长城 (Long city wall)

Vocab word of the day: 长城 (Long city wall) = the Great Wall

The Great Wall is certainly long and strenuous! On Saturday we visited the Great Wall which was AWESOME. I also fulfilled a childhood dream by wearing my Young's Dairy Farm t-shirt.

Some myths that I thought were interesting:
1. It is a continuous wall. (In fact, it is not. We walked to the end of the restored section and walked on the unrestored section which was full of foliage. Although we didn't see a spot like this, in some places along the wall there are simply watch towers and no wall connecting them.)

2. You can see it from the moon. (It was disappointing to find out this was false. Since 1st grade, I definitely thought this was true.)

3. Used for transportation. (It was not used for transportation and was purely defensive in nature.)

Interesting facts: The wall was built over a long period of time with no real overarching plan. Pre-1368 walls are rammed earth wall and dry local stone walls and separated the warring states. After that they were built with brick and stone & morter.

We went to the Mutianyu section, which separated Mongolia from China: the towers were built in 1569 and the wall connecting the towers were built in 1610. We saw places where the wall was built directly into the tower and thus covered half of a window in the tower. We also saw old cannons, holes for grinding millet, water systems, and the Mutianyu "spur" (a section of the wall which juts out and was to prevent ambushes). Since the Mutianyu sectin was on a higher piece of rugged territory, this section of the wall was only attacked once in the Ming Dynasty.

Gunpowder was invented in China in 1000 AD and they imported cannon technology from Europe. They also used grenades and stones. Soldiers were encouraged to bring their families with them because the army believed it would 1) prevent desertion and 2) make the soldiers want to fight harder. What did the Mongolians want from China? The Mongolian soldiers wanted loot and captives which they could then trade and Mongolian political leaders wanted political recognition from China as well as trade relations.

CHINGLISH ALERT:
(At a Kung Fu show) This show is being performed by professionals: Please don't try this at home.