Electronic Passport to the Great Wall of China

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Mr. Dowling's Electronic Passport Chinese History

The Great Wall

     The nomadic people to the north of China were known as Mongols. Their raids into China caused a great deal of destruction. In 214BC, Shih Haung-ti connected a number of existing defensive walls into a single system fortified by watchtowers in order to keep out the Mongols. Gates through the wall became centers of trade and contact with the northern nomads. Ironically, the Ming Dynasty fell to Manchu invaders from northeast China when a traitor opened a gate in the wall.

     Later rulers made the wall stronger and longer. Today the Great Wall of China stretches more than 1,500 miles. The wall is generally twenty-five feet high with forty-foot towers. It is wide enough for wagons to pass each other in opposite directions. If the wall began in Miami, Florida, it might end in Boston, Massachusetts, Des Moines, Iowa, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, or San Antonio, Texas. Many people believe that the Great Wall of China can be seen from the moon without a telescope, in fact, a question in the game Trivial Pursuit says as much. Astronaut Alan Bean has been on the moon. He said:

   "The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean), patches of yellow (deserts), and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible on this scale. In fact, when first leaving earth's orbit and only a few thousand miles away, no man-made object is visible at that point either."

Quoted in More Misinformation (1980)
Malcolm Yapp (Greenhaven Press, Inc.).

     The Great Wall is very long, it is no wider than a highway. It can been seen from high in the air, even from orbit, but not from the moon.

Chinese History

To cite this page:
Dowling, Mike., "The Electronic Passport to the Great Wall of China," available from http://www.mrdowling.com/613-greatwall.html; Internet; updated Tuesday, April 30, 2002 11:57 PM