Great Wall of China

[hkskyline]

By 司 令 from a Chinese photography forum :

[Kriativus]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

By ? ? from a Chinese photography forum :

This is so fucking magic. Beautiful!

Where is it exactly? I'm coming to Beijing this October and obviously going to see the great wall. Where am I going to be able to find this spot? Do you know where it is!? Can it be reached coming from Beijing?

[Kriativus]

I mean the ones with a huge fog covering the wall.

[Kriativus]

Edit

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by Kriativus

This is so fucking magic. Beautiful!

Where is it exactly? I'm coming to Beijing this October and obviously going to see the great wall. Where am I going to be able to find this spot? Do you know where it is!? Can it be reached coming from Beijing?

From the author's subsequent post the place is called 金山岭 near Beijing. But I've never been there myself so am not too sure how to get there.

[hkskyline]

Great Wall features parallel walls: archaeologist
Updated: 2011-09-08 15:37
Xinhua

XI'AN - Although many people believe that China's Great Wall is a single continuous structure, a Chinese archaeologist has stated that the wall actually features multiple parallel walls near several of its sections.

Surveys of several sections of the Great Wall have uncovered sections featuring two to three smaller walls built parallel to the main wall, smashing the preexisting idea that the wall was built as a single continuous extension, according to Duan Jingbo, the director of a surveying team in Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

Duan, who is also a professor at Shaanxi's Northwest University, said that a section of the wall located in Shaanxi is actually composed of two parallel walls. This type of construction allowed military leaders to garrison troops more effectively, increasing the defensive power of the wall, according to the professor.

Duan said that sections of the Great Wall located in other regions in China feature similar fortifications.

The government started surveying the Great Wall more intensively in 2006, aiming to investigate the overall condition of the wall.

The Great Wall was originally built in the Warring States Period (475 BC - 206 BC) to defend China against nomadic tribes. Sections of the wall that were destroyed during that period were rebuilt during later periods, including the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

[Saigoneseguy]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

Typical image of the Ming great wall. However only 10% of total length of the Great Wall would look like that. The rest 90% are much older and look more like this:



Or this:


A section of Ming-dynasty GW near Datong:


Ming Great wall


Han dynasty great wall (the second longest) go furthest to the West than any wall succeeding it, this section is near Dunhuang:


Most of the Jin dynasty great wall (the longest of all) look like this:


There's not only one wall, but a whole sophisticated system of walls, ditches, fortresses, garrisons, mountain forts and beacon towers, stretching towards the most unreachable terrains to incredibly isolated places. And the Great wall is not only in China. Parts of the Han great wall cuts through Mongolia and the Liao dynasty walls go as far as to Siberia.

[Saigoneseguy]

The photos from the first post are of Juyongguan, and technically, it's not the Great wall since it's a mountain fortress and does not connect to the rest of the wall. Despite being 10 km away from the real wall and heavily reconstructed, it's being marketed as the Great wall for mass tourists. It's a bit of a trap.

[hkskyline]

Isn't Juyongguan a gate along the wall?

[Saigoneseguy]

It's a fortress and part of Great Wall fortifications but it's not connected to the rest of the Great wall. Badaling is indeed a Great wall gate.

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by Saigoneseguy

It's a fortress and part of Great Wall fortifications but it's not connected to the rest of the Great wall. Badaling is indeed a Great wall gate.

The Great Wall is actually a series of walls that have been disconnected over the years due to wear and tear and also by construction. It's not a continuous wall along the northern border.

[Saigoneseguy]

Yes but the Ming dynasty wall that we're talking about is very much a continuous stretch of wall from Liaoning to Ningxia.

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by Saigoneseguy

Yes but the Ming dynasty wall that we're talking about is very much a continuous stretch of wall from Liaoning to Ningxia.

Please check the UNESCO World Heritage listing for more information. First of all, the Great Wall's history pre-date the Ming significantly. Second, the construction during the Ming did not unify the walls into one.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/438

Note the following article has a map of the wall that shows it is not one : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8008108.stm

[Saigoneseguy]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

Please check the UNESCO World Heritage listing for more information. First of all, the Great Wall's history pre-date the Ming significantly. Second, the construction during the Ming did not unify the walls into one.

Yes I agree completely, but you misunderstood me I'm afraid. The Ming dynasty wall did not join the older sections into one, it stands by itself. In fact it's impossible and impractical to do so because the earlier walls are somewhat parallel and overlap each other. What I'm saying is the Ming wall is an unbroken stretch of wall at least from Shanhaiguan to Laoniuwan, where it meets the Huanghe. And Juyonguan isn't connected to that stretch.

"The Great Wall of China" is a very inaccurate umbrella term IMO. There are many different, unrelated walls in Chinese history built by different nations and dynasties, in different periods, different materials and locations. Your latest post "Great Wall features parallel walls" has pointed this out. The term should be changed into "Great walls of China"

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by Saigoneseguy

Yes I agree completely, but you misunderstood me I'm afraid. The Ming dynasty wall did not join the older sections into one, it stands by itself. In fact it's impossible and impractical to do so because the earlier walls are somewhat parallel and overlap each other. What I'm saying is the Ming wall is an unbroken stretch of wall at least from Shanhaiguan to Laoniuwan, where it meets the Huanghe. And Juyonguan isn't connected to that stretch.

"The Great Wall of China" is a very inaccurate umbrella term IMO. There are many different, unrelated walls in Chinese history built by different nations and dynasties, in different periods, different materials and locations. Your latest post "Great Wall features parallel walls" has pointed this out. The term should be changed into "Great walls of China"

The collective name is the "Great Wall", because conceptually it is one barrier against the northern tribes, even though in practice it consisted of multiple constructions over multiple Chinese imperial dynasties. The term and the UNESCO World Heritage Listing include all walls built by Chinese imperial dynasties, not just the Ming, but also its predecessors.

I don't think we should look at the Ming walls in isolation, since they also restored some of its predecessor walls as well.

[mfairy]

Wish someday I can go here! Nice place! I love the way it is structured.One historic place everyone should go!

[robinson02]

Art is essentially an expression of human creativity and imagination. Thousands of years ago, rulers and generals of China envisioned a military defensive structure that would protect the land from northern intruders. Great Wall of China is the result of that imagination and implementation.

[hkskyline]

By 海伦北京 from a Chinese photography forum :

[sidra2010143]

This wall is incredible.i will visit this wall in the future

[hkskyline]

China kicks off 2-bln-yuan Great Wall protection project

JIAYUGUAN, Gansu, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- The municipal government of Jiayuguan in northwest China's Gansu province on Friday kicked off a repair and construction project focused on the western end of China's Great Wall.

The project will involve repair work on the sections of Great Wall in the city of Jiayuguan, including the Jiayu Pass -- the starting point of a section of the Great Wall constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

It also includes the construction of a world cultural heritage theme park and a heritage inspection center.

The project will have a total investment of 2.03 billion yuan (317 million U.S. dollars), mostly financed by the central government.

Built in 1372, the Jiayu Pass also served as a vital passage on the ancient Silk Road. It was listed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1987.

The pass underwent large-scale repairs and maintenance in 1984.

From 1986 to 1989, the Chinese government invested an accumulated 10 million yuan in repairing the pass as well as the sections of Great Wall on both sides of the pass.

The Great Wall was first built during the reign of China's first emperor Qin Shihuang (259-210 B.C.) to keep out foreign invaders.

A national survey in 2008 showed that the exact length of the Great Wall built in the Ming Dynasty was 8,851.8 km, stretching from the Hushan section in northeast Liaoning province to the Jiayu Pass.

The Great Wall passes through 10 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in northern China, including Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai.