, surfing the world wide web in order to keep updating my
knowledge. I guess, my basic instinct, is to keep learning and exploring, all the
times. Reading has been my hobby since childhood, and it is an activity, in which i
spend most of my weekend time, till date. I can read anything; ranging from
newspapers, magazines, to science journals.

Learning human nature is one of my other interests. Nature of every human being
is so unpredictable and diverse; studying, how different persons respond under
various circumstances, is what i really love. It is such an interesting hobby, as you
tend to learn so many different aspects of an individuals personality.

One of my other interests is, shopping. Even if it is just window shopping, I find
myself always ready for. I guess the process of shopping also involves exploring
various articles, in search of finding the perfect article of your choice. This could
be a reason, that shopping interests me.

As a person, i think, i am sensitive, yet self-contained. Yes, At times, i find it hard

to hide my emotions, though, in general I have a good control over the way, and I
carry myself.

Another aspect of my personality is that, i am a very creative person. I think,

creativity is the key to any problem / situation. One has to think creatively in
order to break down a problem into the smaller and more manageable
components.

Yes, I am an Excellent Research Writer. I am well versed with the various formats,
in which research papers are written. I have written more than ten research
papers, of national and international repute. List of the same is attached herewith
also.

Further, writing a research paper does, not only include a thorough

understanding of the technical aspects of writing, but it also involves an analytic
approach to understand the situation/problem thoroughly.

Next, it is imperative to design a proper research methodology, besides having

sharp observational skills. Above all, a researcher must have an unending desire
to explore the things. I think, it is this particular trait which makes me, also a
successful research writer.

A research writer must be able to think coherently and logically. In fact, a good
researcher is like a detective who must be able to explore, each and every
outcome of a particular situation/problem, before arising at a conclusion.

A person, who is just a keen observer cannot be a good researcher, but a good
researcher must also possess the quality of being able to jot down his results, in a
comprehensible manner, so that valid conclusions could be drawn out of it. The
researcher should not only be able to conclude his findings, but he must also have
the capability to write the outcomes in a logical and easily comprehensible
manner; it is only then, that his work becomes of real use to the society at large
and the research community in particular.

My name is Saffi Rashid. I was born on the 25th of July in 1993, which means I am
18 years old now. I have got 4 siblings; en elder sister and 3 younger brothers.
Then I have got my mom and dad too. I'm mostly close with my sister, as she's the
only sister I have. However, I do love my brothers too and make the most of it
whenever I am with them.

I have been living and studying in Denmark untill I was in 7th class (14 years old),
then I moved to England with my family. I finished off my highschool and took 1
years in college, then I moved back to Denmark again. It just didn't work out with
me and my family. So now we're back in Denmark and I have started in 'Avedre
Gymnasium' and hopefully I will be able to finish off with some great grades and
then I plan to study abroad in England. The field I am thinking to study in is;
Medicine. England is a great country with great opportunities, so I will have no
doubt, when It'll come down to choose a country.

I love going to school and I have always taken my studies very seriously. I have
never said to anyone in my life, that 'I hate studies'. Many people find me as a
geek, but I only see that as a compliment rather than an insult. I have got big
dreams, when it comes to studies. Since I was 6 years old, I decided to be a
doctor. So that is my goal and I always try to aim to do my best at school, so
hopefully my hard work will pay off in the end. I don't really know why I decided
to be a doctor. I just love hospitals. Although I do feel very sorry whenever I see
the poor patients in there, but just the fact that we have got hospitals to cure
people is a great thing. Caring for people has always been my desire. Whenever I
see someone, who I think need careness or help, I am always willing to help them.

Some interests I have got are; reading books, wacthing movies, cooking and
praying. I love to read books, because books can always be true friends. They
never demand neither do they complain. This is the way I look upon books.
Mostly I read novels. Currently I am reading a novel called "The Blind Assasin".
Moving on to favourite movies; Titanic, Romeo & Juliet, Crash, Twilight. Basically
the list can go on and on. I must be up to date with the latest movies.

Cooking has been a huge interest of mine. My mom's a great cook- especially in
asian cooking. I think I have got it from her. From my point of view, having
learned how to cook, makes a persons life much easier.

Then last but not least I love praying. I pray as much as I can. Being a muslim and
not praying, just doesn't go together, so that is why I pray. I also feel that
whenever I pray, it helps me getting forward and achieving more and more.

The history of the Great Wall of China began when fortifications built by
various states during the Spring and Autumn (771476 BC)[1] and Warring
States periods (475221 BC) were connected by the first emperor of China, Qin Shi
Huang, to protect his newly founded Qin dynasty (221206 BC) against incursions
by nomads from Inner Asia. The walls were built of rammed earth, constructed
using forced labour, and by 212 BC ran from Gansu to the coast of
southern Manchuria.
Later dynasties adopted and different policies towards northern frontier defense.
The Han (202 BC 220 AD), the Northern Qi (550574), the Sui (589618), and
particularly the Ming (13691644) were among those that rebuilt, re-manned,
and expanded the Walls, although they rarely followed Qin's routes. The Han
extended the fortifications furthest to the west, the Qi built about 1,600
kilometres (990 mi) of new walls, while the Sui mobilised over a million men in
their wall-building efforts. Conversely, the Tang (618907), the Song (9601279),
the Yuan (12711368), and the Qing (16441911) mostly did not build frontier
walls, instead opting for other solutions to the Inner Asian threat like military
campaigning and diplomacy.
Although a useful deterrent against raids, at several points throughout its history
the Great Wall failed to stop enemies, including in 1644 when the Manchu Qing
marched through the gates of Shanhai Passand replaced the most ardent of the
wall-building dynasties, the Ming, as rulers of China.
The Great Wall of China visible today largely dates from the Ming dynasty, as they
rebuilt much of the wall in stone and brick, often extending its line through
challenging terrain.[2] Some sections remain in relatively good condition or have
been renovated, while others have been damaged or destroyed for ideological
reasons,[3] deconstructed for their building materials,[3] or lost due to the ravages
of time.[4] For long an object of fascination for foreigners, the wall is now a
revered national symbol and a popular tourist destination.[5]

Geographical considerations[edit]

Topographical map of China's northern frontier area, with modern political

boundaries. Manchuria, unmarked, is to the east of Inner Mongolia.
The conflict between the Chinese and the nomads, from which the need for the
Great Wall arose, stemmed from differences in geography. The 15" isohyet marks
the extent of settled agriculture, dividing the fertile fields of China to the south
and the semi-arid grasslands of Inner Asia to the north.[6] The climates and the
topography of the two regions led to distinct modes of societal development.[7]
According to the model by sinologist Karl August Wittfogel, the loess soils
of Shaanxi made it possible for the Chinese to develop irrigated agriculture early
on. Although this allowed them to expand into the lower reaches of the Yellow
River valley,[8]such extensive waterworks on an ever-increasing scale required
collective labour, something that could only be managed by some form of
bureaucracy.[9] Thus the scholar-bureaucrats came to the fore to keep track of the
income and expenses of the granaries. Walled cities grew up around the granaries
for reasons of defence along with ease of administration; they kept invaders out
and ensured that citizens remained within.[10] These cities combined to
become feudal states, which eventually united to become an empire. Likewise,
according to this model, walls not only enveloped cities as time went by, but also
lined the borders of the feudal states and eventually the whole Chinese empire to
provide protection against raids from the agrarian northern steppes.[9]
The steppe societies of Inner Asia, whose climate favoured a pastoral economy,
stood in stark contrast to the Chinese mode of development. As animal herds are
migratory by nature, communities could not afford to be stationary and therefore
evolved as nomads. According to the influential Mongolist Owen Lattimore this
lifestyle proved to be incompatible with the Chinese economic model.[11] As the
steppe population grew, pastoral agriculture alone could not support the
population, and tribal alliances needed to be maintained by material rewards. For
these needs, the nomads had to turn to the settled societies to get grains, metal
tools, and luxury goods, which they could not produce by themselves. If denied
trade by the settled peoples, the nomads would resort to raiding or even
conquest.[12]
Potential nomadic incursion from three main areas of Inner Asia caused concern
to northern China: Mongolia to the north, Manchuria to the northeast,
and Xinjiang to the northwest.[13] Of the three, China's chief concern since the
earliest times had been Mongolia the home of many of the country's fiercest
enemies including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Khitans, and the Mongols.
The Gobi Desert, which accounts for two-thirds of Mongolia's area, divided the
main northern and southern grazing lands and pushed the pastoral nomads to the
fringes of the steppe. On the southern side (Inner Mongolia), this pressure
brought the nomads into contact with China.[14]
For the most part, barring intermittent passes and valleys (the major one being
the corridor through Zhangjiakou and the Juyong Pass), the North China
Plain remained shielded from the Mongolian steppe by the Yin
Mountains.[15] However, if this defence were breached, China's flat terrain offered
no protection to the cities on the plain, including the imperial capitals
of Beijing, Kaifeng, and Luoyang.[16] Heading west along the Yin Mountains, the
range ends where the Yellow River circles northwards upstream in the area
known as the Ordos Looptechnically part of the steppe, but capable of irrigated
agriculture. Although the Yellow River formed a theoretical natural boundary with
the north, such a border so far into the steppe was difficult to maintain. The lands
south of the Yellow Riverthe Hetao, the Ordos Desert, and the Loess Plateau
provided no natural barriers on the approach to the Wei River valley, the oft-
called cradle of Chinese civilization where the ancient capital Xi'an lay. As such,
control of the Ordos remained extremely important for the rulers of China: not
only for potential influence over the steppe, but also for the security of China
proper. The region's strategic importance combined with its untenability led many
dynasties to place their first walls here.[17]
Although Manchuria is home to the agricultural lands of the Liao River valley, its
location beyond the northern mountains relegated it to the relative periphery of
Chinese concern. When Chinese state control became weak, at various points in
history Manchuria fell under the control of the forest peoples of the area,
including the Jurchens and the Manchus. The most crucial route that links
Manchuria and the North China Plain is a narrow coastal strip of land, wedged
between the Bohai Sea and the Yan Mountains, called the Shanhai Pass(literally
the "mountain and sea pass").[18] The pass gained much importance during the
later dynasties, when the capital was set in Beijing, a mere 300 kilometres (190
miles) away. In addition to the Shanhai Pass, a handful of mountain passes also
provide access from Manchuria into China through the Yan Mountains, chief
among them the Gubeikou and Xifengkou (Chinese: ).[19]
Xinjiang, considered part of the Turkestan region, consists of an amalgamation of
deserts, oases, and dry steppe barely suitable for agriculture.[18] When influence
from the steppe powers of Mongolia waned, the various Central Asian oasis
kingdoms and nomadic clans like the Gktrks and Uyghurs were able to form
their own states and confederations that threatened China at times. China proper
is connected to this area by the Hexi Corridor, a narrow string of oases bounded
by the Gobi Desert to the north and the high Tibetan Plateau to the south.[20] In
addition to considerations of frontier defence, the Hexi Corridor also formed an
important part of the Silk Road trade route. Thus it was also in China's economic
interest to control this stretch of land, and hence the Great Wall's western
terminus is in this corridorthe Yumen Pass during Han times and the Jiayu
Pass during the Ming dynasty and thereafter.[21]

Pre-Imperial China (7th century 221 BC)[edit]

Remnants of the Great Wall of Qion Dafeng Mountain, Changqing District, Jinan,
which was once part of the ancient State of Qi during the Warring States Period.
One of the first mentions of a wall built against northern invaders is found in a
poem, dated from the seventh century BC, recorded in the Classic of Poetry. The
poem tells of a king, now identified as King Xuan (r. 827 782 BC) of the Western
Zhou dynasty (1046 771 BC), who commanded General Nan Zhong () to
build a wall in the northern regions to fend off the Xianyun.[22] The Xianyun,
whose base of power was in the Ordos region, were regarded as part of the
charioteering Rong tribes,[23] and their attacks aimed at the early Zhou capital
region of Haojing were probably the reason for King Xuan's response.[22] Nan
Zhong's campaign was recorded as a great victory. However, only a few years
later in 771 BC another branch of the Rong people, the Quanrong, responded to a
summons by the renegade Marquess of Shenby over-running the Zhou defences
and laying waste to the capital. The cataclysmic event killed King Xuan's
successor King You (795771 BC), forced the court to move the capital east to
Chengzhou (, later known as Luoyang) a year later, and thus ushered in
the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770256 BC). Most importantly, the fall of Western
Zhou redistributed power to the states that had acknowledged Zhou's nominal
rulership. The rule of the Eastern Zhou dynasty was marked by bloody interstate
anarchy. With smaller states being annexed and larger states waging constant war
upon one another, many rulers came to feel the need to erect walls to protect
their borders. Of the earliest textual reference to such a wall was the State of
Chu's wall of 656 BC, 1,400 metres (4,600 feet) of which were excavated in
southern Henanprovince in the modern era. The State of Qi also had fortified
borders up by the 7th century BC, and the extant portions in Shandong province
had been christened the Great Wall of Qi. The State of Wei built two walls, the
western one completed in 361 BC and the eastern in 356 BC, with the extant
western wall found in Hancheng, Shaanxi.[24] Even non-Chinese peoples built
walls, such as the Di state of Zhongshan and the Yiqu Rong (), whose walls
were intended to defend against the State of Qin.[25]
Of these walls, those of the northern states Yan, Zhao, and Qin were connected
by Qin Shi Huang when he united the Chinese states in 221 BC.[25]
Map of the Warring States and their frontier walls
The State of Yan, the easternmost of the three northern states, began to erect
walls after the general Qin Kai drove the Donghupeople back "a thousand li"
during the reign of King Zhao (; r. 311279 BC).[26] The Yan wall stretched
from the Liaodong peninsula, through Chifeng, and into northern Hebei, possibly
bringing its western terminus near the Zhao walls.[27] Another Yan wall was
erected to the south to defend against the Zhao; it was southwest of present-day
Beijing and ran parallel to the Juma River for several dozen miles.[28]
The Zhao walls to the north were built under King Wuling of Zhao (r. 325299 BC),
whose groundbreaking introduction of nomadic cavalry into his army reshaped
Chinese warfare and gave Zhao an initial advantage over his opponents. He
attacked the Xiongnu tribes of Linhu () and Loufan () to the north, then
waged war on the state of Zhongshan until it was annexed in 296 BC. In the
process, he constructed the northernmost fortified frontier deep in nomadic
territory.[29] The Zhao walls were dated in the 1960s to be from King Wuling's
reign:[30] a southern long wall in northern Henan encompassing the Yanmen
Pass;[31] a second line of barricades encircling the Ordos Loop, extending
from Zhangjiakou in the east to the ancient fortress of Gaoque () in the Urad
Front Banner; and a third, northernmost line along the southern slopes of the Yin
Mountains, extending from Qinghe in the east, passing north of Hohhot, and
into Baotou.[32]
Qin was originally a state on the western fringe of the Chinese political sphere,
but it grew into a formidable power in the later parts of the Warring States
period when it aggressively expanded in all directions. In the north, the state of
Wei and the Yiqu built walls to protect themselves from Qin aggression, but were
still unable to stop Qin from eating into their territories. The Qin reformist Shang
Yang forced the Wei out of their walled area west of the Yellow River in 340 BC,
and King Huiwen of Qin (r. 338311 BC) took 25 Yiqu forts in a northern
offensive.[33] When King Huiwen died, his widow the Queen Dowager Xuan acted
as regent because the succeeding sons were deemed too young to govern. During
the reign of King Zhaoxiang (r. 306251 BC), the queen dowager apparently
entered illicit relations with the Yiqu king and gave birth to two of his sons, but
later tricked and killed the Yiqu king. Following that coup, the Qin army marched
into Yiqu territory at the queen dowager's orders; the Qin annihilated the Yiqu
remnants and thus came to possess the Ordos region.[34] At this point the Qin built
a wall around their new territories to defend against the true nomads even
further north, incorporating the Wei walls. As a result, an estimated total of 1,775
kilometres (1,103 mi) of Qin walls (including spurts) extended from
southern Gansu to the bank of the Yellow River in the Jungar Banner, close to the
border with Zhao at the time.[35]
The walls, known as Changcheng () literally "long walls", but often
translated as "Great Wall"[36] were mostly constructed of tamped earth, with
some parts built with stones. Where natural barriers like ravines and rivers
sufficed for defence, the walls were erected sparingly, but long fortified lines
were laid where such advantageous terrains did not exist. Often in addition to the
wall, the defensive system included garrisons and beacon towers inside the wall,
and watchtowers outside at regular intervals.[37] In terms of defence, the walls
were generally effective at countering cavalry shock tactics,[38] but there are
doubts as to whether these early walls were actually defensive in nature. Nicola
Di Cosmo points out that the northern frontier walls were built far to the north
and included traditionally nomadic lands, and so rather than being defensive, the
walls indicate the northward expansions of the three northern states and their
desire to safeguard their recent territorial acquisitions.[39] This theory is supported
by the archeological discovery of nomadic artifacts within the walls, suggesting
the presence of pre-existing or conquered barbarian societies.[40] It is entirely
possible, as Western scholars like di Cosmo and Lattimore suggest, that nomadic
aggression against the Chinese in the coming centuries was partly caused by
Chinese expansionism during this period.[41]
Qin dynasty (221206 BC)[edit]

Qin dynasty frontier walls

In 221 BC, the state of Qin completed its conquest over the other Warring
States and united China under Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. These
conquests, combined with the Legalist reforms started by Shang Yang in the 4th
century BC, transformed China from a loose confederation of feudal states to an
authoritarian empire. With the transformation, Qin became able to command a
far greater assembly of labourers to be used in public works than the prior feudal
kingdoms.[42] Also, once unification was achieved, Qin found itself in possession of
a large professional army with no more internal enemies to fight and thus had to
find a new use for them.[43] Soon after the conquests, in the year 215 BC, the
emperor sent the famed general Meng Tian to the Ordos region to drive out
the Xiongnu nomads settled there, who had risen from beyond the fallen marginal
states along the northern frontier. Qin's campaign against the Xiongnu was
preemptive in nature, since there was no pressing nomadic menace to be faced at
the time; its aim was to annexe the ambiguous territories of the Ordos and to
clearly define the Qin's northern borders.[44] Once the Xiongnu were chased away,
Meng Tian introduced 30,000 settler families to colonize the newly conquered
territories.[45]
Wall configurations were changed to reflect the new borders under the Qin.
General Meng Tian erected walls beyond the northern loop of the Yellow River,
effectively linking the border walls of Qin, Zhao, and Yan. Concurrent to the
building of the frontier wall was the destruction of the walls within China that
used to divide one warring state from anothercontrary to the outer walls, which
were built to stabilize the newly united China, the inner walls threatened the
unity of the empire. In the following year, 214 BC, Qin Shi Huang ordered new
fortifications to be built along the Yellow River to the west of the Ordos while
work continued in the north. This work was completed probably by 212 BC,
signalled by Qin Shi Huang's imperial tour of inspection and the construction of
the Direct Road () connecting the capital Xianyang with the Ordos.[46] The
result was a series of long walls running from Gansu to the seacoast in
Manchuria.[47]
Details of the construction were not found in the official histories,[48] but it could
be inferred that the construction conditions were made especially difficult by the
long stretches of mountains and semi-desert that the Great Wall traversed, the
sparse populations of these areas, and the frigid winter climate. Although the
walls were rammed earth, so the bulk of the building material could be found in
situ, transportation of additional supplies and labour remained difficult for the
reasons named above. The sinologist Derk Bodde posits in The Cambridge History
of China that "for every man whom Meng Tian could put to work at the scene of
actual construction, dozens must have been needed to build approaching roads
and to transport supplies."[49] This is supported by the Han dynasty
statesman Zhufu Yan's description of Qin Shi Huang's Ordos project in 128 BC:
... the land was brackish and arid, crops could not be grown on them. ... At the
time, the young men being drafted were forced to haul boats and barges loaded
with baggage trains upstream to sustain a steady supply of food and fodder to the
front. ... Commencing at the departure point a man and his animal could carry
thirty zhong(about 176 kilograms (388 lb)) of food supply, by the time they
arrived at the destination, they merely delivered one dan (about 29 kilograms
(64 lb)) of supply. ... When the populace had become tired and weary they started
to dissipate and abscond. The orphans, the frail, the widowed and the seniors
were desperately trying to escape from their appallingly derelict state and died on
the wayside as they wandered away from their home. People started to revolt.[50]
The settlement of the north continued up to Qin Shi Huang's death in 210 BC,
upon which Meng Tian was ordered to commit suicide in a succession conspiracy.
Before killing himself, Meng Tian expressed regret for his walls: "Beginning at
Lintao and reaching to Liaodong, I built walls and dug moats for more than ten
thousand li; was it not inevitable that I broke the earth's veins along the way? This
then was my offense."[51]
Meng Tian's settlements in the north were abandoned, and the Xiongnu nomads
moved back into the Ordos Loop as the Qin empire became consumed by
widespread rebellion due to public discontent. Owen Lattimore concluded that
the whole project relied upon military power to enforce agriculture on a land
more suited for herding, resulting in "the anti-historical paradox of attempting
two mutually exclusive forms of development simultaneously" that was doomed
to fail.[45]

Han dynasty (206 BC220 AD)[edit]

Western Han dynasty frontier walls and the extent of its territory
See also: History of the Han dynasty
In 202 BC, the former peasant Liu Bang emerged victorious from the ChuHan
Contention that followed the rebellion that toppled the Qin dynasty, and
proclaimed himself Emperor of the Han dynasty, becoming known as Emperor
Gaozu of Han (r. 202195 BC) to posterity. Unable to address the problem of the
resurgent Xiongnu in the Ordos region through military means, Emperor Gaozu
was forced to appease the Xiongnu. In exchange for peace, the Han offered
tributes along with princesses to marry off to the Xiongnu chiefs. These
diplomatic marriages would become known as heqin, and the terms specified that
the Great Wall (determined to be either the Warring States period Qin state
wall[52] or a short stretch of wall south of Yanmen Pass[53]) was to serve as the line
across which neither party would venture.[54] In 162 BC, Gaozu's son Emperor
Wen clarified the agreement, suggesting the Xiongnu chanyu held authority north
of the Wall and the Han emperor held authority south of it.[55] Sima Qian, the
author of the Records of the Grand Historian, describes the result of this
agreement as one of peace and friendship: "from the chanyu downwards, all the
Xiongnu grew friendly with the Han, coming and going along the Long
Wall".[56] However, Chinese records show that the Xiongnu often did not respect
the agreement, as the Xiongnu cavalry numbering up to 100,000 made several
intrusions into Han territory despite the intermarriage.[57]
To Chinese minds, the heqin policy was humiliating and ran contrary to
the Sinocentric world order like "a person hanging upside down", as the
statesman Jia Yi (d. 169 BC) puts it.[56] These sentiments manifested themselves in
the Han court in the form of the pro-war faction, who advocated the reversal of
Han's policy of appeasement. By the reign of Emperor Wu (r. 14187 BC), the Han
felt comfortable enough to go to war with the Xiongnu. After a botched attempt
at luring the Xiongnu army into an ambush at the Battle of Mayiin 133 BC,[58] the
era of heqin-style appeasement was broken and the HanXiongnu War went into
full swing.[59]
The ruins of a Han dynasty (202 BC 220 AD) Chinese watchtower made
of rammed earth, Gansu province. Part of Emperor Wu's extension of Han's
defence lines to the western regions.

A video clip showing rammed earth ruins of the Han-period Great Wall
at Dunhuang in Gansu province
As the HanXiongnu War progressed in favour of the Han, the Wall became
maintained and extended beyond Qin lines. In 127 BC, General Wei Qing invaded
the much-contested Ordos region as far as the Qin fortifications set up by Meng
Tian. In this way, Wei Qing reconquered the irrigable lands north of the Ordos and
restored the spur of defences protecting that territory from the steppe.[60] In
addition to rebuilding the walls, archeologists believe that the Han also erected
thousands of kilometres of walls from Hebei to Inner Mongolia during Emperor
Wu's reign.[61] The fortifications here include embankments, beacon stations, and
forts, all constructed with a combination of tamped-earth cores and stone
frontages.[62] From the Ordos Loop, the sporadic and non-continuous Han Great
Wall followed the northern edge of the Hexi Corridor through the cities
of Wuwei, Zhangye, and Jiuquan, leading into the Juyan Lake Basin, and
terminating in two places: the Yumen Pass in the north, or the Yang Pass to the
south, both in the vicinity of Dunhuang.[63] Yumen Pass was the most westerly of
all Han Chinese fortifications further west than the western terminus of the
Ming Great Wall at Jiayu Pass, about 460 kilometres (290 mi) to the east. The
garrisons of the watchtowers on the wall were supported by civilian farming and
by military agricultural colonies known as tuntian. Behind this line of
fortifications, the Han government was able to maintain its settlements and its
communications to the Western Regions in central Asia, generally secure from
attacks from the north.[64]
The campaigns against the Xiongnu and other nomadic peoples of the west
exhausted the imperial treasury, and the expansionist policies were reverted in
favour of peace under Emperor Wu's successors. The peace was largely respected
even when the Han throne was usurped by the minister Wang Mang in 9 AD,
beginning a brief 15-year interregnum known as the Xin dynasty (923). Despite
high tensions between the Xin and the Xiongnu resulting in the deployment of
300,000 men on the Great Wall, no major fighting broke out beyond minor
raids.[65] Instead, popular discontent led to banditry and, ultimately, full-scale
rebellion. The civil war ended with the Liu clan on the throne again, beginning the
Eastern Han dynasty (25220).[66]
The restorer Emperor Guangwu (r. 2557 AD) initiated several projects to
consolidate his control within the frontier regions. Defense works were
established to the east of the Yanmen Pass, with a line of fortifications and
beacon fires stretching from Pingcheng County (present-day Datong) through the
valley of the Sanggan River to Dai County, Shanxi.[67] By 38 AD, as a result of raids
by the Xiongnu further to the west against the Wei River valley, orders were given
for a series of walls to be constructed as defences for the Fen River, the
southward course of the Yellow River, and the region of the former imperial
capital, Chang'an.[68] These constructions were defensive in nature, which marked
a shift from the offensive walls of the preceding Emperor Wu and the rulers of the
Warring States. By the early 40s AD the northern frontiers of China had
undergone drastic change: the line of the imperial frontier followed not the
advanced positions conquered by Emperor Wu but the rear defences indicated
roughly by the modern (Ming dynasty) Great Wall. The Ordos region, northern
Shanxi, and the upper Luan River basin around Chengde[69] were abandoned and
left to the control of the Xiongnu.[70] The rest of the frontier remained somewhat
intact until the end of the Han dynasty, with the Dunhuang
manuscripts (discovered in 1900) indicating that the military establishment in the
northwest was maintained for most of the Eastern Han period.[71]
Period of Disunity to the Sui dynasty (220618)[edit]
Following the end of the Han dynasty in 220, China disintegrated into warlord
states, which in 280 were briefly reunited under the Western Jin dynasty (265
316). There are ambiguous accounts of the Jin rebuilding the Qin wall,[72] but
these walls apparently offered no resistance during the Wu Hu uprising, when the
nomadic tribes of the steppe evicted the Chinese court from northern China.
What followed was a succession of short-lived states in northern China known as
the Sixteen Kingdoms, until they were all consolidated by the Xianbei-
led Northern Wei dynasty (386535).[73]
As Northern Wei became more economically dependent on agriculture, the
Xianbei emperors made a conscious decision to adopt Chinese customs, including
passive methods of frontier defence. In 423, a defence line over 2,000 li (1,080
kilometres (670 mi)) long was built to resist the Rouran; its path roughly followed
the old Zhao wall from Chicheng County in Hebei Province to Wuyuan County,
Inner Mongolia.[74] In 446, 100,000 men were put to work building an inner wall
from Yanqing, passing south of the Wei capital Pingcheng, and ending up near
Pingguan on the eastern bank of the Yellow River. The two walls formed the basis
of the double-layered XuanfuDatong wall system that protected Beijing a
thousand years later during the Ming dynasty.[75]
The Northern Wei collapsed in 535 due to civil insurrection to be eventually
succeeded by the Northern Qi (550575) and Northern Zhou (557580). Faced
with the threat of the Gktrks from the north, from 552 to 556 the Qi built up to
3,000 li (about 1,600 kilometres (990 mi)) of wall from Shanxi to the sea
at Shanhai Pass.[76] Over the course of the year 555 alone, 1.8 million men were
mobilized to build the Juyong Pass and extend its wall by 450 kilometres (280 mi)
through Datong to the eastern banks of the Yellow River.[77] In 557 a secondary
wall was built inside the main one.[72] These walls were built quickly from local
earth and stones or formed by natural barriers. Two stretches of the stone-and-
earth Qi wall still stand in Shanxi today, measuring 3.3 metres (11 ft) wide at their
bases and 3.5 metres (11 ft) high on average.[77] In 577 the Northern Zhou
conquered the Northern Qi and in 580 made repairs to the existing Qi walls. The
route of the Qi and Zhou walls would be mostly followed by the later Ming wall
west of Gubeikou,[76] which includes reconstructed walls from Qi and Zhou.[72] In
more recent times, the reddish remnants of the Zhou ramparts in Hebei gave rise
to the nickname "Red Wall".[77]
The Sui took power from the Northern Zhou in 581 before reuniting China in 589.
Sui's founding emperor, Emperor Wen of Sui (r. 581604), carried out
considerable wall construction in 581 in Hebei and Shanxi to defend
against Ishbara Qaghan of the Gktrks. The new walls proved insufficient in 582
when Ishbara Qaghan avoided them by riding west to raid Gansu and Shaanxi
with 400,000 archers.[78] Between 585 and 588 Emperor Wen sought to close this
gap by putting walls up in the Ordos Mountains (between Suide and Lingwu) and
Inner Mongolia. In 586 as many as 150,000 men are recorded as involved in the
construction.[79] Emperor Wen's son Emperor Yang (r. 604618) continued to
build walls. In 607608 he sent over a million men to build a wall from Yulin to
near Huhhot[72] to protect the newly refurbished eastern capital Luoyang.[80] Part
of the Sui wall survives to this day in Inner Mongolia as earthen ramparts some
2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) high with towers rising to double that.[80] The dynastic
history of Sui estimates that 500,000 people died building the wall,[81] adding to
the number of casualties caused by Emperor Yang's projects including the
aforementioned redesign of Luoyang, the Grand Canal, and two ill-
fated campaigns against Goguryeo. With the economy strained and the populace
resentful, the Sui dynasty erupted in rebellion and ended with the assassination
of Emperor Yang in 618.[82]

Tang dynasty (618907)[edit]

() Under the Wall (Viewing Lintao)
My horse crosses the river in autumn,
The cold wind off the water cuts like a knife.
Across the desert flats, the day is not yet finished,
I can dimly make out Lintao.
In olden days, battles along the Long Wall
Were described with praise and awe.
But today, the past is no more than yellow dust
White bones jostled amongst the grass.
Wang Changling (698755)[83]
Frontier policy under the Tang dynasty reversed the
wall-building activities of most previous dynasties
that had occupied northern China since the third
century BC, and no extensive wall building took
place for the next several hundred years.[84]
Soon after the establishment of the Tang dynasty,
during the reign of Emperor Taizong (r. 626649),
the threat of Gktrk tribesmen from the north
prompted some court officials to suggest
drafting corve labourers to repair the aging Great
Wall. Taizong scoffed at the suggestion, alluding to
the Sui walls built in vain: "The Emperor Yang of Sui
made the people labor to construct the Great Wall
in order to defend against the Turks, but in the end
this was of no use."[85] Instead of building walls,
Taizong claimed he "need merely to establish Li
Shiji in Jinyang for the dust on the border to
settle."[85] Accordingly, Taizong sent talented
generals like Li Shiji with mobile armies to the
frontier, while fortifications were mostly limited to
a series of walled garrisons, such as the
euphemistically-named "cities for accepting
surrender" (, shuxing chng) that were
actually bases from which to launch attacks.[84] As a
result of this military strategy, the Tang grew to
become one of the largest of all the Chinese
empires, destroying the Gktrks of the Eastern
Turkic Khaganate and acquiring territory stretching
all the way to Kazakhstan.[85]
Nevertheless, records show that in the
Kaiyuan era (713742) of Emperor Xuanzong's
reign, the general Zhang Yue built a wall 90 li (48
kilometres (30 mi)) to the north of Huairong (;
present-day Huailai County, Hebei), although it
remains unclear whether he erected new walls or
only reinforced the existing Northern Qi walls.[86]
The Great Wall, or the ruins of it, features
prominently in the subset of Tang poetry known
as biansai shi (, "frontier verse") written by
scholar-officials assigned along the frontier.
Emphasizing the poets' loneliness and longing for
home while hinting at the pointlessness of their
posts, these frontier verses are characterized by
imagery of desolate landscapes, including the ruins
of the now-neglected Great Walla direct product
of Tang's frontier policy.[87]

Song and the conquest dynasties (9071368)[edit]

See also: History of the Song dynasty

The northern walls of the Khitan, Jurchens, and

Tanguts[edit]

The Jurchen Jin dynasty (orange) shown with the

walls of Liao, Xia, and Jin.
After the Tang dynasty ended in 907, the northern
frontier area remained out of Han Chinese hands
until the establishment of the Ming dynasty in
1368. During this period, non-Han "conquest
dynasties" ruled the north: the Khitan Liao
dynasty (9071125) and the succeeding Jurchen Jin
dynasty (11151234) in the east and
the Tangut Western Xia (10381227) in the west,
all of which had built walls against the north.
In 907, the Khitan chieftain Abaoji succeeded in
getting himself appointed khaghan of all Khitan
tribes in the north, laying the foundations to what
would officially become the Liao dynasty. In 936,
the Khitan supported the Shanxi rebel Shi
Jingtang in his revolt against the Shatuo
Turkic Later Tang, which had destroyed the
usurpers of the Tang in 923.[88] The Khitan leader,
Abaoji's second son Yel Deguang, convinced Shi to
found a new dynasty (the Later Jin, 936946), and
received the crucial border region known as
the Sixteen Prefectures in return.[89][90]With the
Sixteen Prefectures, the Khitan now possessed all
the passes and fortifications that controlled access
to the plains of northern China, including the main
Great Wall line.[89]
Settling in the transitional area between
agricultural lands and the steppe, the Khitans
became semi-sedentary like their Xianbei
predecessors of the Northern Wei, and started to
use Chinese methods of defence. In 1026 walls
were built through central Manchuria north
of Nong'an County to the banks of the Songhua
River.[91] When the Jurchens, once Liao vassals, rose
up to overthrow their masters and established
the Jin dynasty, they continued Liao's wall-building
activities with extensive work begun before
1138.[92] Further wall construction took place in
1165 and 1181 under the Jin Emperor Shizhong,
and later from 1192 to 1203 during the reign of his
successor Emperor Zhangzong.[91]
This long period of wall-building burdened the
populace and provoked controversy. Sometime
between 1190 and 1196, during Zhangzong's reign,
the high official Zhang Wangong() and
the Censorate recommended that work on the wall
be indefinitely suspended due to a recent drought,
noting: "What has been begun is already being
flattened by sandstorms, and bullying the people
into defence works will simply exhaust
them."[93][94] However, Chancellor Wanyan Xiang (
) convinced the emperor of the walls' merits
based on an optimistic cost estimate "Although
the initial outlay for the walls will be one million
strings of cash, when the work is done the frontier
will be secure with only half the present number of
soldiers needed to defend it, which means that
every year you will save three million strings of
cash ... The benefits will be everlasting" and so
construction continued unabated.[95][96] All this
work created an extensive systems of walls, which
consisted of a 700 kilometres (430 mi) "outer wall"
from Heilongjiang to Mongolia and a 1,000
kilometres (620 mi) network of "inner walls" north
and northeast of Beijing. Together, they formed a
roughly elliptical web of fortifications 1,400
kilometres (870 mi) in length and 440 kilometres
(270 mi) in diameter.[97] Some of these walls had
inner moats (from 10 to 60 metres (33 to 197 feet)
in width), beacon towers, battlements, parapets,
and outward-facing semicircular platforms
protruding from the wallfeatures that set the Jin
walls apart from their predecessors.[92]
In the west, the Tanguts took control of the Ordos
region, where they established the Western
Xia dynasty.[98] Although the Xia were not
traditionally known for building walls, in 2011
archeologists uncovered 100 kilometres (62 mi) of
walls at mngovi Province in Mongolia in what
had been Western Xia territory. Radiocarbon
analysis showed that they were constructed from
1040 to 1160. The walls were as tall as 2.75 metres
(9 ft 0 in) at places when they were discovered, and
may have been around 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) taller
originally. They were built with mud and saxaul (a
desert shrub) in one section, and dark basalt blocks
in another, suggesting that the rocks may have
been quarried from nearby extinct volcanoes and
transported to the construction site. Archaeologists
have not yet found traces of human activity around
this stretch of wall, which suggests that the Xia wall
in this location may have been incomplete and not
ready for use.[4]
The old Great Walls as Song boundary lines[edit]
Han Chinese power during the tumultuous post-
Tang era was represented by the Song
dynasty (9601279), which completed its
unification of the Chinese states with the conquest
of Wuyue in 971. Turning to the north after this
victory, in 979 the Song eliminated the Northern
Han, ultimate successors to the Later Jin, but were
unable to take the Sixteen Prefectures from the
Liao dynasty.[99] As a result of Song's military
aggression, relations between the Song and Liao
remained tense and hostile. One of the
battlegrounds in the SongLiao War was the Great
Wall Gap (), so named because the southern
Yan wall of the Warring States period crossed the
Juma River here into Liao territory.[28] The Great
Wall Gap saw action in 979, 988989, and 1004,
and a Song fortress was built there in
980.[100] Intermittent wars between the Song and
the Liao lasted until January 1005, when a truce
was called and led to the Treaty of Chanyuan. This
agreement, among other things, required the Song
to pay tribute to the Liao, recognized the Song and
Liao as equals,[101]and demarcated the SongLiao
border,[102] the course of which became more
clearly defined in a series of subsequent bilateral
agreements. Several stretches of the old Great
Walls, including the Northern Qi Inner Wall near
the Hengshan mountain range, became the border
between the Song and the Liao.[103]
In the northwest, the Song were in conflict with the
Western Xia, since they occupied what the Song
considered as Chinese land lost during the Tang
dynasty. The Song utilized the walls built during the
reign of Qin's King Zhaoxiang of the Warring States
period, making it the SongWestern Xia
border,[104] but the topography of the area was not
as sharp and distinct as the SongLiao defences to
the east. The border general Cao Wei (; 973
1030) deemed the Old Wall itself insufficient to
slow a Tangut cavalry attack, and had a deep trench
dug alongside. This trench, between 15 and 20
metres (49 and 66 feet) in width and depth, proved
an effective defence, but in 1002 the Tanguts
caught the Song patrollers off guard and filled the
trench to cross the Old Wall.[105] Later, in 1042, the
Tanguts turned the trench against the Song by
removing the bridges over it, thereby trapping the
retreating army of Ge Huaimin () before
annihilating it at the Battle of Dingchuan Fortress (
).[106]
Despite the war with the Western Xia, the Song
also settled land disputes with them by referring to
prior agreements, as with the Liao.[107] However,
soon after the Jin dynasty overthrew the Liao
dynasty, the Jurchens sacked the Song capital in
1127 during the JinSong wars, causing the Song
court to flee south of the Yangtze River. For the
next two and a half centuries, the Great Wall
played no role in Han Chinese geopolitics.[108]
The onset of the Mongols[edit]

The Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass

See also: Mongol invasion of China
In the 13th century, the Mongol leader Genghis
Khan, once a vassal of the Jurchens, rose up against
the Jin dynasty.[109] In the ensuing Mongol conquest
of the Jin dynasty, the nomadic invaders avoided
direct attacks on the Jin fortifications. Instead,
when they could, the Mongols simply rode around
the walls; an effective example of this tactic is in
1211, when they circumvented the substantial
fortress in Zhangjiakou and inflicted a terrible
defeat upon the Jin armies at the Battle of
Yehuling.[110] The Mongols also took advantage of
lingering Liao resentment against the Jin; the
Khitan defenders of the garrisons along the Jin
walls, such as those in Gubeikou, often preferred to
surrender to the Mongols rather than fight
them.[111] The only major engagement of note along
the main Great Wall line was at the heavily
defended Juyong Pass: instead of laying siege, the
Mongol general Jebe lured the defenders out into
an ambush and charged in through the opened
gates.[111] In 1215, Genghis Khan besieged,
captured, and sacked the Jin capital
of Yanjing (modern-day Beijing). The Jin dynasty
eventually collapsed following the siege of
Caizhou in 1234. Western Xia had already fallen in
1227, and the Southern Song resisted the Mongols
until 1279.
With that, the Yuan dynasty, established by
Genghis Khan's grandson Khublai Khan, became the
first foreign dynasty to rule all of China.[112] Despite
being the head of the Mongol Empire, Khublai
Khan's rule over China was not free from the threat
of the steppe nomads.[113] The Yuan dynasty faced
challenges from rival claimants to the title of Great
Khan and from rebellious Mongols in the north.
Khublai Khan dealt with such threats by using both
military blockades and economic sanctions.
Although he established garrisons along the steppe
frontier from the Juyan Lake Basin in the far west
to Yingchang in the east,[114] Khublai Khan and the
Yuan emperors after him did not add to the Great
Wall (except for the ornate Cloud Platform at
Juyong Pass). When the Venetian traveller Marco
Polo wrote of his experiences in China during the
reign of Khublai Khan, he did not mention a Great
Wall.[115]

Ming dynasty (13681644)[edit]

Main article: Ming Great Wall

The early walls[edit]

The extent of the Ming dynasty and its walls, which

formed most of what is called the Great Wall of
China today
In 1368, the Hongwu Emperor (Zhu Yuanzhang,
r. 136898) ousted the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty
from China to inaugurate the Ming dynasty. The
Mongols fled back to Mongolia, but even after
numerous campaigns, the Mongol problem
remained.[116]
During his early reign, Hongwu set up the "eight
outer garrisons" close to the steppe and an inner
line of forts more suitable for defence. The inner
line was the forerunner to the Ming Great
Wall.[117] In 1373, as Ming forces encountered
setbacks, Hongwu put more emphasis on defence
and adopted Hua Yunlong's () suggestion to
establish garrisons at 130 passes and other
strategic points in the Beijing area.[118] More
positions were set up in the years up Hongwu's
death in 1398, and watchtowers were manned
from the Bohai Sea to Beijing and further onto the
Mongolian steppes.[118][119] These positions,
however, were not for a linear defence but rather a
regional one in which walls did not feature heavily,
and offensive tactics remained the overarching
policy at the time.[118] In 1421, the Ming capital was
relocated from Nanjing in the south to Beijing in
the north, partly to better manage the Mongol
situation. Thus defenses were concentrated around
Beijing, where stone and earth began to replace
rammed earth in strategic passes.[120] A wall was
erected by the Ming in Liaodong to protect Han
settlers from a possible threat from the Jurched-
Mongol Oriyanghan around 1442.[121] In 146768,
expansion of the wall provided further protection
for the region from against attacks by the Jianzhou
Jurchens in the northeast.[122]
Meanwhile, the outer defenses were gradually
moved inward, thereby sacrificing a vital foothold
in the steppe transitional zone.[123] Despite the
withdrawal from the steppe, the Ming military
remained in a strong position against the nomads
until the Tumu Crisis in 1449, which caused the
collapse of the early Ming security system. Over
half of the campaigning Chinese army perished in
the conflict, while the Mongols captured
the Zhengtong Emperor. This military debacle
shattered the Chinese military might that had so
impressed and given pause to the Mongols since
the beginning of the dynasty, and caused the Ming
to be on the defensive ever after.[124]
The deterioration of the Ming military position in
the steppe transitional zone gave rise to nomadic
raids into Ming territory, including the crucial Ordos
region, on a level unprecedented since the
dynasty's founding. After decades of deliberation
between an offensive strategy and an
accommodative policy, the decision to build the
first major Ming walls in the Ordos was agreed
upon as an acceptable compromise the 1470s.[125]

A section of the Great Wall

at Jinshanling in Luanping County, Hebeiprovince,
China
Yu Zijun (; 14291489) first proposed
constructing a wall in the Ordos region in August
1471,[126] but not until 20 December 1472 did the
court and emperor approve the plan. The 1473
victory in the Battle of Red Salt Lake ()
by Wang Yue () deterred Mongol invasions
long enough for Yu Zijun to complete his wall
project in 1474. This wall, a combined effort
between Yu Zijun and Wang Yue, stretched from
present day Hengcheng ()
in Lingwu (northwestern Ningxia province) to
Huamachi town () in Yanchi County, and
from there to Qingshuiying () in
northeastern Shaanxi, a total of more than
2000 li (about 1,100 kilometres (680 mi)) long.
Along its length were 800 strong points, sentry
posts, beacon-fire towers, and assorted defences.
40,000 men were enlisted for this effort, which was
completed in several months at a cost of over one
million silver taels. This defence system proved its
initial worth in 1482, when a large group of Mongol
raiders were trapped within the double lines of
fortifications and suffered a defeat by the Ming
generals. This was seen as a vindication of Yu
Zijun's strategy of wall-building by the people of
the border areas.[127] By the mid-16th century, Yu's
wall in the Ordos had seen expansion into an
extensive defence system. It contained two
defence lines: Yu's wall, called the "great border" (
, dbin), and a "secondary border" (
, rbin) built by Yang Yiqing (; 14541530)
behind it.[128]
Following the success of the Ordos walls, Yu Zijun
proposed construction of a further wall that would
extend from the Yellow River bend in the Ordos to
the Sihaiye Pass (; in present-day Yanqing
County) near the capital Beijing, running a distance
of more than 1300 li (about 700 kilometres
(430 mi)).[129] The project received approval in
1485, but Yu's political enemies harped on the cost
overruns and forced Yu to scrap the project and
retire the same year. For more than 50 years after
Yu's resignation, political struggle prevented major
wall constructions on a scale comparable to Yu's
Ordos project.[130]
However, wall construction continued regardless of
court politics during this time. The Ordos walls
underwent extension, elaboration, and repair well
into the 16th century.[128] Brick and stone started to
replace tamped earth as the wall building material,
because they offered better protection and
durability. This change in material gave rise to a
number of necessary accommodations with regard
to logistics, and inevitably a drastic increase in
costs. Instead of being able to draw on local
resources, building projects now required brick-
kilns, quarries, and transportation routes to deliver
bricks to the work site. Also, masons had to be
hired since the local peasantry proved inadequate
for the level of sophistication that brick
constructions required. Work that originally could
be done by one man in a month with earth now
required 100 men to do in stone.[131]
The Walls of XuanfuDatong and the western
reaches[edit]

The Great Wall at Dajingmen, part of the Xuanfu

stretch of the Great Wall. The gate structure is a
Qing dynasty construction.
With the Ordos now adequately fortified, the
Mongols avoided its walls by riding east to
invade Datong and Xuanfu (; present-
day Xuanhua, Hebei Province), which were two
major garrisons guarding the corridor to Beijing
where no walls had been built.[131] The two defence
lines of Xuanfu and Datong left by the Northern Qi
and the early Ming had deteriorated by this point,
and for all intents and purposes the inner line was
the capital's main line of defence.[132]
From 1544 to 1549, Weng Wanda (; 1498
1552) embarked on a defensive building program
on a scale unprecedented in Chinese
history.[133] Troops were re-deployed along the
outer line, new walls and beacon towers were
constructed, and fortifications were restored and
extended along both
lines. Firearms and artillery were mounted on the
walls and towers during this time, for both defence
and signalling purposes.[134] The project's
completion was announced in the sixth month of
1548. At its height, the XuanDa portion of the
Great Wall totalled about 850 kilometres (530
miles) of wall, with some sections being doubled-up
with two lines of wall, some tripled or even
quadrupled. The outer frontier was now protected
by a wall called the "outer border" (, wibin)
that extended 380 kilometres (240 mi) from the
Yellow River's edge at the Piantou Pass ()
along the Inner Mongolia border with Shanxi into
Hebei province; the "inner border" wall (
, nibin) ran southeast from Piantou Pass for some
400 kilometres (250 mi), ending at the Pingxing
Pass; a "river wall" (, hbin) also ran from the
Piantou Pass and followed the Yellow River
southwards for about 70 kilometres (43 mi).[135]
A section of the Great Wall on the Hanging Cliffs (
) leading up to Jiayu Pass
As with Yu Zijun's wall in the Ordos, the Mongols
shifted their attacks away from the newly
strengthened XuanDa sector to less well-
protected areas. In the west, Shaanxi
province became the target of nomads riding west
from the Yellow River loop.[135] The westernmost
fortress of Ming China, the Jiayu Pass, saw
substantial enhancement with walls starting in
1539, and from there border walls were built
discontinuously down the Hexi Corridor to Wuwei,
where the low earthen wall split into two. The
northern section passed
through Zhongweiand Yinchuan, where it met the
western edge of the Yellow River loop before
connecting with the Ordos walls, while the
southern section passed through Lanzhou and
continued northeast to Dingbian. The origins and
the exact route of this so-called "Tibetan loop" are
still not clear.[136]
From Beijing to Shanhai Pass[edit]
In 1550, having once more been refused a request
for trade, the Tmed Mongols under Altan
Khan invaded the XuanDa region. However,
despite several attempts, he could not take Xuanfu
due to Weng Wanda's double fortified line while
the garrison at Datong bribed him to not attack
there.[133] Instead of continuing to operate in the
area, he circled around Weng Wanda's wall to the
relatively lightly defended Gubeikou, northeast of
Beijing. From there Altan Khan passed through the
defences and raided the suburbs of Beijing.
According to one contemporary source, the raid
took more than 60,000 lives and an additional
40,000 people became prisoners. As a response to
this raid, the focus of the Ming's northern defences
shifted from the XuanDa region to the Jizhou (
) and Changping Defence Commands ()
where the breach took place.[137] Later in the same
year, the dry-stone walls of the JizhouChangping
area (abbreviated as "Ji-Chang") were replaced by
stone and mortar. These allowed the Chinese to
build on steeper, more easily defended slopes and
facilitated construction of features such
as ramparts, crenelations, and peepholes.[138] The
effectiveness of the new walls was demonstrated in
the failed Mongol raid of 1554, where raiders
expecting a repeat of the events of 1550 were
surprised by the higher wall and stiff Chinese
resistance.[139]
In 1567 Qi Jiguang and Tan Lun, successful generals
who fended off the coastal pirates, were reassigned
to manage the JiChang Defense Commands and
step up the defences of the capital region. Under
their ambitious and energetic management, 1200
brick watchtowers were built along the Great Wall
from 1569 to 1571.[140] These included the first
large-scale use of hollow watchtowers on the Wall:
up until this point, most previous towers along the
Great Wall had been solid, with a small hut on top
for a sentry to take shelter from the elements and
Mongol arrows; the JiChang towers built from
1569 onwards were hollow brick structures,
allowing soldiers interior space to live, store food
and water, stockpile weapons, and take shelter
from Mongol arrows.[141]

Illustration of the Shanhai Pass garrison at the time

of the Manchu conquests
Altan Khan eventually made peace with China
when it opened border cities for trade in 1571,
alleviating the Mongol need to raid. This, coupled
with Qi and Tan's efforts to secure the frontier,
brought a period of relative peace along the
border. However, minor raids still happened from
time to time when the profits of plunder
outweighed those of trade,[137] prompting the Ming
to close all gaps along the frontier around Beijing.
Areas of difficult terrain once considered
impassable were also walled off, leading to the
well-known vistas of a stone-faced Great Wall
snaking over dramatic landscapes that tourists still
see today.[142]
Wall construction continued until the demise of the
Ming dynasty in 1644.[143] In the decades that led to
the fall of the Ming dynasty, the Ming court and the
Great Wall itself had to deal with simultaneous
internal rebellions and the Manchu invasions. In
addition to their conquest of Liaodong, the
Manchus had raided across the Great Wall for the
first time in 1629,[144] and again in
1634,[145] 1638,[146] and 1642.[147]Meanwhile, the
rebels led by warlord Li Zicheng had been gathering
strength. In the early months of 1644, Li Zicheng
declared himself the founder of the Shun and
marched towards the Ming capital from Shaanxi.
His route roughly followed the line of the Great
Wall, in order to neutralize its heavily fortified
garrisons.[148] The crucial defences of Datong,
Xuanfu, and Juyong Pass all surrendered without a
fight, and the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself
on 25 April as the Shun army entered Beijing.[149] At
this point, the largest remaining Ming fighting force
in North China was in Shanhai Pass, where the
Great Wall meets the Bohai Sea. Its defender Wu
Sangui, wedged between the Shun army within and
the Manchus without, decided to surrender to the
Manchus and opened the gates for them.[150] The
Manchus, having thus entered through the Great
Wall, defeated Li Zicheng at the Battle of Shanhai
Pass and seized Beijing on June 5. They eventually
defeated both the rebel-founded Shun dynasty and
the remaining Ming resistance, establishing their
rule over all of China as the Qing dynasty.[151]
Opinions about the Wall's role in the Ming
dynasty's downfall are mixed. Historians such
as Arthur Waldron and Julia Lovell are critical of the
whole wall-building exercise in light of its ultimate
failure in protecting China; the former compared
the Great Wall with the failed Maginot Line of the
French in World War II.[152] However, independent
scholar David Spindlernotes that the Wall, being
only part of a complex foreign policy, received
"disproportionate blame" because it was the most
obvious relic of that policy.[153]

Qing dynasty (16441911)[edit]

The usefulness of the Great Wall as a defence line
against northern nomads became questionable
under the Qing dynasty, since their territory
encompassed vast areas inside and outside the
wall: China proper, Manchuria, and Mongolia were
all under Qing control. So instead, the Great Wall
became the means to limit Han Chinese movement
into the steppes. In the case of Manchuria,
considered to be the sacred homeland by the ruling
Manchu elites, some parts of the Ming Liaodong
Wall were repaired so it could serve to control Han
Chinese movement into Manchuria alongside the
newly erected Willow Palisade.[154]
Culturally, the wall's symbolic role as a line
between civilized society and barbarism was
suppressed by the Qing, who were keen to weaken
the Han culturalism that had been propagated by
the Ming. As a result, no special attention was paid
to the Great Wall until the mid-Qing dynasty, when
Westerners started to show interest in the
structure.[155]
Western appreciation of the Wall[edit]

"A gate of the Wall of China, explaining its

structure". An illustration from Athanasius
Kircher's China Illustrata, 1667.
The existence of a colossal wall in Asia had
circulated in the Middle East and the West even
before the first Europeans arrived in China by sea.
The late antiquity historian Ammianus
Marcellinus (330?395?) mentioned "summits of
lofty walls" enclosing the land of Seres, the country
that the Romans believed to be at the eastern end
of the Silk Road.[156] In legend, the tribes of Gog and
Magog were said to have been locked out
by Alexander the Great with walls of steel. Later
Arab writers and travellers, such as Rashid-al-Din
Hamadani (12481318) and Ibn Battuta (1304
1377), would erroneously identify the Great Wall in
China with the walls of the Alexander
romances.[157] Soon after Europeans reached Ming
China in the early 16th century, accounts of the
Great Wall started to circulate in Europe, even
though no European would see it with their own
eyes for another century. The work A Treatise of
China and the Adjoyning Regions by Gaspar da
Cruz (c. 152070) offered an early discussion of the
Great Wall in which he noted, "a Wall of an
hundred leagues in length. And some will affirme to
bee more than a hundred leagues."[158] Another
early account written by Bishop Juan Gonzlez de
Mendoza (15501620) reported a wall five hundred
leagues long, but suggested that only one hundred
leagues were man-made, with the rest natural rock
formations.[158] The Jesuitpriest Matteo Ricci (1552
1610) mentioned the Great Wall once in his diary,
noting the existence of "a tremendous wall four
hundred and five miles long" that formed part of
the northern defences of the Ming Empire.[158]
Europeans first witnessed the Great Wall in the
early 1600s. Perhaps the first recorded instance of
a European actually entering China via the Great
Wall came in 1605, when the Portuguese Jesuit
brother Bento de Gis reached the
northwestern Jiayu Pass from India.[159] Ivan Petlin's
1619 deposition for his Russian embassy mission
offers an early account based on a first-hand
encounter with the Great Wall, and mentions that
in the course of the journey his embassy travelled
alongside the Great Wall for ten days.[160]

The Great Wall as depicted in Thomas Allom's

1845 China, in a series of views
Early European accounts were mostly modest and
empirical, closely mirroring contemporary Chinese
understanding of the Wall.[161]However, when the
Ming Great Wall began to take on a shape still
recognizable today, foreign accounts of the Wall
slid into hyperbole.[162] In the Atlas
Sinensis published in 1665, the Jesuit Martino
Martini described elaborate but atypical stretches
of the Great Wall and generalized such
fortifications across the whole northern frontier.
Furthermore, Martini erroneously identified the
Ming Wall as the same wall built by Qin Shi Huang
in the 3rd century BC, thereby exaggerating both
the Wall's antiquity and its size. This misconception
was compounded by the China Illustrata of
Father Athanasius Kircher (160280), which
provided pictures of the Great Wall as imagined by
a European illustrator.[162] All these and other
accounts from missionaries in China contributed to
the Orientalism of the eighteenth century, in which
a mythical China and its exaggerated Great Wall
feature prominently. The French
philosopher Voltaire(16941774), for example,
frequently wrote about the Great Wall, although
his feelings towards it oscillate between unreserved
admiration and condemnation of it as a
"monument to fear".[163] The Macartney Embassy of
1793 passed through the Great Wall at Gubeikou
on the way to see the Qianlong
Emperor in Chengde, who was there for the
annual imperial hunt. One of the embassy's
members, John Barrow, later founder of the Royal
Geographical Society, spuriously calculated that the
amount of stone in the Wall was equivalent to "all
the dwelling houses of England and Scotland" and
would suffice to encircle the Earth at the equator
twice.[164] The illustrations of the Great Wall by
Lieutenant Henry William Parish during this mission
would be reproduced in influential works such
as Thomas Allom's 1845 China, in a series of
views.[165]
Exposure to such works brought many foreign
visitors to the Great Wall after China opened its
borders as a result of the nation's defeat in
the Opium Wars of the mid-19th century at the
hands of Britain and the other Western powers.
The Juyong Pass near Beijing and the "Old Dragon
Head," where the Great Wall meets the sea at
the Shanhai Pass, proved popular destinations for
these wall watchers.[165]
The travelogues of the later 19th century in turn
further contributed to the elaboration and
propagation of the Great Wall myth.[165] Examples
of this myth's growth are the false but widespread
belief that the Great Wall of China is visible from
the Moon[166][167] or Mars.[168]

Modern China (1911present)[edit]

The Great Wall in 1907

The Xinhai Revolution in 1911 forced the abdication
of the last Qing Emperor Puyi and ended China's
last imperial dynasty. The revolutionaries, headed
by Sun Yat-sen, were concerned with creating a
modern sense of national identity in the chaotic
post-imperial era. In contrast to Chinese academics
such as Liang Qichao, who tried to counter the
West's fantastic version of the Great Wall,[168] Sun
Yat-sen held the view that Qin Shi Huang's wall
 preserved the Chinese race, and without it Chinese
culture would not have developed enough to
expand to the south and assimilate foreign
conquerors. Such an endorsement from the "Father
of Modern China" started to transform the Great
Wall into a national symbol in the Chinese
consciousness, though this transformation was
hampered by conflicting views of nationalism with
regard to the nascent "new China."[169]
The failure of the new Republic of China fanned
disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture and
ushered in the New Culture Movementand the May
Fourth Movement of the mid-1910s and 1920s that
aimed to dislodge China's future trajectory from its
past. Naturally, the Great Wall of China came under
attack as a symbol of the past. For example, an
influential writer of this period, Lu Xun, harshly
criticized the "mighty and accursed Great
Wall"[169] in a short essay: "In reality, it has never
served any purpose than to make countless
workers labour to death in vain ... [It] surrounds
everyone."[170]
Arise! All those who don't want to be slaves!
Let our flesh and blood forge our new Great Wall!
"The March of the Volunteers"
The Sino-Japanese conflict (193145) gave
the Great Wall a new lease of life in the eyes
of the Chinese. During the 1933 defence of
the Great Wall, inadequately-equipped
Chinese soldiers held off double their
number of Japanese troops for several
months. Using the cover of the Great Wall,
the Chinese who were at times only armed
with broadswords were able to beat off a
Japanese advance that had the support of
aerial bombardment.[171] With the Chinese
forces eventually overrun, the
subsequent Tanggu Truce stipulated that the
Great Wall was to become a demilitarized
zone separating China and the newly created
Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Even
so, the determined defence of the Great
Wall made it a symbol of Chinese patriotism
and the resoluteness of the Chinese
people.[172] The Chinese
Communist leader Mao Zedongpicked up
this symbol in his poetry during his "Long
March" escaping
from Kuomintang prosecution. Near the end
of the trek in 1935, Mao wrote the poem
"Mount Liupan" that contains the well-
known line that would be carved in stone
along the Great Wall in the present day:
"Those who fail to reach the Great Wall are
not true men" (
).[173]Another noteworthy reference to the
Great Wall is in the song "The March of the
Volunteers", whose words came from a
stanza in Tian Han's 1934 poem entitled
"The Great Wall".[174] The song, originally
from the anti-Japanese movie Children of
Troubled Times, enjoyed continued
popularity in China and was selected as the
provisional national anthemof the People's
Republic of China (PRC) at its establishment
in 1949.[175][176]
US President Nixon visits the Great Wall,
1972
In 1952, the scholar-turned-bureaucrat Guo
Moruo laid out the first modern proposal to
repair the Great Wall. Five years later, the
renovated Badaling became the first section
to be opened to the public since the
establishment of the PRC.[177] The Badaling
Great Wall has since become a staple stop
for foreign dignitaries who come to China,
beginning with Nepali prime
minister Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala in
1960,[178] and most notably the American
president Richard Nixon in his historic 1972
visit to China.[179] To date, Badaling is still the
most visited stretch of the Great Wall.[180]
Other stretches did not fare so well. During
the Cultural Revolution (196676), hundreds
of kilometres of the Great Wallalready
damaged in the wars of the last century and
eroded by wind and rainwere deliberately
destroyed by fervent Red Guards who
regarded it as part of the "Four Olds" to be
eradicated in the new China. Quarrying
machines and even dynamite were used to
dismantle the Wall, and the pilfered
materials were used for construction.[3]
As China opened up in the 1980s, reformist
leader Deng Xiaoping initiated the "Love our
China and restore our Great Wall" campaign
() to repair and
preserve the Great Wall.[181] The Great Wall
was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage
Site in 1987.[5]However, while tourism
boomed over the years, slipshod restoration
methods have left sections of the Great Wall
near Beijing "looking like a Hollywood set" in
the words of the National Geographic
News.[182] The less prominent stretches of
the Great Wall did not get as much
attention. In 2002 the New York-
based World Monuments Fund put the
Great Wall on its list of the World's 100 Most
Endangered Sites. In 2003 the Chinese
government began to enact laws to protect
the Great Wall.[182]

Historiography[edit]
See also: Chinese
historiography and Sinology

In China, one of the first individuals to

attempt a multi-dynastic history of the Great
Wall was the 17th-century scholar Gu
Yanwu. More recently, in the 1930s and
1940s, Wang Guoliang () and Shou
Pengfei () produced exhaustive
studies that culled extant literary records to
date and mapped the courses of early
border walls. However, these efforts were
based solely on written records that contain
obscure place names and elusive literary
references.[183]
The rise of modern archeology has
contributed much to the study of the Great
Wall, either in corroborating existing
research or in refuting it. However these
efforts do not yet give a full picture of the
Great Wall's history, as many wall sites
dating to the Period of Disunity (220589)
had been overlaid by the extant Ming Great
Wall.[183]

The first map of China printed in a European

atlas, engraved by Abraham Ortelius (1584),
shows a series of walls wedged between
mountains against the Tartars, represented
by yurts.
Western scholarship of the Great Wall was,
until recently, affected by misconceptions
derived from traditional accounts of the
Wall. When the Jesuits brought back the first
reports of the Wall to the West, European
scholars were puzzled that Marco Polo had
not mentioned the presumably perennial
"Great Wall" in his Travels. Some 17th-
century scholars reasoned that the Wall
must have been built in the Ming dynasty,
after Marco Polo's departure. This view was
soon replaced by another that argued,
against Polo's own account, that the
Venetian merchant had come to China from
the south and so did not come into contact
with the Wall.[115] Thus, Father Martino
Martini's mistaken claim that the Wall had
"lasted right up to the present time without
injury or destruction"[184] since the time of
Qin was accepted as fact by the 18th-
century philosophes.[185]
Since then, many scholars have operated
under the belief that the Great Wall
continually defended China's border against
the steppe nomads for two thousand
years.[186] For example, the 18th-century
sinologist Joseph de
Guignes assigned macrohistorical importanc
e to such walls when he advanced the theory
that the Qin construction forced the Xiongnu
to migrate west to Europe and, becoming
known as the Huns, ultimately contributed
to the decline of the Roman
Empire.[187] Some have attempted to make
general statements regarding Chinese
society and foreign policy based on the
conception of a perennial Great Wall: Karl
Marx took the Wall to represent the
stagnation of the Chinese society and
economy,[188] Owen Lattimore supposed that
the Great Wall demonstrated a need to
divide the nomadic way of life from the
agricultural communities of
China,[189] and John K. Fairbank posited that
 the Wall played a part in upholding
the Sinocentric world order.[190]
Despite the significance that the Great Wall
seemed to have, scholarly treatment of the
Wall itself remained scant during the 20th
century. Joseph Needham bemoaned this
dearth when he was compiling the section
on walls for his Science and Civilisation in
China: "There is no lack of travelers'
description of the Great Wall, but studies
based on modern scholarship are few and
far between, whether in Chinese or Western
languages."[191] In 1990, Arthur
Waldron published the influential The Great
Wall: From History to Myth, where he
challenged the notion of a unitary Great Wall
maintained since antiquity, dismissing it as a
modern myth. Waldron's approach
prompted a re-examination of the Wall in
Western scholarship.[192] Still, as of 2008,
there is not yet a full authoritative text in
any language that is devoted to the Great
Wall.[193] The reason for this, according
to The New Yorker journalist Peter Hessler, is
that the Great Wall fits into neither the
study of political institutions (favoured by
Chinese historians) nor the excavation of
tombs (favoured by Chinese
archeologists).[194] Some of the void left by
academia is being filled by independent
research from Great Wall enthusiasts such as
ex-Xinhua reporter Cheng Dalin ()
and self-funded scholar David Spindler.[195]

Summer Palace (Yiheyuan)

 Situated in the
Haidian District
northwest of
Beijing,
Summer Palace
is 9 miles (15
kilometers)
from the
downtown
area. Being the
largest and
most well-
preserved royal
park in China, it
Summer Palace, Beijing greatly
Pictures Video influences
Chinese
4-Day Beijing Tour horticulture
Small Group from $299 and landscape
Private from $319 with its famous
natural views
1-Day Beijing Tour from $49 and cultural
interests, which
also has long
been recognized as 'The Museum of Royal Gardens'.

The construction started in 1750 as a luxurious royal garden for royal families to
rest and entertain. It later became the main residence of royal members in the
end of the Qing Dynasty. However, like most of the gardens of Beijing, it could not
elude the rampages of the Anglo-French Allied Force and was destroyed by fire.
According to historical documents, with original name as 'Qingyi Garden' (Garden
of Clear Ripples), the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) was renamed after its first
reconstruction in 1888. It was also recorded that Empress Dowager
Cixi embezzled navy funds to reconstruct it as a resort in which to spend the rest
of her life. In 1900, Yiheyuan suffered another hit by the Eight-Power Allied Force
and was repaired in the next two years. In 1924, it was open to the public. It
ranked amongst the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 1998, as well as one of
the first national AAAAA tourist spots in China.

Yiheyuan radiates fully the natural beauty and the grandeur of royal gardens.
Composed mainly of Longevity Hill (Wanshou Shan) and Kunming Lake, it occupies
an area of 300.59 hectares (742.8 acres). There are over 3,000 man-made ancient
structures which count building space of more than 70,000 square meters,
including pavilions, towers, bridges, corridors, etc. It can be divided into four
parts: the Court Area, Front and Rear Area of Longevity Hill, and Kunming Lake
Area.

Court Area
It is located in the northeast of the
Summer Palace, and it spreads from
East Palace Gate to the northeast
coast of Kunming Lake. This was a
substitute where Empress Dowager
Cixi and Emperor Guangxu met
officials and conducted state affairs.
With the same pattern of the
imperial palace of China-'Palace in Click the map to enlarge it, or
front and garden behind', the Court go for more Maps of Summer Palace
Area consists of sections for both
court affairs and living. East Palace
Gate and Hall of Benevolence and Longevity served as office of the Emperor. The
Hall of Jade Ripples was for Guangxu to live in and the Hall of Joyful Longevity for
Cixi. There are also the Garden of Virtue and Harmony where Cixi was entertained
and Yiyun Hall where once lived the Empress Longyu. Moreover, this area is an
integrated transport hub and the first best stop for visitors to enjoy attractive
view of Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill.

East Palace Gate

Hall of Benevolence & Longevity
Garden of Virtue & Harmony
Hall of Jade Ripples
Yiyun House
Hall of Joyful Longevity
Pictures of Court Area

Front Area of Longevity Hill

This is the most magnificent area with the most constructions. It is symmetrically
laid out in east and west many delicate buildings and graceful gardens with the
south-facing Tower of Buddhist Incense as the central axis. Walking up to the
hilltop, on which lots of important buildings are positioned, including Hall of
Dispelling Clouds, Hall of Moral Glory, Baoyun Bronze Pavilion, Revolving Archives,
Hall of the Sea of Wisdom, etc.

Long Gallery
Hall of Dispelling Clouds
Tower of Buddhist Incense
Baoyun Pavilion
Through the Wonderland
Hall of the Sea of Wisdom
Hall of Utmost Blessing
Pictures of Front-hill Area
Kunming Lake

The area covers a larger part, and opens up the vista of Kunming Lake, as well as
the sights around Back Lake (Houxi River). East Causeway of the lake is connected
to the West Causeway by Long Gallery, which both were interspersed with
pavilions, bridges and wharfs. Famous attractions amongst this area are
numerous, including Seventeen-Arch Bridge, Bronze Ox, Nanhu Island, Hall of
Embracing the Universe, Spacious Pavilion, Pavilion of Bright Scenery, Marble
Boat, Suzhou Market Street, etc. As breeze fluttering, waves gleam and willows
kiss the ripples of the vast water, the highlights can't be let off from any of the
delightful scenery above.

West Causeway
East Causeway
Seventeen-Arch Bridge
Nanhu Island
Bronze Ox
Marble Boat
Back Lake & Wanzihe
Pictures of Lake Area

Rear Area of Longevity Hill

It is quiet as compared to Front Hill Area. Most constructions were never able to
be repaired after wars, only a few ruins are left. In the axis of Rear Hill Area, there
used to be a religious building group-Houda Temple, a composite structure with
both Han and Tibetan characters. Although the constructions are fewer here, it
has a unique landscape with dense green trees and winding paths. Strolling here,
visitors can feel a rare tranquility and elegance. Famous scenic spots include
Garden of Harmonious Interests, Hall of Increasing Longevity, Four Great Regions,
Presence of Virtue Temple and Hall of Serenity, etc.

Four Great Regions

Suzhou Market Street
Garden of Harmonious Interests
Pictures of Rear-hill Area

Travel Tips FAQs Ecard

Transportation:
Tourists can enter the palace from the North Palace Gate, the East Palace Gate,
the New Palace Gate and the West Palace Gate.

By Bus:
Take bus 330, 331, 332, 346, 508, 579, 584, 601, 608 or 696, get off at Yiheyuan
Station and then walk west to the East Palace Gate.
Take bus 469 or 539 and get off at Yiheyuan West Palace Gate Station.
Take bus 331, 332, 333(), 333(), 375, 432, 438, 498, 508, 579, 584, 594, 601,
664, 697, Te 18, Te 19, Te 6, Yuntong 106, Yuntong 114 or Yuntong 118, get off at
Yiheyuanlu Dongkou Station (The Eastern End of Yiheyuan Road) and then walk
west to the East Palace Gate.
Take bus 303, 330, 331, 346, 375, 563, 584 or 594, and get off at Yiheyuan North
Palace Gate Station.
Take bus 74, 374, 437 or 952 and get off at Xin Jian Gong Men (Yiheyuan New
Palace Gate) Station.

By Subway:
1. Subway Line 4: get off at Beigongmen, take exit D and walk to the North Palace
Gate; or get off at Xiyuan to reach the East Palace Gate from exit C2.
2. Subway Line 16: get off at Xiyuan and leave from exit C2. Walk west to the East
Palace Gate.
Beijing Bus / Subway Search