History of Great Wall

Originally established during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-475BC) as defensive fortification, it was composed of independent walls respectively built by different states. Thereafter, almost the following emperors of successive dynasties tried to reinforce the Great Wall to 8851.8 km, hence the name the Great Wall.

The project of Great Wall were built mainly in five periods, initially established in Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, formed in Qin Dynasty, extended during Han, Sui and Ming dynasties.

The Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC)

At this period, frequent wars occurred among each state for stronger ones expanded their territory though invasion into other states. In order to defense, state of Qi, Chu, Wei, Zhao and Yan started to construct defensive walls at the boarders of neighboring enemy states.

The Warring States Period (475-221 BC)

The Nomads Of The North invaded southward to the states including Chu, Qi, Wei, Yan, Zhao, Qin and Han, they had to erect walls to withstand. At that time, the total length of the wall had already reached 3,107 miles, which belongs to different states.

Qin Dynasty (221-206BC)

In 221 B.C., Emperor Qin Shihuang unified the whole China after defeating the other six states and established the Qin Dynasty, which marked the end of long-time division by feudal lords. During his reign, he ordered to connect each walls and consolidate them in order to defense against Mongol harassment from the north. The final total length of Qin Great Wall exceeded 3,100 miles, known as the 10,000-li Long Wall which started from the east of today's Liaoning Province and ended at Lintao, Gansu Province.

Han Dynasty (201BC-220AD)

In 121 B.C. during the rule of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, the Great Wall was expanded westward to Xinjiang region for purpose of holding back the frequent invasion from the powerful Hu inhabited in the north. The Han Great Wall includes many sections, added by 8,000 km from Liaodao in the east to Lop Nur in the west. Among them, the section of Hexi Corridor Wall is well preserved now, which functioned to protect the Silk Road to Central Asia.

Sui Dynasty (581-619)

In 581, the establishment of Sui ended the more than 200 years division situation. Meanwhile, the nomad nationality Tujue frequently infringed upon the Sui's north borderline, causing several wars between Sui and Tujue. Therefore, Emperor Sui Yang requisitioned large numbers of labors to fix old walls and extend walls for several times to present Suide of Shannxi Province. The section of wall running from eastern bank of the Yellow River in Linwu of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region had been extended from east to west about 350 kilometers.

Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

In order to consolidate the northern border, Ming Dynasty kept on building the Great Wall in large scale during its rule of more than 200 years as a block to resist the plunder of Jurchen people in the northeast regions. Differ from the 10,000-li Long Wall built by Emperor Qin Shihuang, the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty was called side walls, running from the Tiger Mountain of Liaoning at the eastern bank of Yalu River to the Jiayu Pass of Gansu Province, with a total length of 8851.8 kilometers, passing though Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai, which forms the main existing ruins of the Great Wall at present.

According to the statistics issued by the State Bureau of Cultural Relics, the total length of the Great Wall built by successive dynasties is 21,196 kilometers. Finished by manual labor without any machine, it boasts a testimony of Chinese long history and also a miracle created by Chinese ancient working people.

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