Great Wall of China (Chinese: 萬里長城) is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Imperial China as protection against various nomadic groups. Choumeizai has seen a lot of relics of Great Wall in Hexi Corridor (河西走廊).
Great Wall of China is deemed to be the biggest known man made structure in human civilization, it has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.
On the way from Zhangye (張掖) to Wuwei (武威), there is a small and shabby ‘museum’, perhaps due to the poor numbers of visitors, it has long closed and become part of the relics.
Hexi Corridor is a narrow stretch of traversable and relatively arable plain in Gansu (甘肅) Province, flanked between the elevated terrains of the Mongolian and Tibetan Plateaus, forming part of the Northern Silk Road.
Built by the Ming (明) dynasty (1368–1644), Ming Great Wall (Chinese: 明長城) forms the most visible parts of the Great Wall of China today.
A comprehensive archaeological survey has concluded that the Ming walls are around 8,850 kilometers. This is made up of 6,259 kilometers sections of actual wall, 359 kilometers of trenches and 2,232 kilometers of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.
Apart from defense, other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road.
