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How to say ” I will travel to Beijing next month, and I plan to tour the Great Wall of China” in Mandarin Chinese. Xià ge yuè wǒ huì qù běijīng lǚxíng, wǒ jìhuà qù cānguān zhōngguó de wànlǐchángchéng. 下个月，我会去北京旅行，我计划去参观中国的万里长城。Xià ( 下 originally is an adverb means down; here used as an adjective, next) ge (个 general measure word for month) yuè (月 noun, month) wǒ (我 pronoun, I) huì (会 modal verb, will) qù (去 verb, go) běijīng (北京 proper noun, place name) lǚxíng (旅行 verb, travel), wǒ (我 pronoun, I) jìhuà (计划 compound verb phrase, plan) qù (去 verb, go) cānguān (参观 compound verb phrase, visit) zhōngguó (中国 proper noun, China) de (的 a particle to connect attributive and the noun it modifies) wànlǐchángchéng (万里长城, 万wàn, number for ten thousand; 里 lǐ, Chinese unit of measurement – one lǐ equals to 500 meters; 长 cháng, adjective, long; 城 chéng, noun, wall; together it means the Great Wall).

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That the Great Wall is not a single, continuous wall which was built during one dynasty ( 朝 代 [cháodài]). In reality, the wall is a discontinuous network of wall segments built by various dynasties to protect China’s northern ( 北 方 的 [bĕifāng de]) border (边 界 [biānjiè] ). The Great Wall of China, known as ” Ten Thousand Li long Wall” in China, extends about 8,850 kilometers ( 公 里 [gōnglĭ] )(5,500 miles).

Starting from the time of the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC – 476 BC) and the subsequent Warring States Period (476 BC – 221 BC), each country all constructed extensive fortifications (防 御 物 [fángyù wù]) to defend their own borders to prevent
( 阻 止 [zŭzhĭ] ) the invasion (入 侵 [rùqīn] ) of its enemy. First Emperor (皇 帝 [huángdì] ) of 秦 Qín (Qín Dynasty, 221-205 B.C.) desired a better barricade ( 路 障 [lùzhàng] ) to protect his empire from his enemies, the Xiōngnú (匈奴, ancient nomadic-based people in the north of ancient China). He ordered his people to build a new wall about 30 feet wide and 50 feet high with stone, brick, tamped earth, wood and other materials to connect the remaining fortifications along the empire’s new northern frontier.

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Qín shǐ Huáng (秦始皇, 259 BC – 210 BC; personal name Yíng Zhèng (嬴政), was king of the Chinese State of 秦 Qín from 246 BC to 221 BC during the Warring States Period) ordered peasants (农 民 [nóngmín] ), criminals (罪 犯 [zuìfàn]), scholars (学 者 [xuézhĕ] ), captured enemies to work on constructing the Great Wall. Those workers were not paid for their labor. It was pure slave labor. The Great Wall is also known as the ‘longest cemetery ( 墓 地 [mùdì] ) ever built. Millions of poor Chinese workers who labored extremely to build the wall, and they only had certain amount of food to keep them alive. Building the wall was hard work, for the northern borders have very hot weather and bitter cold. In the earliest stages, builders rammed earth and stone into the walls. Numerous workers died and were buried inside the wall after they died from exhaustion (精 疲 力 竭 [jīng pí lì jié] ), pain, infection or disease. Reportedly, the Great Wall cost more than one million people’s lives. Thus, there is a Chinese saying, “Each stone in the wall represents a life lost in the wall’s construction. ” 长城里的每一块石头都代表着一个修筑长城的人 Chángchéng li de méi yí kuài shítóu dóu dàibiǎo yí ge xiúzhú chángchéng de rén.

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If you’re going to China, the Great Wall is a must see. One portion of the Great Wall of China about 50 miles (80 km) from Beijing receives thousands of tourists (游 客 [yóukè] ) each day. It’s wide enough to walk on, and many people even ride bikes. Part of the Wall can be up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) high, 15 to 30 feet (4.6 to 9.1 meters) wide at the base, and from 9 to 12 feet (2.7 to 3.7 meters) wide at the top. If you plan to walk or hike on the wall, remember to bring enough water. Good walking shoes or sneakers are good for walking on the Great Wall and they can save you from getting blisters ( 水 泡 [shuĭpào] ), no high heels please.

The Great Wall is so huge, so, we might be curious to know “Can we see the Great Wall of China from the Moon?” Many of us heard the theory about the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object that is visible from space or from the moon with the naked eye. I never have the chance to go to the Moon, and I have never been a 嫦娥 Cháng’é (for info about the moon lady or the goddess of Chinese moon, see http://www.chinesetolearn.com/?p=3002) before either, so I can’t say it is true. If one day you got blown to the moon by space shuttle or by drinking magic potion as Cháng É did, then you can write a book which would have more credential than Richard Halliburton’s 1938 book, Second Book of Marvels. In that book, he said that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from the moon. We don’t need to wait for the answer. There is a NASA astronaut (宇 航 员 [yŭhángyuán] or 太 空 人 [tàikōngrén]) Alan Bean who is quoted in Tom Burnam’s book More Misinformation: “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.” Alan Bean is not all alone on this, Chinese Cosmonaut (宇 宙 飛 行 員 [yǔzhòufēixíngyuán]) , Yang Liwei, said he couldn’t see the historic structure either.

长城谣/董文华
For the lyrics, pinyin and translation of Great Wall Ballad see http://www.chinesetolearn.com/?p=3292

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