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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.
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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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