When talking about the tourist attractions in China, how can one forget about the Wonder of the World, the Great Wall of China, which runs from the eastern to the western part of the country? The age of the Great Wall of China is 2000 years and it runs for 8,851.8 kilometres to protect the borders of China from nomadic infiltrators and other warring forces. The entire series of fortresses, which involve about 20 Chinese dynasties, is made of stone, stacked up damp earth, brick, wood, and other similar materials.
Though many parts of the Great Wall have turned in to ruins now but still, it is extremely popular with the tourists and also plays a vital part for China in jobs like imposing duties on goods which come via road in to the country. It is also an important part of the Chinese defence as the fortresses have watch towers, garrison stations, places for the troops which signal the impending dangers to the main armies by means of smoke.
The exact location of the Great Wall of China starts from the Shanhaiguan in the eastern part and goes up till the Lop Lake in the west. Its takes the shape of an arc when passing through the edges of the inner parts of Mongolia. The Great Wall of China is an extremely part of the history of China and is more a product of the cultural, political, and economical issues than being a result of wars and bloodshed.
Over the decades, the Great Wall of China has been renovated and repaired a number of times so as it keep it intact. Some parts of it, being maintained by the Beijing Municipality, have achieved great popularity from the tourists. These include the Badaling which is the North Pass of the Juyongguan pass, the west pass of the Jiayuguan pass, the pass of Shanhaiguan, the south eastern part of the Jinshanling, and the part lying 16 miles from the Liao Tian Ling stands. While in the last of these parts the height of the Great Wall is only up to 2 or 3 stories, the Jinshanling part, also called the Mutianyu Great Wall stands on very high mountains for about 1.3 miles. Even the part of the Great Wall which lies on the Shanhaiguan is also extremely popular and is known as the ‘number one pass under the heaven’.
Many parts of the Great Wall have been vandalised and have been filled with grafittis. Natural causes like stand storms have eroded many parts of the wall which had been built with mud and soil. In the year 2002, the Shandan wall part is observed to be in the highest danger. As per the popular myth such is the length and visibility of the Great Wall of China that it is visible even from the Moon and the lower orbits of the Earth.
Although, the Great Wall of China is always open for the tourists, the best times to visit are summer and autumn.