500 words essay on the Great Wall

The Great Wall

The Great Wall is a great military building in China. It is huge in scale and arduous in construction. It is known as a miracle in the history of ancient human architecture.

The Great Wall was first built in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in the fifth century BC. In the third century BC, Qin Shihuang unified China and sent Meng Tian to lead an army of 300,000 to drive the Huns north. After that, he connected the original sections of the Great Wall, and Continue to build. Subsequently, successive dynasties continued to repair and expand it. By the mid-17th century AD and the end of the Ming Dynasty, construction had lasted for more than 2,000 years.

Badaling of the Great Wall

Badaling is located in Yanqing County. It is a relatively complete section of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty. Its gate was built in 1505 (the 18th year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty). It is narrow and wide in the west, in the shape of a trapezoid, with two east and west gates. The east is named Juyongwai Town, and the west is named North Gate Lock and Key. They are both masonry structures. There is a platform on the key hole, with a gap on the north and south sides, connecting the city wall and the platform. There are brick crenellations all around. This section of the city wall was built according to the mountain topography. The wall is tall and solid. The lower part is a stone platform, and the upper part is built with large city bricks and filled with soil and stones. The top floor is paved with square bricks and the caulking is dense. The inner side is a space wall, and the outer side is a stacked wall. There are crenels above the stacked walls and a shooting hole below. Stairways were built on steep mountains, and fortress-style towers, enemy towers or wall towers were built on high ridges, at corners of city walls, or in dangerous places. The city walls vary in height and width, with an average height of more than seven meters, and some sections are as high as 14 meters. The base of the wall is an average of six and a half meters wide, and the top is more than five meters wide, which can accommodate five horses galloping abreast or ten people walking abreast.

Juyong Pass of the Great Wall

Juyong Pass is located in Changping County and is an important pass of the Great Wall. There are towering mountains beside the mountain, overlapping green peaks, and a two-kilometer-long stream in the middle, commonly known as Guangou. The terrain here is dangerous, and it is known as "one man can guard the pass, but ten thousand men cannot open it". It has been a battleground for military strategists of all ages. The name Juyongguan means "migrating to the common people". According to legend, when Qin Shihuang built the Great Wall, he moved the conscripted civilians and soldiers here. In the Han Dynasty, it was named Xiguan during the Three Kingdoms period. In the Northern Qi Dynasty, it was changed to Qiangguan. In the Tang Dynasty, it had names such as Juyongguan, Jimenguan, and Junduguan. After that, it was still called Juyong Pass in all generations. The mountains here are lush with flowers and trees, like green waves, so it is called "Juyong Pass" and one of the "Eight Scenic Spots of Yanjing".

Jinshanling of the Great Wall

Jinshanling is located in the Hualou Valley area of ??Bakshiying, Luanping County, Rehe. It was built on Wuling Peak, the first peak of Yanshan Mountain, and Wohu Ridge at Gubeikou. It is on the Big and Little Jinshan Mountains between them, hence its name. This section of the Great Wall was built in 1570 (the fourth year of Longqing's reign in the Ming Dynasty). According to legend, it was built by Qi Jiguang and Tan Lun, the famous anti-Japanese generals. It is about 30 kilometers long, winding along the mountains, with looming heights and majestic momentum. Because the terrain here is low and gentle, it is easy to attack but difficult to defend. The city walls are very thick and solid, the beacon towers are majestic and tall, the city gates are dotted with fortresses, and the towers are densely packed, with as many as 158 towers. These towers have different forms. The piers are square, flat, round, etc. The roofs have shapes such as boat awnings, domes, four-corner and octagonal sky-piercings. In addition, there are observation towers with few holes, and warehouse buildings that are rare along the Great Wall. wait.

The Great Wall Huangyaguan

The Huangyaguan Great Wall is located in the mountains 30 kilometers north of Ji County. It was built in 556 AD. Qi Jiguang, a famous general of the Ming Dynasty, served as the general manager of Ji County. During the war, it was redesigned, covered with bricks and overhauled. The architectural characteristics of this section of the Great Wall are that the platform walls are made of bricks and stones, the watchtowers are square or round, and the fortification bricks are hollow or solid. There are all kinds of castles, fortresses and enemy towers and water passes. They connect mountains and cross rivers. The layout is ingenious and combines majesty, danger and beauty.

Great Wall Shanhaiguan

Shanhaiguan is located in the northeast of Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province. It is a must-pass pass for transportation between North China and Northeast China. In 1381 (the 14th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty), general Xu Da built the Great Wall here and built a garrison and garrison. Guancheng relies on the verdant Yanshan Mountains to the north and the rough Bohai Bay to the south, hence its name. Guancheng is square in plan, with a circumference of four kilometers, a height of 14 meters, and a thickness of seven meters. There are four city gates, the east gate is the most spectacular, the east gate is famous, and there is a plaque with "The First Pass in the World" hanging inside. The west gate is named Yingen, the south gate is famous, and the north gate is named Weiyuan. Towers are built on each gate, and a bell is built in the center of the city. There is a drum tower and a moat outside the city.

Jiayu Pass, the Great Wall of China

Jiayu Pass is located in the southwest corner of Jiayuguan Town on the Gobi Desert in Gansu Province. It is located on the Jiayu Plateau in the canyon between Wenshu Mountain in the Qilian Mountains and the Black Mountain in the Heli Mountains. The western end of the Great Wall. It was built in 1372 (the fifth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty), but piers and platforms had been built as early as the Han and Sui dynasties. Due to the dangerous terrain and majestic architecture, it has been known as the "Xiongguan in the world" since ancient times, and it is the first to guard the Hexi Corridor. The pass was also a must-pass for the ancient Silk Road.

Long construction history and huge building scale.

The history of building the Great Wall can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty in the 9th century BC. At that time, King Xuan of Zhou built Leh cities and beacon towers to defend against the invasion of northern peoples. In the 7th century BC, many vassal states, such as Qi, Wei, Zhao, Yan, Qin, etc., built their own Great Walls to prevent invasion from neighboring countries. In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang destroyed the six kingdoms and unified the whole country. Soon, he ordered the construction of the Great Wall to start, connecting the Great Walls in the northern parts of Qin, Yan, Zhao and other countries, and added and expanded them to build the Qin Great Wall starting from Lintiao in the west and reaching Liaodong in the east. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Great Wall was built several times to protect Hetao, Longxi and other places as well as east-west traffic.

During the Warring States Period (475 BC to 221 BC), in order to defend each other, the vassal states built tall walls on their borders to connect the city walls and beacon towers. They stretched endlessly, so they were called the Great Wall. . At that time, the land area of ??each vassal state was different, so the Great Walls of each country were also shorter and longer. According to documentary records and relics, the Chu Great Wall starts from Zhushan in Hubei Province in the west, crosses the Han River, crosses Deng County, Neixiang Yueshan, and ends in Qinyang, with a total length of nearly 500 kilometers; the Qi Great Wall starts from Pingyin in present-day Shandong and passes through Tai'an, Laiwu, and Zhangzhou. Qiu, Zichuan, Linxiong, Anqiu, Zhucheng, to Jiaonan Renhai, the total length is 500 kilometers; the Wei Great Wall starts from Huashan and runs north along the Yellow River, with a length of 300 kilometers; the Yan Great Wall has two roads, and the South Great Wall is about 250 kilometers; the North Great Wall is about 650 kilometers long. These Great Walls form a self-contained system and are not connected to each other. They are much inferior to the Great Walls of Qin and Han Dynasties.

The Great Wall of Qin started in the west of present-day eastern Gansu, passed through present-day Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Hebei and Liaoning provinces and autonomous regions, and reached the Yalu River, with a length of more than 5,000 kilometers. The Great Wall of Han Dynasty is longer than the Great Wall of Qin Dynasty, reaching more than 10,000 kilometers. To this day, the remains of the Han Dynasty Great Wall beacons scattered among several provinces and autonomous regions from Xinjiang to Hebei can still be seen everywhere. Since then, there are records of the construction of the Great Wall in the Northern Wei and Sui dynasties. From the 5th to 7th centuries AD, the Great Walls built successively in the Northern Wei Dynasty, Northern Qi Dynasty and Northern Zhou Dynasty were 650, 1000 and 1500 kilometers respectively. In the 12th century AD, the Jin Dynasty also built more than 4,000 kilometers in length from the eastern part of today's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the Transbaikal region. In the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent the remnant She forces of the Northern Yi from the Yuan Dynasty from invading southward, they also continued to build the Great Wall in the north. The construction of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty lasted for more than 200 years. In the early days, the Great Wall was built from the Yalu River in the east to the foothills of the Qilian Mountains in the west, with a total length of more than 7,300 kilometers. The Great Wall from Shanhaiguan to Jiayuguan that was repaired after the middle period was relatively intact, so it was mistakenly thought to be the Great Wall. It is the starting point and end point of the Great Wall in history.

In fact, the total length of the Great Wall built by many vassal states during the Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period and subsequent dynasties exceeded 50,000 kilometers. Therefore, the Great Wall can be called a great engineering miracle with "two thousand years of height and one hundred thousand miles of length and breadth". The magnitude of the project to build the Great Wall is indeed astonishing. Taking the Great Wall built in the Ming Dynasty alone as an estimate, 50 million cubic meters of bricks and 150 million cubic meters of earth were required. If used to pave a road 10 meters wide and 35 centimeters thick, it could circle the earth twice. The amount of labor used to build the Great Wall in the past dynasties is also very considerable. According to historical documents: In addition to employing 300,000 to 500,000 troops, Qin Dynasty also recruited 4.5 million civilians, sometimes reaching 1.5 million. The Northern Qi Dynasty conscripted 1.8 million civilians to build the Great Wall. There are also records in the history of the Sui Dynasty that tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of civilians were recruited to build the Great Wall on many occasions.

Complex terrain and peculiar structure

As a defensive project, the Great Wall goes over mountains and ridges, through deserts, across grasslands, over cliffs, and across rivers. The topography of the place it passes through is among the The complexity and the unique structure used can be described as a wonder in the history of ancient construction engineering.

In the desert area, there is dry sand and lack of bricks and stones. The Great Wall of Han Dynasty was built using locally produced gravel and tamarisk. It was built separately to give full play to the compressive properties of gravel and the pulling properties of willow branches. The combination of these two materials made the city body very strong. , after two and a half years of wind, sand, rain and snow, many sections are still standing several meters high. In the northwest Loess Plateau region, the Great Wall is mostly built with rammed earth or adobe, which is no less solid than masonry. For example, during the construction of the Jiayuguan Great Wall in Gansu, loess was specially excavated from the Black Mountains more than ten kilometers away from Guanxi. During the construction, the ramming joints were made to bite together. This kind of wall has a dense soil bond and is not prone to deformation and cracks. In the Ming Dynasty, the construction of the Great Wall was mainly made of bricks, stones and mixed masonry. The surface of the wall is built with strips of stone or bricks, and the seams are filled with white mortar. It is smooth and tight so that grass roots and tree roots cannot grow in the seams. There is a drainage ditch on the top of the wall to drain away rainwater and protect the wall.

The Great Wall has gates at important crossings, steep mountain passes, and junctions between mountains and seas, which can be used for both transportation and defense. Where rivers are crossed, water gates are set up under the Great Wall to allow river water to pass through. For the purpose of defense, protruding wall platforms were built not far away from the city to facilitate shooting from the left and right at enemies close to the wall; there were watchtowers at a certain distance to store weapons, food and grass, and to house the guards. , and can be used as a bunker during wartime. There are also independent beacons and beacon towers built along the Great Wall, which are used to raise fire and smoke to convey messages when enemies invade.

The Great Wall has profound cultural connotations

Since the construction of the Great Wall began, many magnificent historical dramas have been performed inside and outside the Great Wall. Many thrilling and great battles took place here, and many changes in dynasties were related to the gains and losses of adhering to the Great Wall. It can be said that the history of Daguo China was written both inside and outside the Great Wall. As famous battles occurred inside and outside the Great Wall, many famous figures emerged, including many military strategists and politicians, which greatly enriched the cultural connotation of this ancient building. During the Warring States Period, Li Mu built the Great Wall in Zhao State and used the Portuguese Changjie to fight against the invasion of the Huns. He made great achievements and created a glorious example of the defensive battle of the Chedai Barrier. He was praised by the people. To commemorate his achievements, later generations built the Ax Mu at Yanmen Pass. The cave was built as a memorial, and the ruins of Citang still exist today.

Natural Overview The Great Wall is an ancient defense project with the longest construction time and the largest amount of work in China and the world. Beginning in the 7th and 8th centuries BC, construction continued for more than 2,000 years. It is distributed over the vast land of northern and central China, with a total length of more than 50,000 kilometers. It is called "two thousand years up and down, more than 100,000 miles in length and breadth" ". Such a huge project is unique not only in China but also in the world. Therefore, hundreds of years ago it was listed as one of the seven wonders of the medieval world along with the Colosseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The history of the construction of the Great Wall The history of the construction of the Great Wall can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty in the 9th century BC. The Zhou Dynasty was in order to defend against the attacks of the northern nomadic tribes. A continuous row of castles, "Leh Cities", were built for defense. In the 7th and 8th centuries BC, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in order to compete for hegemony and defend each other, the princes of various countries built the Great Wall on their borders according to their respective defense needs. The earliest one built was the Chu Great Wall in the 7th century BC. Later, the Qi, Han, Wei, Zhao, Yan, Qin, Zhongshan and other vassal states, large and small, built the Great Wall one after another for self-defense. At this time, the characteristics of the Great Wall were that the east, south, west, and north directions were different, and the length was shorter, ranging from a few hundred kilometers to 1,000 to 2,000 kilometers. In order to distinguish it from the Great Wall later built by Qin Shihuang, historians call it the "Pre-Qin Great Wall".

In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang annihilated the princes of the six countries and unified the world, ending the disputes in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and completing the first feudal centralized unification of the country in Chinese history. In order to consolidate the security of the unified empire and the stability of production, and to defend against the intrusion of the powerful Huns nomadic slave owners in the north, the Great Wall was overhauled. In addition to using the foundation of the original Yan, Zhao, and Qin parts of the Northern Great Wall, many parts were added and expanded, "starting from Lintao in the west, ending in Liaodong in the east, and winding for more than 10,000 miles." Since then, it has been known as the Great Wall. Since Qin Shihuang, almost all dynasties that ruled the Central Plains built the Great Wall.

There are more than ten dynasties including the Han, Jin, Northern Huai, Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing, all of which built the Great Wall on varying scales. Among them, the Han, The Great Wall in the Jin and Ming dynasties was the largest, reaching 5,000 kilometers or 10,000 kilometers. None of them are in the same position. Judging from the ruling ethnic groups that built the Great Wall, in addition to the Han people, many dynasties that ruled China from ethnic minorities also built the Great Wall, and more so than the dynasties ruled by the Han people. During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, although large-scale construction of the Great Wall stopped, the Great Wall was later built in individual places. It can be said that construction of the Great Wall has not stopped for more than 2,000 years from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Qing Dynasty.

The defense engineering system of the Great Wall. The Great Wall stretches for thousands of miles. It is not just a single city wall, but consists of city walls, watchtowers, gates, piers, camps, guards, town beacons, etc. A complete defense engineering system composed of a variety of fortifications. This defense engineering system is commanded and controlled step by step by military command systems at all levels. Taking the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty as an example, nine military jurisdictions including Liaodong, Ji, Xuanfu, Datong, Shanxi, Yulin, Ningxia, Guyuan, and Gansu were set up on the defense line of the Great Wall to defend and repair sections starting from the Yalu River in the east and ending at Jiayuguan Pass in the west. The Great Wall with a total length of more than 7,000 kilometers is called a "nine-sided important town". Each town has a chief military officer as the military commander of this section of the Great Wall. Under the command of the Ministry of War, he is responsible for the defense of the military area under his jurisdiction or is ordered to support adjacent military areas. defense. In the Ming Dynasty, about 1 million troops defended the Great Wall. The general military officer is usually stationed in the town, and other officials at all levels are stationed in the guard post, camp city, Guancheng, and watchtowers and piers on the city wall.

The defense engineering construction of the Great Wall has accumulated rich experience in the construction process of more than 2,000 years. First of all, in terms of layout, Qin Shihuang summed up the experience of "using danger to control fortresses due to terrain" when building the Great Wall. This principle has been followed for more than 2,000 years and has become an important basis for military defense. In terms of building materials and building structures, many structural methods have been created based on the principle of "taking local materials and applying them according to the materials". There are structures such as rammed earth, stones, masonry, etc. In the desert, layers of red willow branches, reeds and sand are also used. This can be called an "ingenious" creation. Today, Yumenguan, Yangzhou, Gansu Guanhe Xinjiang also preserves the remains of this Great Wall from the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago.

The wall of the Great Wall: is the main part of this defense project. It is built in high mountains or dangerous plains. It is built according to the needs of terrain and defensive functions. It is very tall and strong in plains or key passes, while it is relatively low and narrow in dangerous places in high mountains to save manpower and energy. In order to reduce the cost, even some of the steepest places where construction is impossible have adopted the methods of "dangerous mountain walls" and "split gable walls". The Great Wall walls in Juyongguan, Badaling, Hebei, Shanxi, Gansu and other regions are generally about seven or eight meters high on average. , the bottom is about six or seven meters thick, and the top of the wall is about four or five meters wide. On the top of the city wall, there is a wall on the inner side, more than one meter high, to prevent patrol soldiers from falling. There is a crenel wall on the outer side, about 2 meters high. It is used to watch the enemy situation, shoot, roll and release rocks. On top of some important city walls, layers of barrier walls were built to resist enemies who might scale the walls. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, when Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese general, was transferred to the position of commander-in-chief of Jizhen, he made major improvements to the defenses of the Great Wall. Watchtowers or enemy towers were set up on the top of the city wall to accommodate patrol soldiers and store weapons and food. The defense function is greatly enhanced.

Guancheng: It is the most concentrated defensive stronghold on the Great Wall defense line. The location of the Guancheng is very important. They are all chosen in favorable terrain for defense, so as to achieve the effect of resisting powerful invaders with very few troops. In ancient times, it was said that "one man can guard the pass, and ten thousand people cannot open it", vividly It illustrates the importance of Guancheng. There are many Guanchengs along the Great Wall, large and small. Take the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty as an example, there are nearly a thousand passes, large and small. The famous ones include Shanhaiguan Pass, Huangya Pass, Juyong Pass, Zijing Pass, Daoma Pass, Pingxing Pass, Yanmen Pass, Pianguan Pass, Jiayuguan Pass and Yangguan Pass in the Han Dynasty. Pass, Yumen Pass, etc.

After the founding of New China, the party and the country attached great importance to the development of tourism. Especially since the reform and opening up, the development of tourism has been one of the key tasks of the government. Beautiful natural scenery, rich cultural relics and historic sites. The rich and colorful culture and art of multiple ethnic groups are a strong pillar of tourism with Chinese characteristics. The Great Wall embellishes the splendid rivers and mountains of China with its winding, undulating figures, making them even more majestic and majestic. It is not only a cultural heritage with rich cultural connotations, but also a unique natural landscape. In opening up tourism, the Great Wall has unique advantages. Today, it is completely understandable that tourists at home and abroad use the poem "If you don't visit the Great Wall, you are not a true man" to express their feelings that they must climb the Great Wall in person to see China's long civilization and magnificent rivers and mountains. When former British Prime Minister Heath visited the Great Wall, he said: "China's past and future are equally charming. ... When I arrived at the Great Wall, I felt that it was more spectacular than the Great Wall I had seen from photos, embroidery and paintings. ". This just shows that tourists want to visit the Great Wall in person. The old ruins of the ancient Saigon Pass remain, the Kyushu shape is magnificent with its majestic mountains and rivers, and the towering Great Wall will remain with the land of China and the world civilization forever. Comment by the questioner Thank you for your comments (9) | Agree 322

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Other 3 answers2011-03-13 18:30 Petroleum Master|Level 3 The Great Wall is thousands of miles long, and the inside and outside of the Great Wall are hometowns. The Great Wall, the backbone of the Chinese nation. A soaring giant dragon gallops up and down across thousands of miles of mountains and thousands of miles of cold desert, under the clear blue sky, and on the majestic earth. After the roar of war and the lingering sound of drums and horns, after the sound of resistance and killing condensed with blood and tears, the desert smoke, the vast yellow sand, and the Great Wall looked so desolate. The lonely and almost sanctified city wall - the Great Wall, is worshiped by people all over the world. The flags are flying, and the Great Wall needs to continue to write a glorious glory. Standing in the Central Plains, looking at the world, with high spirits, it has become the most splendid chapter in the world's architectural forest. Thousands of years of wind and frost have deposited the saturated salt of history, and hundreds of years of operation have given it a dazzling appearance. In 1999, the Great Wall slowly emerged from hundreds of classical buildings with heavy steps, leading the immortal light of Chinese civilization to the top of the world. However, history always has its ups and downs in the most peaceful eras, and the Great Wall has been rugged and bumpy in its journey to become the world's proudest building. The Great Wall's vote numbers remain volatile and precarious. Domestic publicity is not enough, and foreign voting is a drop in the bucket. China’s internal conservatism and humility make it difficult and long for the Great Wall to enter the Seven Wonders of the World. When will the sun be visible? When fire and water are at stake, who can turn the tide? There is no doubt that the Great Wall's rich history and the relics of the years are its most essential pride. We have melted it into a national spirit and a lofty belief, thinking that there will be a large number of responders without any publicity. The Great Wall is always patient and waiting in the baptism of wind and rain and the baptism of war, but it has forgotten how to enjoy the joy and fruits after the disaster. Just like the hard-working and simple Chinese people, they view everything with detachment and are free from arrogance and pride in peace. When the horn of the Great Wall blows, the carnage fills the air and gallops in all directions; when the horn passes, it is the setting sun and horses are riding on the green grass. This is the greatness of the Chinese nation, but also the weakness of this nation. Just like this selection, the Chinese people don't know how to exaggerate and publicize it, making the Great Wall groan and mourn, losing the excitement of the past! Who can change the mystery of July 7th? This dark sky is waiting for us to clear the clouds and reveal the dawn. When the horn of the Great Wall blows again in the new century, it is not for fighting, not for warning, but for showing the courage of our nation - that iron-clad backbone - the time has come. We have lost patience in our humble retreat, and we need to create a glorious present ourselves. Let go of the shackles of historical and traditional thoughts and let the Great Wall, this giant dragon of the East, soar into the clouds and mist, with its scales and claws flying.

Let the horn of the Great Wall sound in all directions again and reverberate throughout the world! Only by relying on oneself, with respect for the Great Wall, boldly and firmly recognizing its glory, and bravely and persistently creating a new glory, can the Great Wall, China's historical symbol, have a long history and let the world re-examine China forever. Liufang!