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... ile the battle forts are located high up the hills. Then there is the Beakon Tower. From the Beakon Tower alarms were raised by means of smoke signals, at night by fire (Karl's, 1).
Smoke was produced by burning a mixture of wolf dung, sulfur and saltpeter (Karl's, 1). Shots were fired at the same time. Thus an alarm could be relayed from over 500 kilometers within just a few hours. As we all know the Great Wall was slowly built by sections, but now today exists as one wall. This was possible because the Qin Dynasty was finally able to unite the split up sections of the walls (Forbes, 5). The emperor had extravagant plans for the empire, and he used forced labor to accomplish them.
Gangs of Chinese peasants were forced to dig canals, and build roads. The one thing however, the Qin Dynasty thought to be especially important was to create a better barrier to the north (Muyaka, 6). Earlier rulers had built walls to prevent attacks by nomadic barbarians. First the Emperor ordered that those walls to be connected, and complete the entire wall as one (Forbes, 5).
Over the years, some 300, 000 peasants died before the work was done (Forbes, 5). Today the Great Wall of China stands as a monument to Qin's ambition, and to the peasants who carried out their emperor's wishes (Forbes, 5). In 210 B. C. Qin died, and soon after the dynasty itself came to an end. Even so, the rule of the Qin brought lasting changes.
The most influential changes were that of the wall. For it still stands today, finished, and a constant reminder to all, of the once and mighty emperor (Muyaka, 6). The Great Wall was not only used for defense purposes. I read that it was used as a barrier to isolate China, during its period of Isolationism (Kalman, 7). The Great Wall not only gave a physical barrier, but it also showed that the Chinese did not really want trade with the rest of the world (Kalman, 7). In today's day and age The Great Wall of China is no longer used to fight off armed soldiers, but it is used more commonly now as a tourist attraction Unknown, 8).
Tourists from all over the world come to see the Great Wall, and take photos. It is widely known throughout China for other reasons as well. The Chinese people have used the Great Wall of China in many of their myths and legends (Unknown, 8). It is said that the Great Wall actually has a sleeping dragon inside, and it is customary in China if new land is to be plotted that a holy man check it out first so as not to have the new building disrupt the sleeping dragon (Kalman, 7). It has also been used for countless poems.
One of the other legends of the wall is that when a man was working on the wall and he became fatigued, a few of the guards buried him alive into the wall. When the wife of the man did not come back after the construction was completed she went to the capital to find him. After she had heard what happened the woman went into remorse, and became very depressed. It was then that the wall opened up and revealed to the woman the body of her departed husband (Unknown, 8).
That is an oldwives tale that has been passed down throughout the years, but there is some truth to it. For it was said, and evidence has been found, that many people were buried in the wall if the were unable to work. One new and interesting thing I discover during researching was the China Great Wall Academy. What they did was examine 101 sections of the wall in different provinces, and reported that less than 30 % remains in good condition (Unknown, 8). The factors in its destruction were things such as nature and mankind (Unknown, 8). After that study, the Academy called for greater protection of the wall.
The must keep it maintained because it is China's main tourist attractions, it has been said, "the man who doesn't visit the wall, has never been to China. " (Unknown, 8) The Great Wall of China is a masterpiece in a whole. Even though it did take hundreds upon thousands human lives to build. It is a true symbol of China for what it did stand for, and also what it stands for now. China's past was full of change, but China's future will have the wall to look back upon as a constant reminder. The Great Wall of China is indeed a great architectural achievement for man, but what it has done to lives of the Chinese people the magnitude cannot possibly be measured in the wall itself. The Wall of China is one of the largest creations ever built, but it still has many secrets that remain unknown and unanswered.
NOTE: Was not sure what type of citations you wanted, so I did them the way my other history teacher had us do them. The name is the author's last name and the number represents the source number on my bibliography. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA By: Jeff Brand Due Date: April 26, 2004 Class: History 162 Section 1 Professor: T. Teng Assignment: Formal Paper Bibliography 1. Karl's, Robert. 10, 000 -li Great Wall.
New York, Crabtree Publishing Company, 1958. 2. Twitchett, Denis and Loewe, Michael. The Cambridge History of China: Volume 1. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England, 1986; 61 - 63. 3. Delahoye, H... Drive, J.
P. Wilson, Dick. Zewen, Lou. The Great Wall. New York: Warwick Press, 1987. 4. Ledoux, Trish.
Ancient Civilizations: San Francisco, Mixx publishers, 1984. 5. Forbes, Geraldine. Asian Studies. New York, Mifflin Company, 1993. 6. Muyaka, Ho Chin, Huang River: New York, Penguin Publishers, 1994. 7. Kalman, Bobbie.
China the Land. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 1989. 8. web great wall/
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Research essay sample on Great Wall Of China Report
