Construction of the Great Wall took place over 2000 years. This spanned from the Chu kingdom (7th century BC) all the way through to the Ming Dynasty. Altogether, more than 20 dynasties erected the Great Wall. Among these dynasties, the Qin, Han and Ming dynasties built over 5000 km of the Great Wall.

The Great Wall during the Warring States Period: The Chu kingdom started construction of the Great Wall during the Warring States Period, in order to defend against hostile nomads and other invaders. Later dynasties, such as the Qi, Yan, Wei, Zhao and Qin dynasties, continued construction for similar reasons.
The Qin Dynasty Great Wall: After the Qin unification of the six kingdoms that then comprised China proper, the ‘First Emperor’ Qin Shi Huang sent the reputed General Mengtian to suppress raids by the Huns (Mongolians). Sections of the Great Wall remaining from previous dynasties were thus linked together, extending all the way from Lintao in the West to Liaodong in the East. The wall spread out over 10,000 Li (Chinese miles), thus explaining the origin of the title “Ten-Thousand-Mile Great Wall”. Only a broken vestige of the Qin Dynasty Great Wall still remains. Emperor Qin Shi Huang used 300,000 laborers creating this Miracle of the World, an engineering feat unique in the history of mankind.
The Han Dynasty Great Wall: The Han Dynasty continued construction of the Great Wall. From Emperor Wendi through to Emperor Xuandi, the Great Wall was further expanded to Dawan in Ershi City in the West over to the north coast of Heilongjiang Province in the East .This stretched over nearly 10,000 km, the Great Wall’s longest in history - twice the length of the ancient Silk Road.
The Ming Dynasty Great Wall: The Great Wall we see today mainly dates from the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Tai Zu (Zhu Yuanzhang) reestablished construction of the Great Wall, in order to safeguard against attack from the expelled Yuan Dynasty forces. In total, the project took 200 years to complete. The Ming Wall stretched from Jiayuguan (Gansu Province) in the West all the way East to the bank of the Yalu River at the foot of Hushan Mountain in Dandong City (Liaoning Province). Altogether some 6,000 km of wall were added.
In Beijing Municipality, the Great Wall expands over approximately 630km. Except for about 50km of the Great Wall developed for touristm at scenic spots like Badaling and Simatai, the majority of the wall is still left untouched, making it extraordinarily well-preserved.

Preservation of The Great Wall

Places like Badaling and Mutianyu are some of the best-known Great Wall scenic areas. It is unclear whether it is development and exploitation by the tourist industry, or excessive restoration of the wall, that are most responsible for damaging the original sense of beauty of the Great Wall. The Great Wall has lost its soul here, seeming more like an orderly set of restored steps than the Great Wall.
With regard to the wild and boundless Great Wall, its sense of deep-rooted history only makes it more hauntingly beautiful. Furthermore, each brick tells its own story of past events. Only manmade destruction such as littering and wanton vandalism make the Great Wall withered and fallen, a pitiful blemished version of its former self.
Personally, I feel a deep sense of attachment to the Great Wall. On the Great Wall one tranquil night, I heard the “Midnight Refrain” of 500 years of recollection, silently retelling 500 years of Great Wall stories.
As for the Great Wall itself, it definitely never refuses the plucky traveller who seeks it out. If only for the sake of protecting the wall, making any kind of approach to the wall were prohibited, this would just be narrow-minded logic.
The beauty of the Great Wall lies not in its superficial surface, but in its power to shield against the very forces that destroy human life: a never-ending mountain. Preservation for generations to come is no comparison to the brave and honourable endeavour in its construction. Life and death struggle, like a religious obsession.
Today the body of the Great Wall remains to express the solemn vicissitudes of our life, ever changeable, like the clouds and the wind.
In fact, there should be no “Unrestored Great Wall” characterization. Even though it may be battered by the winds and the rain to become the neglected broken ramparts we see today, it will always be at one with the Creator and the wild rugged mountains around, this is the Great Wall’s true nature.

My Great Wall Feeling

I will never forget the first time I went camping at the Great Wall. I found myself greatly stirred by those thousands of years of loneliness and desolation the Great Wall has had to endure, I was moved to the point of tears but somehow unable to cry.
Every brick on this wall has its own history, with many stories to tell of the sweat, blood and tears of strenuous labour. Those garrison troops, the bitter anguish of Meng Jiang Nu’s love, and all those conscripts who worked themselves to the point of illness, or were exhausted to death. The youth and age of previous generations, countless seasons of reincarnation. The yearning for freedom, the constellations of stars, the rains, the snow, and the happy laughter of us visitors…. All these memories are etched in this place!