Sightseeing tour of Beijing, day Three
Description:
The Great Wall of China
The first thing that astronaut N. A. Armstrong saw on the brilliant globe from the Apollo 11 spacecraft was the Great Wall of China and a dam built off the coast of Holland. The Great Wall of China is the most majestic ancient Chinese military-defensive structure and one of the true wonders in the world history of architecture.
The Great Wall, stretching for more than 5000 km, connected together fortresses, outposts, mountain passages and signal towers, which were placed at a certain distance on the wall itself inside or outside it. Signal towers on the top of the mountain served mainly for the transmission of military signals, when detecting traces of the enemy in it, the signal was transmitted by burning smoke bombs. At night, the fire was lit, so the transmission system formed an integral chain of communication. Towers over the wall had 2-3 floors, soldiers lived here and stored weapons and ammunition, these towers played an important role in military defense, their inventor was the famous Minsk General Qi Jiguang.
The Great Wall survived the rise and decline of feudal society, its construction lasted more than 2700 years. Today, the wall ruins are found in 16 provinces, cities and autonomous regions in the Northeast, Northwest, Yellow River Basin and Northern China. The total length of the sections of the wall erected in all epochs exceeded 50 thousand km. The width of a meter and a height of 5 meters, this unique structure of the world, built of brick and tiles, could circle the Earth 10 times.
The Great Wall is a historical monument where politics, economics, military affairs and culture of all dynasties are written, feats of generals and warriors, talented and intelligent masters.