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Badaling Great Wall
The Great Wall, (Wanli Changcheng) literally
means the Ten Thousand Mile Wall, is a great fortification in
ancient China. The section at Badaling is the most famous of
all due to its proximity to Beijing City and condition of restoration.
The imposing Badaling Great Wall climbs up and down, twists
and turns along the high mountain ridges. It fully shows the
lofty quality of ancient Chinese labor people.
Badaling Great Wall, with more than 1000 meters above sea level,
occupies a commanding and strategic position. It is a defensive
outpost of the Great Wall. It is called "Bada" as
it stretches in all directions.
Badaling Great wall was built in the 18th
year of the Ming Hong Zhi reign (1505). The wall, built with
high stone slabs on the outside, is 7.8 meters high on the
average, some even reaches 8.4meters. The base of the wall
was built with more than 2000 large rectangular slab of granite
stones. It is about 6.5 meters wide on the average at its
base and 5.7 meters wide on the average on the ramparts. The
wall is wide enough for five horses to gallop abreast and
ten people to advance shoulder to shoulder. The outside of
the wall is called rampart wall. The rampart wall was built
with bricks 1.7 meters high. Built for the purpose of defense,
there are holes on the tip of the wall called watch-hole,
and peepholes under the wall called embrasures. Inside of
the wall, there are low walls with one meter high called parapets,
which can be used as railings. There is a scroll door not
far from the inside wall, with is a stone ladder for climbing
up and down.
The wall is narrow on the top and broad
on the bottom forming an adder-shape structure. This made
the wall stands firmly on the rise and fall ridges. The wall
was built with 10-14 rectangular slab of stones surrounding
its outside, filled with soils and stones in the middle, and
paved with square bricks on the top between the bricks were
stuck with lime stones. This makes the wall tidy, beautiful,
and firm. There are gutters with gargoyles to drain rain-water
off the parapet wall.
The landscape of Badaling Great Wall changes
every season, with numerous scenery to catch your attention.
A sunlit and enchanting scene of spring, with the valley covered
with greens. When the rain from mountain comes, the vista
will look vast and hazy. The sky in autumn is high with unsoiled
stratosphere, while the maple forest is dyed in golden colour.
White snow covers the whole scene in winter.
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