Places of Interest

The Great Wall

From Shanhaiguan, northeast of Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province in the east coast, the Great Wall rises and falls with the contours of the mountains westward, crossing the provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions of Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu for 6,700 kilometers, to end at Jiayuguan, southwest of Jiayuguan City in Gansu Province.
The construction of the wall began during the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC) and Warring States period (475-221 BC) during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Ducal states at that time built walls to defend their own territories. After the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty crushed all rival states, he founded the first centralized and unified dynasty in Chinese history. To consolidate the country and ward off invasion by ethnic minority tribes in the north, he had the walls linked and extended, giving rise to the 5,000-kilometer-long Qin Great Wall. Later dynasties from Han (206 BC - AD 220) to Ming (1368-1644) kept building and improving the wall, extending it more than 1,000 kilometers to today's scale.
The Great Wall comprises walls, passes, watchtowers, castles and fortresses. The walls are made of large stone strips. From east to west, the sections at Shanhaiguan, Jinshanling, Mutianyu, Badaling and Jiayuguan have become tourist attractions.
The Great Wall we see today mostly dates back to the Ming Dynasty. The best-preserved and most imposing section is at Badaling in Beijing. The section, located outside the Juyongguan Pass, is made of large blue bricks and has an average height of 7.8 meters. Five to six horses can be ridden abreast along it. At regular intervals there is an arched door leading to the top of the wall. The walls are covered with many lookout holes, window embrasures and castellated crenels. Beacon towers were also built at fixed intervals for passing on military information. All these indicate the important role of the Great Wall in military defense.
As one of the most magnificent ancient defense works, the Great Wall is known as one of the wonders of the world. All tourists now know the saying, "You are not a real person until you have climbed the Great Wall."
The Great Wall was put on the world cultural heritage list in 1987.

Leshan Giant Buddha

Leshan Giant Buddha is the tallest stone Buddha statue in the world. It is carved out of a cliff face that lies at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers in the southern part of Sichuan province in China, near the city of Leshan. The stone sculpture faces Mount Emei, with the rivers flowing below his feet.
Construction was started in 713, led by a Chinese monk named Haitong. He hoped that the Buddha would calm the turbulent waters that plagued the shipping vessels travelling down the river. When funding for the project was threatened, he is said to have gouged out his own eyes to show his piety and sincerity. Construction was completed by his disciples ninety years later. Apparently the massive construction resulted in so much stone being removed from the cliff face and deposited into the river below that the currents were indeed altered by the statue, making the waters safe for passing ships.
The Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.
Standing 71 metres tall, the statue depicts a seated Maitreya Buddha with his hands resting on his knees. His shoulders are twenty-eight metres wide and his smallest toenail is large enough to easily accommodate a seated person. There is a local saying: "The mountain is a Buddha and the Buddha is a mountain". This is partially because the mountain range in which the Leshan Giant Buddha is located is thought to be shaped like a slumbering Buddha when seen from the river, with the Leshan Giant Buddha as its heart.

Terra Cotta Army

Located 20 meters to the north of Pit 1 at the eastern end, Pit No. 2 is in "L" shape with a protruding rectangular area at the northern corner. This pit was discovered in 1976, covering an area of 6,000 square meters. Different from Pit No. 1, over 1,300 pottery figures in Pit No. 2 were placed in four specialized military forces.
The protruding northeast area houses 332 archers in all, 160 kneeling archers were arrayed into four columns with 172 standing archers surrounding. All these archers, whatever kneeling or standing soldiers, face eastward.
The south area is composed of war chariots. Total 64 chariots were arrayed in 8 columns, also facing east, eight chariots with their chariot horses in each column. Originally made of wood, the chariots were completely deteriorated when unearthed. Each chariots in this group was accompanied with a charioteer, who was flanked by two attendant soldiers carrying long weapons.
The middle and north areas consists of war chariots in the front, immediately followed by infantrymen and the cavalry at the rear.
The north area has only cavalry. There are totally 108 cavalrymen. Each of the cavalrymen stands in front of his saddled war-horses, holding the reins in right hand and a bow in left hand.
The four arrays seemed to exist independently, but could be assembled immediately to constitute a complete battle formation during the war times. This reflected the unique military strategy of the Qin army-army array within army array.