tHe gReaT wAll Of cHinA – A giGanTic dRaGon

The Great Wall of China, was named as one of the new seven wonders of the world in 2007, in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.

This Great Wall which appears like a gigantic dragon, winds up and down across deserts, and mountains, even grasslands, and then the plateaus stretching around to 6,700 kilometers east to the west of China. However, with over 2000 years of history, it is still one of the most fascinating attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.

Built in Ming dynasty, the wall starts from the Shahaiguan Pass in the east to the Jiayuguan Pass in the west then traveling in the provinces of Liaoning, Hebei, and Beijing, and then Tianjian, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Shaonxi and the Gansu.

The history of the Great Wall of China is very exciting in its origins, originally built during the spring and autumn. It began as an independent wall for many different states when they first built it. It did not become the “Great” wall till the Qin dynasty. The Emperor Qin Shihuang succeeded in joining the walls together to defend from the Huns in the north after the famous unification of China.

According to the Great Wall of China Academy, after the long survey of 101 sections of the wall in different provinces, although it went through a lot of repairs and constant extensions in the later dynasties, it is said that due to nature’s constraint and the havoc at the hand of some mankind are bringing about the gradual reduction of its extent, with less than 30 percent remaining in good condition.

It’s interesting to note that people visiting the place, will come across the various Chinese wildlife along the length of the Great Wall from the Siberian tigers in the northeast to the rare giant panda in the southern Gansu, Sichuan, and Shaanxi. Likewise the wild mammals – the brown and black bears, mandarin vole, Manchurian weasel, different species of deer that includes spotted deer, roe deer and Sitka deer which are used in Chinese medicine are found in the northern region. Also birds of the region include cranes, pheasants, woodpeckers, mandarin duck, black grouse, fairy pitta, pine grosbeak etc., can be seen while hiking the wall.

But at the same time, few disadvantages while hiking the Great Wall is,

1. Poor mapping with very few guides or no guides at all in some places.

2. Lack of drinking water or availability of dirty water. Although we come across some villages on the way, the distance might take us miles away from the wall.

3. To walk in the regions of walls built by mud and stones is risky and unsafe. So it’s necessary to have a physical safety while hiking the Great Wall.