THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

The Great Wall of China is an ancient series of walls and fortifications, totaling more than 13,000 miles in length, located in northern China. Perhaps the most recognizable symbol of China and its long and vivid history, the Great Wall was originally conceived by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the third century B.C. as a means of preventing incursions from barbarian nomads. The best-known and best-preserved section of the Great Wall was built in the 14th through 17th centuries A.D., during the Ming dynasty. Though the Great Wall never effectively prevented invaders from entering China, it came to function as a powerful symbol of Chinese civilization’s enduring strength.

When a wall is encountered literally and physically, there are many different ways in which a person can react to the situation.  One group of people would generally just find a way over or around the obstacle.  While some other people might pursue a way directly through the wall.  Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but they both exist as outcomes to the same dilemma.  The basic wall has been around with humans for as long as the discovery of masonry has been around.  Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall is one such example of how a wall can have conflicting properties of human interaction.  The neighbor in the poem says that “fences make good neighbors” and that the two neighbors involved with the wall rebuild it each spring and they enjoy fixing the wall with each other.  The poem just helps illustrate that walls are an important factor in human activities.  Walls are not limited to any specific culture or region and still they continue to be built over time.