Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Ming Tombs
十三陵
十三陵
Often included in a tour to Badaling is a visit to the
Ming Tombs
(Changchi Lu, Changping
明
昌平区昌赤路
; full admission ¥180, per sight ¥35-65; 8am-5.30pm; 872),
20km away. Beijing's
answer to Egypt's Valley of the Kings is the final resting place for 13 of the 16 Ming em-
perors; the approach to the tombs is via the remarkable 7km-long
Spirit Way
, lined with
stone statues of animals and court officials.
Understand
Great Wall of China
Dating back 2000-odd years, the Great Wall stretches for an estimated 8851km as it snakes from the border with
North Korea in the east, to Lop Nur in the far western province of Xinjiang. Meandering its way through 17
provinces, principalities and autonomous regions, the Wall started out as a line of defence against the Mongol
hordes. It has had no practical use for centuries, but its grip on the imagination of both locals and foreigners re-
mains as strong as ever.
History
The Wall wasn't built in one go. Rather, there are four distinct Walls. Work on the 'original' began during the Qin
dynasty (221-207 BC), when hundreds of thousands of workers laboured for 10 years to construct it. An estim-
ated 180 million cubic metres of rammed earth was used to form the core of this Wall, along with, legend has it,
the bones of dead workers.
Work continued during the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) but it took the impending threat of Genghis Khan
to spur further construction in the Jin dynasty (1115-1234). The Wall's final incarnation, the one most people see
today, came during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), when it was reinforced with stone, brick and battlements over
a period of 100 years.
Despite being home to around one million soldiers, the great irony of the Wall is that it rarely stopped China's
enemies from invading. It was never one continuous structure; there were inevitable gaps and it was through
those that Genghis Khan rode in to take Beijing in 1215. Nor could the Wall stop the Manchus sweeping down
from what is now northeastern China and overthrowing the Ming dynasty in 1644.
Ruin & Restoration
With the Mongol threat long gone, the Wall became increasingly redundant during the Qing dynasty and fell into
disrepair. Its degeneration continued after the communist takeover of 1949. In 1984 it was placed under govern-
ment protection. Despite much restoration work, huge sections of the Wall are nothing more than rubble, or
mounds of earth. Only around Beijing do lucky visitors see the Wall in something approaching its former glory.
