The Great Wall, like the Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and the Hanging Garden of Babylon, is one of the great wonders of the world.

Unlike other Natural and Cultural Heritage Sites, the Great Wall embraces such broad dimensions that nothing else can compare with. It runs across Northern China from east to west, providing protection to agricultural civilization and ancient trading routes. It spans the history of China from past to present, witnessing the rise and fall of powers and dynasties.

Many parts of the Great Wall had gone, a lot are succumbing to the elements. Some have been buried by the desert, some have been destroyed by people. Still, the Wall stands silently, enduring the passage of time and greeting the changes of seasons.
If the Wall could talk, it would have many stories to tell. If you listen long enough, maybe you will hear one.
As a cultural heritage, the Wall belongs not only to China but to the world. The Venice charter says: "Historical and cultural architecture not only includes the individual architectural works, but also the urban or rural environment that witnessed certain civilizations, significant social developments or historical events." The Great Wall is the largest of such historical and cultural architecture, and that is why it continues to be so attractive to people all over the world. In 1987, the Wall was listed by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage site

History
Starting out in the east on the banks of the Yalu River in Liaoning Province, the Wall stretches westwards for 6370 kilometers to Jiayuguan in the Gobi desert, thus known as the Ten Thousand Li Wall in China. The Wall climbs up and down, twists and turns along the ridges of the Yanshan and Yinshan Mountain Chains through five provinces--Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu--and two autonomous regions--Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, binding the northern China together.
Historical records trace the construction of the origin of the Wall to defensive fortification back to the year 656 B.C. during the reign of King Cheng of the States of Chu. Its construction continued throughout the Warring States period in the fifth Century B.C. when ducal states Yan, Zhao, Wei, and Qin were frequently plundered by the nomadic peoples living north of the Yinshan and Yanshan mountain ranges. Walls, then, were built separately by these ducal states to ward off such harassments. Later in 221 B.C., when Qin conquered the other states and unified China, Emperor Qinshihuang ordered the connection of these individual walls and further extensions to form the basis of the present great wall. As a matter of fact, a separate outer wall was constructed north of the Yinshan range in the Han Dynasty (206 BC--1644 BC.), which went to ruin through years of neglect. In the many intervening centuries, succeeding dynasties rebuilt parts of the Wall. The most extensive reinforcements and renovations were carried out in the Ming Dynasty (1368--1644) when altogether 18 lengthy stretches were reinforced with bricks and rocks. It is mostly the Ming Dynasty Wall that visitors see today. In some areas, two walls built in two different dynasties can be seen running side by side.

Great Wall Construction Structures
 The Great Wall is divided into two sections, the east and west, with Shanxi Province as the dividing line. The west part is a rammed earth construction, about 5.3 meters high on average. In the eastern part, the core of the Wall is rammed earth as well, but the outer shell is reinforced with bricks and rocks. The most imposing and best preserved sections of the Great Wall are at Badaling and Mutianyu, not far from Beijing and both are open to visitors.
The Wall of those sections is 7.8 meters high and 6.5 meters wide at its base, narrowing to 5.8 meters on the ramparts, wide enough for five horses to gallop abreast. There are ramparts, embrasures, peep-holes and apertures for archers on the top, besides gutters with gargoyles to drain rain-water off the parapet walk. Two-storied watch-towers are built at approximately 400-meters internals. The top stories of the watch-tower were designed for observing enemy movements, while the first was used for storing grain, fodder, military equipment and gunpowder as well as for quartering garrison soldiers. The highest watch-tower at Badaling standing on a hill-top, is reached only after a steep climb, like "climbing a ladder to heaven". The view from the top is rewarding, however. The Wall follows the contour of mountains that rise one behind the other until they finally fade and merge with distant haze.
A signal system formerly existed that served to communicate military information to the dynastic capital. This consisted of beacon towers on the Wall itself and on mountain tops within sight of the Wall. At the approach of enemy troops, smoke signals gave the alarm from the beacon towers in the daytime and bonfire did this at night. Emergency signals could be relayed to the capital from distant places within a few hours long before the invention of anything like modern communications.

Well-known passages   
There stand 14 major passes (Guan, in Chinese) at places of strategic importance along the Great Wall, the most important being Shanghaiguan and Jiayuguan. Yet the most impressive one is Juyongguan, about 50 kilometers northwest of Beijing.
1) Shanhaiguan  
Known as "Tian Xia Di YI Guan" (The First Pass Under Heaven), Shanhaiguan Pass is situated between two sheer cliffs forming a neck connecting north China with the northeast. It had been, therefore, a key junction contested by all strategists and many famous battles were fought here. It was the gate of Shanhaiguan that the Ming general Wu Sangui opened to the Manchu army to suppress the peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng and so surrendered the whole Ming empire to the Manchus, leading to the foundation of the Qing Dynasty. (1644-1911)
2) Jiayuguan Pass
Jiayuguan Pass was not so much as the "Strategic pass Under the Heaven" as an important communication center in Chinese history. Cleft between the snow-capped Qilian Mountains and the rolling Mazong Mountains, it was on the ancient Silk Road. Zhang Qian, the first envoy of Emperor Wu Di of the Western Han dynasty (206 B.C-24 A.D), crossed it on his journey to the western regions. Later, silk flowed to the west through this pass too. The gate-tower of Jiayuguan is an attractive building of excellent workmanship. It has an inner city and an outer city, the former square in shape and surrounded by a wall 11.7 meters high and 730 meters in circumference. It has two gates, an eastern one and a western one. On each gate sits a tower facing each other. The four corners of the wall are occupied by four watch towers, one for each.
Juyongguan, a gateway to ancient Beijing from Inner Mongolia, was built in a 15-kilometer long ravine flanked by mountains. The cavalrymen of Genghis Khan swept through it in the 13th century. At the center of the pass is a white marble platform named the Cloud terrace, which was called the Crossing-Street Dagoba, since its narrow arch spanned the main street of the pass and on the top of the terrace there used to be three stone dagobas, built in the Yuan Daynasty(1206-1368). At the bottom of the terrace is a half-octagonal arch gateway, interesting for its wealth of detail: it is decorated with splendid images of Buddha and four celestial guardians carved on the walls. The vividness of their expressions is matched by the exquisite workmanship. Such grandiose relics works, with several stones pieced together, are rarely seen in ancient Chinese carving. The gate jambs bear a multi-lingual Buddhist sutra, carved some 600 years ago in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongolian, Uigur, Han Chinese and the language of Western Xia. Undoubtedly, they are valuable to the study of Buddhism and ancient languages.

Legends about the Great Wall

The Legend of Meng Jiang N
Among all legends and stories about the Great Wall, the most well-known one is probably of a girl called Meng Jiang N. Through various dynasties, the story has been modified and developed into many different versions. The most popular one goes as follows: It was in Qin Dynasty (221 B.C. - 206 B.C.). Having escaped from the heavy labour work at the Great Wall construction site, a young man called Fan Qi Liang hid in a private garden where he ran into Meng Jiang N, the daughter of the garden owner. They married but right after the wedding, Fan Qi Liang was taken away to build the Great Wall again. Meng Jiang N waited at home. Winter came but Fan Qi Liang did not return. Meng Jiang N made him some warm clothes and decided to take them to her husband. She got to the construction site but Fan Qi Liang was nowhere to be found. She was then told that Fan Qi Liang had died and his body was built into the Great Wall. Meng Jiang N cried night and day. Her sorrow was so deep that the Great Wall broke down and exposed the bones and bodies of many dead men. Meng Jiang N cut her fingers and dripped her blood on the dead until her blood flowed into one. Knowing that this was her husband, she buried him and then jumped into water and killed herself. This is a very wide-spread legend about the Great Wall and was even made into movies three times. If you ever get a chance to visit Shan Hai Guan, the eastern end of the Ming Great Wall - actually, the Ming Great Wall used to extend further east and northward, - you can pay a visit to the temple dedicated to Meng Jiang N.
Though just a legend, the story of Meng Jiang N did tell one truth: Many people have given their lives building the Great Wall, and many more defending the Wall. With a history of over 2,000 years, the Great Wall witnessed the changes of time, the lives of people, the happening of events, and the stories of many individuals. So much laughter, so many tears, the Great Wall all endured with silence.

A Story About Jia Yu Guan
At the western end of the Ming Great Wall, a most well-preserved pass, Jia Yu Guan, stands solemnly in the gobi desert. And if you ask the local guides, they will direct you to a special brick. It is said that the designer of the pass in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was so precise as to be able to calculate how many bricks would be needed for the construction. Upon completion of the pass, the surplus was only by one brick.