Our 2008 China Eclipse Trip - Page 6

Great Wall at Badaling

We wil visit the Great Wall at Badaling.

The amount of brick and stone employed to construct the Great Wall could circumscribe the earth with a dike eight feet high. From the 6th to the 14th centuries, the wall ceased to be an effective barrier against determined invaders, who discovered that bribing the sentries was their most effective weapon. The Chinese Emperors helped in this cause by failing to pay their army troops, generally a bad mistake. If you don't pay your army, someone else will.