Great Wall of China
Terra-Cotta Soldiers
The most commonly told fact about the Great Wall - that it is the one man-made structure visible from the moon - is perhaps the most impressive. But the other statistics are close rivals. The wall was begun in the fifth century BC, continued until the sixteenth century and stretches some 6000km across China. Today's surviving sections, placed end to end would link New York with Los Angeles, and if the bricks used to build it were made into a single wall 5m high and 1m thick,it would more than encircle the earth. Even at ground level, and along the small, most visited section at Badaling, constantly overrun by Chinese and foreign tourists, Wan Li Changcheng (The Longe Wall of Ten Thousand Li), is clearly China's most spectacular sight. The Chinese have walled their cities since earliest times and during the Warring States period, around the fifth century BC, simply extended the practice to separate rival territories. The Great Wall's origins lie in these fractured lines of fortifications and in the vision of Qin ShiHuang, who, unifying the empire in the third century BC, joined and extended the sections to form one continuous defence against barbarians. Under subsequent dynasties - the Han, Wei, Qi and Sui - the wall was maintained and, in response to shifting regional threats, grew and changed course. It did lose importance for a while, with Tang borders extending well to the north, then shrinking back under the Song, but with the emergence of the Min it again became a priority, and military technicians worked on its reconstruction right through the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
East of Xian is the grave of a Chinese emporer who lived 259 to 210years BC. His name was Qin Shi Huang. He became emperor when he was only 22. He made many improvements in his kingdom. He changed politics, farming, and the military. He set standards for laws, money, written language and measurements. He ordered the highway paved. By doing all these things, he was able to defeat six rivals and unite a large area of China. He was however a cruel ruler. He tortured his people and taxed them heavily while he lived in luxury. This led to his downfall and his dynasty lasted only fifteen years. When he was 13 years old, he started building an enormous tomb for himself. It was a true underground copy of the kingdom that was above ground. As manay as 720,000 convicts and peasants worked 376 years to build it. In 1974 several peasants discovered some ancient bronze weapons and pieces of broken terra-cotta wariors. The discovery turned out to be so huge that it was name "The Eighth Wonder of the World."