If you Travel to Beijing, you must have heard a saying about the Great Wall, from your Chinese friends or saw 
it in the tourism booklet in China Hotels. It is “He, who has never been to the Great Wall, is not a true man”. But do you have any ideas about the resource of this popular saying? It was firstly said by Mao Zedong or Chairman Mao, who was the first Chairman of P.R.China. Besides his leadership, he is also a widely known poet who wrote 129 poets in total. This saying was from one of his poems Qing Ping Le · Liu Pan Mountain (清平乐·六盘山). He wrote this poet in October, 1935, when he led the Red Army to the destination of Long March (12,500km) in Liu Pan Mountain.
However, the Great Wall whose major part was built in Qin Dynasty (221 BC. to 
207 BC.) is from Shan Hai Guan (山海关) as the east point to Jia Yu Guan (嘉峪关) as the west point. It is not within the area of the Liu Pan Mountain. Some people doubt that the Great Wall mentioned in Chairman Mao’s poet is a virtual one. While other people think that it refers to the old Great Wall of Warring States period (475 BC. to 221 BC). Anyway, the official explanation is the Great Wall which is usually referred by visitors.
Back to Qing Dynasty when the Great Wall was being built, another legend happened and began to be spread generations by generations. On the wedding day, the husband of Meng Jiang Nv (孟姜女) was arrested by a group of ferocious soldiers without any reasons.
Then he was taken to the construction site of the Great Wall, doing harsh labor work. This woman, Meng Jiang Nv, was so heartbroken that she decided to go out and search for her husband in the construction site. Despite the dangerous journey and harsh weather, she was supported by the spirit of love and finally succeeded to arrive at the construction site. However, horrible news was waiting for her that her husband was already dead and his body was buried under the root of the wall. She cried for three days and nights and the Bodhisattva were moved by her. A part of the Great Wall was collapsed and her husband’s body appeared. Finally this couple met each other, however, one was alive and the other was not breathing anymore. Although it is an old story, it presented us a real but cruel process of building it. When you touch the blocks on the Great Wall, you may feel that these stones are the witness of thousands of such sad stories during that period of history.
Another anecdote or issue about the Great Wall emerged in this decade. A long-time belief was that it is only the human work visible by eyes on the moon. However, it has been turned out that this is a rumor and scientific evidence proved it.
When you are on the Great Wall, you might notice the fact that there is a tower-like structure every certain distance. This is the ancient Beacon Towers used for reporting the emergency invasion of enemies. The Beacon Towers were already used for transferring signals before the Great Wall was built. There are also Beacon Towers built in other places, such as some western cities located on the old Silk Road. But most of them are on the Great Wall, especially during the Han Dynasty (202 BC. to 220 AD).
If you are not enough with the Great Wall in Beijing, you can Travel to Xi’an or other cities in Shanxi province for more ruins of not so well-known great walls built in ancient time.
Related posts:
