September 18, 2025 • 67 mins
What if the Great Wall of China could tell its own story of resilience and transformation over the centuries? Join us as we embark on an aerial odyssey along this majestic structure, uncovering the secrets of its 1,500-mile stretch from the Yellow Sea to the Gobi Desert. From its origins at Old Dragon's Head to its evolution into a symbol of global stature, the Wall's journey is intertwined with pivotal moments like Britain's trade delegation in 1793 and the artistic legacy of Captain William Parrish's watercolors. Experience the blend of natural beauty and historical intrigue as we explore the stories etched into the Wall's towering stones.
Meet the extraordinary figures who shaped the Great Wall during the Ming Dynasty, such as Commander Qi Jiguang and chief builder Tai, whose dedication fortified the Wall against both invaders and nature's fury. Discover the intricate construction techniques and the influence of Confucian ideals on the wall-building families. Fast forward to the modern era, where Richard Nixon's 1972 visit marked a turning point in China's global relations, and marvel at the seamless blend of ancient and contemporary as high-speed trains now zip past the iconic Badaling section.
Witness the profound cultural tapestry woven along the Great Wall's path through Inner Mongolia, touching on the Mongol Empire's expansion and the Wall's enduring role as a barrier against invaders. Explore the unexpected cultural blends, from the Christian village of Bataiza to the mapping efforts by French missionaries. As we reflect on the Wall's historical contributions to trade and agriculture, we also celebrate its role in the creation of the iconic Ming vases and strategic fortresses like Zhenbei Tai. This episode captures the Wall's legacy as a testament to China's historical strength, cultural richness, and unyielding quest for peace and progress.
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(00:18):
For 3000 years, this vast land, China has been defined by one
incredible structure, a giant wonder of the world, the Great
Wall of China. The wall helped civilizations to
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rise, dynasties to dominate, trade to flourish.
The Great Wall has become the history of China, ancient and
modern. In the special aerial journey,
we are going to fly the length of the Great Wall of China,
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covering a breathtaking 1500 miles, following in the
footsteps of emperors and soldiers, traitors and invaders,
to reveal how this Great Wall shaped one of history's greatest
civilizations. From the Yellow Sea in the east
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to the far distant deserts of the West, our spectacular bird's
eye view uncovers China's hiddensecrets.
From Chengis Khan to Kubla Khan,from Confucius to Mao Zedong.
As the Great Wall shows how China advanced as an ambitious
superpower destined to be the richest country on Earth, we
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explore how this magnificent manmade monument that cost a
million lives to build is now the powerful image of the
world's biggest nation. It took 14 Chinese dynasties,
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almost 2 1/2 thousand years to build the Great Wall of China,
all of them trying to keep out the Mongol invaders who continue
to threaten successive generations.
On our journey along the Great Wall, we'll be travelling 1500
miles from the Yellow Sea in theeast across northern China to
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the edge of the Gobi Desert in the West, as we tell the
extraordinary story of the most famous monument in the world.
Our journey begins at Old Dragon's Head on the coast of
the Yellow Sea, just 180 miles from Beijing.
(03:01):
It's 5 AMA summer dawn on China's Yellow Sea.
Here, local people are already out fishing, doing what their
ancestors have done for centuries.
In the 16th century, Japanese pirates raided this coastline,
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but the all powerful Ming Dynasty soon put a stop to all
that. For three centuries, the mighty
Ming Empire was hugely successful in keeping China's
borders secure. In the distance, you can see
exactly how they did it here as Old Dragon's Head.
(03:49):
Standing guard on this shorelineis the start of this iconic
monument, the Great Wall of China, standing defiant and
impressive. The Great Wall more than 2300
years in the making. It looks ageless, rock solid,
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but don't be fooled. Surprisingly, some parts of this
section are only 30 years old. The 1579 original section of war
was rebuilt in 1987 after the coastline was bombed in a trade
dispute with Europe. In 1900 it was rebuilt for
tourists, both foreign and Chinese.
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These days, China's fast growingmiddle classes want to celebrate
their ancient Great Wall heritage, and as the nation's
wealth increases, more and more want to holiday by this cleverly
restored World Heritage Site. Two centuries before Christ, the
Emperor Qin, who gave China its name and coined the term Great
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Wall, commanded his subjects to swim here in the Yellow Sea in
search of an elusive drug that he believed would give him
immortality. He never found this mythical
elixir, but his legacy lives on in this world famous monument.
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Leaving Old Dragon's Head and the start of the Great Wall
behind, our journey will follow the wall inland away from the
coast. Then our route will snake over
dozens of mountain ranges just north of China's capital
Beijing, before crossing the mighty Yellow River and through
(06:10):
to the so-called Heart of the Dragon at Jianbei Tai.
Beyond the Wall reaches further West to the edge of the Gobi
Desert, ending at Jiyu Kwan, 1500 miles from here, the same
distance as London to Moscow. Coming up, we begin the second
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part of our journey as we head inland, 6 miles from the sea.
As the Wall faces the first of many spectacular climbs into the
mountains, we discover the real reason that over a third of the
Great Wall has already been destroyed.
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After leaving the coast behind, we travel W 150 miles from the
Yellow Sea, just 85 miles north of Beijing, getting our first
Great Wall glimpse of the lush Green Mountains of Gubaiku,
whose name translates as AncientN Pass.
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Here there's a memorable location that boasts its own
unique claim to fame. Two centuries ago, some very
special visitors got their firstview of the Great Wall from
here. In fact, this picturesque what
provided the Western world with the first ever dramatic images
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of the Great Wall, long before cameras had even been invented.
And it was all thanks to 1 inquisitive British soldier
here. In 1793, Britain's first ever
trade delegation came across theWall and they were all
astonished by it. Ambassador Earl George McCartney
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and his entourage, representing King George the Third, camped
here on their way to meet the Emperor in his northern summer
residence. Many of them wrote accounts in
their Diaries, overcome by the incredible scale of what they
saw. And one of them, British Army
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engineer Captain William Parrish, became one of the first
foreigners to measure, draw and calculate how the towers and
walls were actually built. Captain Parrish then painted the
watercolor of the view he saw from Gubaiku, with the walls
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snaking off dramatically over Crouching Tiger Mountain in the
distance, but he could not have imagined the impact it would
have back home. On returning to Britain, his
painting was reproduced in newspapers, magazines and books
across Europe, causing a sensation as the first detailed
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picture of the Great Wall seen outside China.
It remained the defining image of the Great Wall until
photography emerged almost a century later.
Almost 50 miles on, as the wall rises and falls over more
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mountains, there's painful proofof how centuries of damage have
scarred and destroyed the Great Wall.
This is our first glimpse of what's known as Wild Wall here
in Lu Wenyu. Nature and time have taken their
toll. The weighty stones of the Great
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Wall have crumbled and become part of the natural landscape,
ground down by winter frosts, summer heat, earthquakes and
many of nature's greener invaders.
Much of the Great Wall is now inthis condition.
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In the last 370 years since the wall was completed by the Ming,
more than 1/3 of the Great Wall has been destroyed.
In the 20th century the wall suffered man made damage from
walls and revolution. Many sections close to Beijing
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were severely damaged in the wars with Japan in the 1930s.
These solid 16th century towers still prove useful cover during
these wars, but always at the cost of the Great War.
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We take a detour from our main journey to visit a separate
section. 400 miles northwest, wefind the earliest part of the
Great Wall. We're looking for an ancient
section of the wall few have ever seen.
These silent mountains are near the remote northern border
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between China and Mongolia. Long forgotten and hidden away,
we discover China's oldest remaining section of Great Wall.
Tourists never make it here. Aside from local goat farmers,
no one visits this mysterious wall.
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And there it is, majestic, caught in the timeless golden
sunrise. The original 1st wall built an
incredible 2300 years ago, looking a bit like Adrian's
wall, but the Chinese built it nearly 400 years before the
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Roman wall that was designed to keep those north of the border
out of England. But it's function here was very
similar, designed on a giant scale to keep out the marauding
Mongol horseman who threatened China in 300 BC.
From around 2500 years ago, kings defended their states from
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raiding nomads with long walls like this.
But when Emperor Qin united China for the first time in the
2nd century BC, he also united multiple neighboring walls to
form what he coined the Great Wall.
Since then, like the wall itself, China's history has been
shaped by bold Mongol invaders confronting ambitious dynasty
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wall builders. A military arm wrestles control
over 23 centuries. Between 300 BC and 1644, more
than a dozen different Chinese dynasties built extensive walls.
This led to a network of long walls that resembles London's
tube map. So the Great Wall is in fact a
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collection of as many as 16 separate walls spread across
northern China. The total length of all the
walls, including the many subsections, is a remarkable
13,000 miles long, half the circumference of the earth.
The greatest of all Mongol invaders was warrior conqueror
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Chengis Khan. Khan and his sons were the first
foreigners to defeat and occupy the entire Chinese Empire in the
13th century. For almost 160 years, they ruled
China's biggest empire ever witha Yuan dynasty, which also
included all of Mongolia. The mighty Ming finally
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overthrew the Han dynasty and reinstalled Chinese rule in the
14th century. But the Mongol threats cast a
long shadow over China, forcing the Ming to fortify their
borders. They were the last dynasty to
build the final, most comprehensive wall across
northern China, completing the longest wall ever at 5600 miles,
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twice the width of the USA. Returning to our journey along
the main Great Wall just north of Beijing, we're now about 160
miles from the coast. We head higher into the
mountains. It's easy to see why the Great
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Wall was such a barrier to Mongol invaders from the north.
Now restored, the tourists replace the Chinese soldiers who
once defended these impressive ramparts.
But there's an important story here of how 500 years ago,
Mongol invaders forced a dramatic burst of wall building
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after they nearly conquered Beijing itself, and it changed
the entire shape of the Great Wall.
This spectacular section of the wall was constructed by the most
famous and ruthless of all the Great Wall builders.
Commander Chi Ji Guang, the Great Wall Master builder, is
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honored in this marble freeze. His amazing story shows us why
China so often build walls as the solution to the constant
threat of Mongol invasion. Mongol horsemanship and warrior
skills meant they could rise easily into Chinese territory to
plunder the valuable silks, tea and gunpowder that China was
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famous for. In 1550, Beijing was at the
heart of the Ming Dynasty when a10,000 strong Mongol attack left
the city under siege. The shock of this immediate
Mongol threat brought a swift response from the powerful Ming
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dynasty. Chi Ji Guang was given unlimited
cash and resources to do what the Ming you worked best.
Build more fortifying walls, bigger and better than ever.
Over 20 years, the commander built hundreds of watchtowers on
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every peak to house troops and supplies.
He created wider ramparts to connect all these new towers and
designed the first sophisticatedsignalling system to warn
against advancing Mongol troops.For the first time in 2000
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years, messages could now be transported along the wall
itself and across the whole nation.
Yet despite this key role and visionary work, when his
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imperial supporter died suddenly, Commander Chi fell out
of favor with the new regime. Aged 55, he was banished S never
to see his Great Wall again. Yet it was his vision that
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helped preserve and protect the Ming Dynasty until 1644.
Even today, the evidence of his Great Wall ambition can be seen
across the distant rolling mountains here, in what the
Chinese call the Wall without End.
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Travelling 80 miles West in another beautiful valley lies
the magnificent wall of Wang Wacheng.
Look closely at the crafted quality of the brickwork here,
so solid and compact, it's hard to believe these ramparts have
stood here for 500 years. But this is not rebuilt tourist
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wall, It's the original work of a master Craftsman, and his
story in the life of the wall isa tragic 1.
The ancient craft of wall building offers a unique insight
into Chinese culture. Thousands of wall building
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families were imported here for generations to devote themselves
to building this imposing wall. Many were dedicated to their
task, inspired by the great Chinese philosopher Confucius.
For 500 years BC, China adopted Confucius's teachings and his
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ideas of perfectionism, caution,justice, kindness, sincerity,
and above all, dedication. But for the man in charge of the
wall here, Chief Wall builds a tie his perfectionism.
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His cautious, careful attention to detail and commitment to the
cause were to be his downfall. According to local legend, his
Beijing bosses warned his team'srate of wall building was
consistently too slow. A year later, when Ty hadn't
speeded up and his rate of wall construction remains slower than
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others, he was removed from the job and executed.
Years later, destructive rainstorms caused extensive
landslips and damaged most of the wall in this region, but
Thai section of the wall remainssolid.
Thai was posthumously pardoned and commemorated on a stone
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tablet, which you can still see today inside this tower.
In Chinese culture, keeping goodrelationships is of the highest
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priority. It's the vital key to success in
business, social and public life.
Losing favour, especially with those in power, means losing
everything, and it's a recurringtheme in China's history, from
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the first emperor to the revolutionary founder of modern
China, Mao Zedong. Ahead, we explore China's oldest
railway station and discover whythe busiest section of the Great
Wall attracts 11,000,000 visitors a year.
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Continuing our journey, we are now just 40 miles north of
Beijing, approaching a famous part of the wall that welcomes
up to 65,000 tourists a day. This is the Badaling section of
the Great Wall. With a high speed bullet train
station right on site, this is the Great Wall at its most
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accessible. Each year, 11,000,000 visitors
from around the world make Badaling the most popular spot
on the Great Wall. This is the very first section
of Walls who ever opened tourists back in 1957.
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Badaling certainly has its fair share of monumental history.
This is the oldest surviving train station in China, built by
Yan Tianyou, father of China's railroads.
Born into a family of tea traders who fell into poverty,
Tianyo's father recognized the power of education and sent him
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to school, where he discovered his passion for engineering.
After studying at Yale, he returned from America and in
19105 he became the 1st engineerto build a Chinese railroad
unsupervised by European expertise.
Today's bullet trains make the journey from Beijing in as
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little as 20 minutes, which explains why Badaling is such a
popular destination for touristslooking for the quickest way to
see one of the Seven Wonders of the modern world.
Engineer Tian Yu wasn't the onlyAmerican connection at Badaling,
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as it was here in 1972 that China first welcomed the US
President Richard Nixon. After the revolution of 1949,
which led to the foundation of the People's Republic of China,
it's new leader, Chairman Mao, closed the country to outsiders.
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But it was here, on top of the Great Wall, the very symbol of
China's historic aversion to foreigners, that Mao introduced
his nation to Nixon and to the world.
Since then, three more US presidents and some 500 world
leaders have visited the Great Wall, including Her Majesty the
Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1986.
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It's the perfect backdrop for China's grand entrance onto the
international stage. Today, China and the US are
battling it out to be the dominant global superpower, with
China swiftly catching up as thesecond biggest economy on Earth.
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A measure of its ambition is theworld's deepest and largest
underground bullet train stationbeing built right here in
Badaling for 20/22. Even the Great Wall isn't immune
to China's high speed modernization.
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Remaining true to it's extraordinary history.
China is building it's newest, greatest station 500 meters
below it's oldest. We leave by Darling and travel
on 30 miles. Peering through the mists of
this wild mountain. It may be hard to believe that
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sections of the Great Wall were constructed along these perilous
peaks 4 1/2 centuries ago. A dizzying 1000 meters above sea
level, this is perhaps the most recognizable section of the
Great Wall here at Diankiu. Although not far away, these
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treacherous ramparts don't attract the same number of
visitors as Badaling. You may recognize it from
postcards and coffee table books.
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With the help of local peasants,troops and their families were
stationed all along these dangerous cliffs to build and
then man the wall and it's watchtowers.
It's thanks to their efforts andsacrifice that if we can still
enjoy this glorious view today, could those wall builders all
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those years ago have ever imagined that their work will be
seen across the world? But within China, the wall
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hasn't always been appreciated. During the Cultural Revolution
under Mao, from 1966 to his death in 1976, large sections of
the wall were neglected. In his mission to propel China
into the future, Mao Zedong declared war on what he called
the Four Olds. Old custom, old culture, old
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habits and old ideas. It was in this period that the
wall was relegated as an irrelevance, though even stories
of people dismantling the wall in order to reuse its bricks.
With extreme levels of poverty during this time, it's no
surprise that the desperate Chinese people resorted to such
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drastic measures. Fast forward to 2020 and the
wall is under construction again, this time under the
watchful eye of Chinese conservationists.
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After decades of falling into disrepair, a new project aims to
preserve this wild section of wall.
Workers today are using the sametechniques and materials as
their ancestors. They're even using such unlikely
ingredients as sticky rice in mortar.
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The Great Wall remains a passionproject for this nation, but
whether it has provided protection or building
materials, its purpose has always been the same, to serve
and protect its people. Now it's the people's turn to
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serve and protect their Great Wall.
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We're now over 250 miles away from the start of our journey on
the coast of the Yellow Sea in Lai Yuan County.
Here in these remote hills are some of the best preserved
sections of Great Wall, But we're a long way from the
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tourist buzz of Beijing and Batali.
In this provincial corner of China, we find a land lost in
time. Local farmers still live and
work right here beside the GreatWall, as their ancestors did
when they manned the towers. Built in just three years in the
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16th century, this section of Wall 2 was a reaction to the
threat of the Mongols to the Ming Empire.
The soldiers worked in shifts, manning the towers 24 hours a
day, their eyes always on the lookout for northern invaders.
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It was their job to clear the forests around the wall in order
to keep visibility high, ready at any time, to set off smoke
signals tower by tower as a warning.
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On mornings like this, there's aspecial atmosphere.
The site of the Great Wall at dawn remains as incredible today
as it must have been centuries ago.
And yet the wall has a darker secret.
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It's been described as the long graveyard, having claimed
countless lives, perhaps as manyas a million.
It stands as a record to the devotion and perseverance of the
Chinese people and their nation.For the soldiers who dedicated
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their life to protecting China to see the wall in the
spectacular morning sun, the mighty monument must have seemed
incredible. When soldiers were stationed on
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the wall, they had to rely on their wives and families to
bring them food and supplies from the villages while they
were on duty. Without the support of their
families, the soldiers never would have been able to build
the wall. Nowadays, the farmers that still
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live here are like a time capsule of China's agricultural
past, still using century old techniques.
Despite only 15% of its land being arable, China has 200
million farms. Most of them are small family
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run farms like this, typically around 1/4 of an acre each.
And yet today, China feeds over a fifth of all humans on Earth.
But in 1958, Mao's Great Leap Forward, which aim to modernize
China's agricultural sector, left millions starving in the
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Great Famine of 1959. These last remaining farming
families have seen a lot of change over the last century.
The number of farming householdshas decreased by over 70% in the
last decade alone. Thanks to the hard work of those
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soldiers so many years ago, these robust limestone towers
remain in use today. They provide shelter for this
farmer's goat herd rather than the Ming's imperial troops.
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Despite the fast-paced development of modern China and
as many of the young move to China's modern mega cities here,
the way of life remains the same.
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Now we're coming to the end of the Stonewall section of the
Great Wall. Just over 1/4 of the way along
our journey, we're about to discover a very different kind
of Great Wall channelling through Inner Mongolia.
This is rammed earth wall. This is not the Great Wall seen
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in films or TV made using compacted soil.
It may be surprising to see thiswall and its watchtowers too
have stood the tests of time. 2/3 of the Great Wall of China
were constructed in this way. As we pass through, we continue
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to travel W discovering a new Great Wall, less relound but
still impressive. On the next stage of our
journey, we discover where the mighty Great Wall meets the
spectacular Yellow River and uncover a disaster that kills
nearly 2,000,000 Chinese people.We are now 400 miles from our
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start point in the east. We're climbing down from the
mountain ridges north of Beijingand following the wall westwards
into this great plateau across Inner Mongolia.
Out here, the Ming were a long way from their traditional
building material of stone. Not to be deterred, they found
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an alternative. This wall was made using a
traditional method of construction which compacts wet
soil within a wooden frame, leaving it to bake in the
roasting sun. The result is surprisingly
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sturdy. 400 years later and it still stands strong.
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Today, Inner Mongolia is a region in the People's Republic
of China and has the largest ethnically Mongolian population
in the world, outnumbering even the country of Mongolia.
It was from here in eastern Inner Mongolia that the Mongols
spread across China under Chengis Khan.
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In the 20th century, the Chinesepeople were divided by civil
war, but the Great Wall in this region saw the country uniting
once again against a new threat.This time it was the Japanese
trying to invade. They had already managed to
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seize and occupy the territory in north of this border, and in
1931 this ancient Great Wall served as the barricade that
kept them at Bay. 30 miles further along the wall
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in Bathaiza, the influence of ancient China collides with
another powerful force. This Christian village can be
seen to the right of the Great Wall.
An unexpected meeting of East and West.
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When French missionaries came toChina in the 16th century, the
Ming dynasty that had built the wall had already fallen and been
replaced by the Qing dynasty. The new Chinese emperor ordered
the missionaries to map the Great Wall for him in 17108.
It was to become the earliest documented map of the wall,
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which has survived to this day. The drawings were made just
under 70 years after the wall was abandoned, and they show us
the disintegration of the wall. A recent survey suggests that up
to 1/3 of the wall no longer exists, but we wouldn't have
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known this without the work of those Christian missionaries as
a point of reference. Nearly two centuries later, in
1899, there was an anti Christian rebellion.
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The Boxer Rebellion saw organized wide scale attacks on
Christians and their monuments. This church fell victim to the
uprising. It was set on fire and almost
destroyed. Despite this troubled history,
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though, Christianity still continues to thrive in China
Today. Estimates of the number of
Christian Chinese range between 90 and 120 million, and it is
predicted that by 2030 China will have the world's largest
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Christian population. Here in Bethaisa, this church
stands side by side with the most commanding monument of
Chinese culture, the Great Wall.Like China itself, the Great
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Wall has both resisted and givenin to invasion.
Over the centuries, outsiders have continually tried to impose
their ideals and threaten Chinese traditions.
Here, the villagers have learnedto live contentedly with that
culture clash. Travelling further West, we
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reach the Yellow Earth Plateau. In this area, the land is
made-up of soft sediment blown over from the Gobi Desert, which
is collected here over thousandsof years.
Most of the Great Wall in this region has been destroyed by the
elements, but the locals have made the most of some of the
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Great Wall ruins that remain, such as this walled fortress
that has been transformed into afarm.
Farmers in this region have usedclever techniques to make the
most of the fertile soil here, even terracing the land around
abandoned watchtowers to grow crops.
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Now we're following the wall back in time to discover the
origins of China. For the first time on our
journey, the wall meets a giant of China's landscape.
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As the Nile has for Egypt, the mighty Yellow River has been
dubbed the cradle of Chinese civilization.
This waterway is often known as the Mother River.
It is the life giver of this landscape.
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Recorded history traces the start of Chinese civilization
back to the Yellow River. In fact, Confucius himself is
said to have been born in a village on its waterfront.
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As agriculture developed, the farms on this land were able to
feed more people, sustaining larger and larger communities.
But there was also more and moreto protect, and so walls were
built first around homes and farms, the towns and cities, and
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finally around whole regions andnations, protecting what was
inside from the threat of the outside.
At this section of the Yellow River, known as Old Ox Bend, the
extraordinary landscape converges with the Great Wall.
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At the very tip of the Ox's horn.
There's an imposing hilltop watchtower, built in 1467, which
is strategically placed. There are stories of how ancient
humans have shaped this river, building canals to divert the
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river into the sea and protect their villages, using the river
but protecting themselves from its dangers.
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Stretching almost 3 1/2 thousandmiles, the waters of the Yellow
River also have an immense powerto destroy.
A catastrophic flood in 1887 killed nearly 2 million people
and brought imperial China to its knees.
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The Mandate from Heaven, which was the foundation of China's
imperial rule, was called into question by the devastating
flood, and as a result, in 1912,the Chinese Republic was formed.
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The advance of China continues as ancient ways of life are lost
and Chinese society evolves. All the while, this Great Wall
watchtower looks out over China's Yellow River, the birth
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place of this mighty nation. Just ahead, we reveal how the
Great Wall helped trade to flourish and pave the way for
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the famous Ming vases. The Great Wall and the Dragon
are both icons of Chinese history.
They have both come to symbolizewealth and protection.
We have now followed the wall from Old Dragon's head, staking
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halfway across China to this midway point known as the Heart
of the Dragon, on the outskirts of the city of Yulin, here at
Jianbei Tai. During the Ming's Empire, this
fortress was the backdrop to a change in tactics to defend the
country. Before the Ming Dynasty, the
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Mongols had ruled over the wholeof China as the Yuan Dynasty
from 1279 until 1368. It was they who unlocked the
great potential of continental trade under the Mongol Empire.
Indigo from Iran was transportedinto China, and the resulting
blue and white porcelain became so iconic that it inherited the
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name of the nation, China. Then came the Ming, who refined
this craft and created the worldrenowned Ming Vas.
But they also reinvented the wayin which the empire traded.
They built huge fortresses like Jembe Tai, an unmissable symbol
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of China's might and wealth. It was in the horse tea markets
that took place in this fortressin the 1550s that the Ming
realized the power of commerce. Not only did trade create wealth
for the country, favorable tradedeals with their northern
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enemies created peace. For centuries China continued
like this, massively in control of its growing economy.
Today, on this battlement, we see the people of Yulin
practicing ancient martial arts.Tai Chi, though a fighting
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style, is based on the principles of yin and Yang and a
deep belief that all things are made-up of opposites that can
come to exist in perfect harmony.
Defence and commerce, fighting and trading, Balancing these
apparent opposites was an essential strategy for China's
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rulers. Like Tai chi, Xinbei Tai is not
what it first appears to be. It's not a battleground, but a
marketplace. The art of Tai Chi is partly
about self-defense, but it is primarily about control over the
self and achieving balance. By the late 16th century, China
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as a nation could certainly be said to have mastered this idea,
keeping control of its borders and its economy.
For the next 200 years. Goods were traded peacefully all
along the Great Wall. China had what many European
powers wanted, silks, tea, China.
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But increasingly these trade partners had little to offer
China in return except the highly lucrative but illegal
drug opium. But with growing mass addiction
in China after Britain turned toillegally smuggling the drug,
tensions escalated, leading to the Opium Wars, which lasted
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until 1860. The Chinese who invented
gunpowder were eventually defeated by their very own
creation at the hands of their former European trading
partners, who then dominated thenext 100 years of international
trade. By the 1900s, floods, civil
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unrest and poor trade deals meant China's grip over its
empire had started to weaken. Building Great Walls was no
longer enough to keep China protected from the outside
world. When Chairman Mao came into
power in 1949, there had been decades of civil conflict
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between the Communists and the Nationalists.
China was one of the world's poorest nations.
Under Mao. Almost 3 decades of failed
initiatives to modernize the country followed when new leader
Deng Xiaoping came into power. It finally brought a new era of
Chinese prosperity. Deng Xiaoping opened up China to
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foreign investment by setting upspecial economic zones in select
cities. 60 years later and the tables have turned. 850 million
Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty.
The good fortune of the dragon has reawakened in modern China.
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We're nearing the edge of the Gobi Desert, travelling W over
300 miles from the hubbub of Yulin's urban sprawl.
Even in this barren landscape, the Great Wall can be seen
impressively intact, standing 7 meters tall as it runs through
the desert, reaching even the remotest corners of this vast
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territory. China has once again been
innovative, but its latest construction is in
sustainability, and it's now well on its way to being the
world's first renewable energy superpower.
China's great legacy of its pioneering past stands alongside
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this pioneering future. Next, the wall reaches a jewel
of the Ming's empire, Yong Tai. This walled desert town, built
in 16108, is also known as Turtle Town and was one of
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thousands dotted all across northern China.
From the air, it's clear to see how it got its name.
Built 12 meters high, this mile long barrier wall provided an
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effective defence for the town, once again protecting the people
and the precious resources inside.
Today, the town still needs protection, this time from
neglect. As China's mega cities continue
to grow, places like Yang Tai have uncertain futures.
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Once thriving, the town now onlyhas around 76 households and
with just the elderly remaining,the primary school lies empty,
classrooms abandoned. The latest figures show that 60%
of China's population now live in urban areas, compared to only
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16% in 1960. There is some hope for
settlements like these though. Turtle Town has been given
cultural relic protective statusand much needed injections of
cash have come from some surprising sources.
The town has drawn in tourists, but it's also caught the
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attention of film makers thanks to it's awesome architecture.
This church is not an artifact of 16th century Christian
missionary influence. It was built for a film set, and
the locals here were also involved, taking a break from
their usual day's work to try their hand at being film extras.
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This remote desert town is in many ways a victim of China's
modern advancement. But with the tourist industry in
China booming, these magnificentdefensive walls of young Tai
might yet encourage outsiders inonce again.
These walls here might just savethe residents of Turtle Town.
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Ahead, we explore the Changis Han city of ghosts buried in the
remote Gobi Desert as we finallyreach the spectacular end of
China's mighty Great Wall. We're heading 200 miles north on
a Great Wall detour to one of the most remote, uninhabitable
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places on Earth, the Gobi Desert.
This wall city, once in Oasis, was built in 1026 but captured
by Chengis Khan 2 centuries later.
He made it a stronghold for the Yuan Mongol Empire a century
before the Ming gained power. This place has a unique and
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bloody history. Known as Karakoto, it's the
ancient site of a military massacre that saw the downfall
of 1 Empire and the dawn of another.
In the siege of the city in 1372, the Ming's imperial troops
attacked, blocking the river to cut off the water supply.
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Trapped inside, the residents held out, but their desert Oasis
soon dried up. When it became clear that there
was no way out, their leader, King Karabata, killed his entire
family and then himself. The Ming swarmed into the town,
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killing all the inhabitants in the streets.
Their bodies were left beneath the baking sun, eventually
buried by the desert sands. Some say their spirits still
roam the ruins to this day. This eerie city had been a final
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bastion of Mongol rule in China,an emblem of Genghis Khan's
powerful legacy and empire. The famous Silk Road explorer
Marco Polo was invited here by Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai
Khan before the Ming takeover. In Marco Polo's book, he noted
the city dwellers did not concern themselves with trade
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despite their position right on the Silk Road, the Cross
Continental trading route. This was an Oasis that revelled
in its isolation and self-sufficiency, protected by
mighty walls much like China itself.
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But Karakoto's refusal to move with the changing tides of power
and commerce led to its demise. For a nation preoccupied with
innovation and development, the fate of Karakoto offers a stark
omen. Those who dwell in the glories
of the past will be swept aside by progress.
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This is now the last section of the journey towards Jiyuguan.
After over 1200 miles, the wall runs through an area known as
the Hershey Corridor. This wide valley is nestled
between the Chilean mountains tothe South and the Gobi Desert to
the north. It's at the end of this last
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stretch that we find the final watchtower on the Great Wall and
reach our journey's end. On this westernmost frontier,
the Ming did everything they could to complete their takeover
from the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. The result?
This spectacular fortress city, the final battlement in the
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Ming's extraordinary Great Wall border.
This is Jiyuguan Fortress, standing tall at dawn.
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630 years ago, around the same time that Karakoto was captured,
Central Asian commander Tai Moore and his Nomad army were
headed eastwards towards China. He was undefeated, the devotee
to Chengis Khan's military ideology and equally driven in
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his conquering ambitions. His goal was to reinstate Mongol
rule across the continent, driveout the Ming and resurrect the
Yuan dynasty. And so the Ming rushed to build
this powerful double walled fortress.
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His aim? To halt Commander Taimur and his
army and protect their new empire's border here at the
narrowest point of the Hershey corridor.
In the end, the death of the formidable Taimur on his way to
China meant this grand fortress never experienced that final
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dramatic battle. Instead, for 500 years, this
magnificent monument became the Ming's imposing barrier to
outsiders. Imagine for traders and camel
trains arriving from the Silk Road.
This was their intimidating gateway into mighty China.
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Heading West past the fortress and along this final four mile
stretch, we reach the very end of our epic 1500 mile journey.
This crumbling single watchtoweris the unlikely final end of the
Ming Dynasty's Great Wall of China.
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Here the wall meets head on withthe force of nature from which
it cannot be protected. Instead, the wall and its
builders took full advantage of it.
The Great Wall stops at the Taolai River, which has carved
out this deep Canyon framed by the Chilean mountains.
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Against this magnificent backdrop, this westernmost
watchtower balances on the edge of collapse.
This is the end of our Great Wall journey.
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Just over 1500 miles later, we have followed the length of the
Great Wall from its watchtowers,ramparts and fortresses.
We have looked out onto this mighty nation and seen the birth
of civilizations, the rise and fall of Genesis, the sites of
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military victories and massacres, the lives of ordinary
people. We have witnessed the Wall
encompassed the history of Christianity, the geography of
Mongolia, the philosophies and beliefs of Eastern Asia.
Travelling along the Great Wall has revealed the timelessness of
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so many of China's customs and how its turbulent past continues
to shape its attitude towards the present and the future.
The same desire to innovate thatproduced the Great Wall drives
the country forward today to expand its cities, grow its
economy, progress its power. This is the story of how China
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made the Great Wall and how the Great Wall made China.
For 3000 years, this vast land, China has been defined by one
incredible structure, a giant wonder of the world, the Great
Wall of China. The wall helped civilizations to
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rise, dynasties to dominate, trade to flourish.
The Great Wall has become the history of China, ancient and
modern. In the special aerial journey,
we are going to fly the length of the Great Wall of China,
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covering a breathtaking 1500 miles, following in the
footsteps of emperors and soldiers, traitors and invaders,
to reveal how this Great Wall shaped one of history's greatest
civilizations. From the Yellow Sea in the east
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to the far distant deserts of the West, our spectacular bird's
eye view uncovers China's hiddensecrets.
From Chengis Khan to Kubla Khan,from Confucius to Mao Zedong.
As the Great Wall shows how China advanced as an ambitious
superpower destined to be the richest country on Earth, we
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explore how this magnificent manmade monument that cost a
million lives to build is now the powerful image of the
world's biggest nation. It took 14 Chinese dynasties,
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almost 2 1/2 thousand years to build the Great Wall of China,
all of them trying to keep out the Mongol invaders who continue
to threaten successive generations.
On our journey along the Great Wall, we'll be travelling 1500
miles from the Yellow Sea in theeast across northern China to
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the edge of the Gobi Desert in the West, as we tell the
extraordinary story of the most famous monument in the world.
Our journey begins at Old Dragon's Head on the coast of
the Yellow Sea, just 180 miles from Beijing.
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It's 5 AMA summer dawn on China's Yellow Sea.
Here, local people are already out fishing, doing what their
ancestors have done for centuries.
In the 16th century, Japanese pirates raided this coastline,
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but the all powerful Ming Dynasty soon put a stop to all
that. For three centuries, the mighty
Ming Empire was hugely successful in keeping China's
borders secure. In the distance, you can see
exactly how they did it here as Old Dragon's Head.
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Standing guard on this shorelineis the start of this iconic
monument, the Great Wall of China, standing defiant and
impressive. The Great Wall more than 2300
years in the making. It looks ageless, rock solid,
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but don't be fooled. Surprisingly, some parts of this
section are only 30 years old. The 1579 original section of war
was rebuilt in 1987 after the coastline was bombed in a trade
dispute with Europe. In 1900 it was rebuilt for
tourists, both foreign and Chinese.
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These days, China's fast growingmiddle classes want to celebrate
their ancient Great Wall heritage, and as the nation's
wealth increases, more and more want to holiday by this cleverly
restored World Heritage Site. Two centuries before Christ, the
Emperor Qin, who gave China its name and coined the term Great
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Wall, commanded his subjects to swim here in the Yellow Sea in
search of an elusive drug that he believed would give him
immortality. He never found this mythical
elixir, but his legacy lives on in this world famous monument.
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Leaving Old Dragon's Head and the start of the Great Wall
behind, our journey will follow the wall inland away from the
coast. Then our route will snake over
dozens of mountain ranges just north of China's capital
Beijing, before crossing the mighty Yellow River and through
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to the so-called Heart of the Dragon at Jianbei Tai.
Beyond the Wall reaches further West to the edge of the Gobi
Desert, ending at Jiyu Kwan, 1500 miles from here, the same
distance as London to Moscow. Coming up, we begin the second
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part of our journey as we head inland, 6 miles from the sea.
As the Wall faces the first of many spectacular climbs into the
mountains, we discover the real reason that over a third of the
Great Wall has already been destroyed.
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After leaving the coast behind, we travel W 150 miles from the
Yellow Sea, just 85 miles north of Beijing, getting our first
Great Wall glimpse of the lush Green Mountains of Gubaiku,
whose name translates as AncientN Pass.
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Here there's a memorable location that boasts its own
unique claim to fame. Two centuries ago, some very
special visitors got their firstview of the Great Wall from
here. In fact, this picturesque what
provided the Western world with the first ever dramatic images
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of the Great Wall, long before cameras had even been invented.
And it was all thanks to 1 inquisitive British soldier
here. In 1793, Britain's first ever
trade delegation came across theWall and they were all
astonished by it. Ambassador Earl George McCartney
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and his entourage, representing King George the Third, camped
here on their way to meet the Emperor in his northern summer
residence. Many of them wrote accounts in
their Diaries, overcome by the incredible scale of what they
saw. And one of them, British Army
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engineer Captain William Parrish, became one of the first
foreigners to measure, draw and calculate how the towers and
walls were actually built. Captain Parrish then painted the
watercolor of the view he saw from Gubaiku, with the walls
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snaking off dramatically over Crouching Tiger Mountain in the
distance, but he could not have imagined the impact it would
have back home. On returning to Britain, his
painting was reproduced in newspapers, magazines and books
across Europe, causing a sensation as the first detailed
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picture of the Great Wall seen outside China.
It remained the defining image of the Great Wall until
photography emerged almost a century later.
Almost 50 miles on, as the wall rises and falls over more
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mountains, there's painful proofof how centuries of damage have
scarred and destroyed the Great Wall.
This is our first glimpse of what's known as Wild Wall here
in Lu Wenyu. Nature and time have taken their
toll. The weighty stones of the Great
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Wall have crumbled and become part of the natural landscape,
ground down by winter frosts, summer heat, earthquakes and
many of nature's greener invaders.
Much of the Great Wall is now inthis condition.
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In the last 370 years since the wall was completed by the Ming,
more than 1/3 of the Great Wall has been destroyed.
In the 20th century the wall suffered man made damage from
walls and revolution. Many sections close to Beijing
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were severely damaged in the wars with Japan in the 1930s.
These solid 16th century towers still prove useful cover during
these wars, but always at the cost of the Great War.
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We take a detour from our main journey to visit a separate
section. 400 miles northwest, wefind the earliest part of the
Great Wall. We're looking for an ancient
section of the wall few have ever seen.
These silent mountains are near the remote northern border
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between China and Mongolia. Long forgotten and hidden away,
we discover China's oldest remaining section of Great Wall.
Tourists never make it here. Aside from local goat farmers,
no one visits this mysterious wall.
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And there it is, majestic, caught in the timeless golden
sunrise. The original 1st wall built an
incredible 2300 years ago, looking a bit like Adrian's
wall, but the Chinese built it nearly 400 years before the
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Roman wall that was designed to keep those north of the border
out of England. But it's function here was very
similar, designed on a giant scale to keep out the marauding
Mongol horseman who threatened China in 300 BC.
From around 2500 years ago, kings defended their states from
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raiding nomads with long walls like this.
But when Emperor Qin united China for the first time in the
2nd century BC, he also united multiple neighboring walls to
form what he coined the Great Wall.
Since then, like the wall itself, China's history has been
shaped by bold Mongol invaders confronting ambitious dynasty
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wall builders. A military arm wrestles control
over 23 centuries. Between 300 BC and 1644, more
than a dozen different Chinese dynasties built extensive walls.
This led to a network of long walls that resembles London's
tube map. So the Great Wall is in fact a
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collection of as many as 16 separate walls spread across
northern China. The total length of all the
walls, including the many subsections, is a remarkable
13,000 miles long, half the circumference of the earth.
The greatest of all Mongol invaders was warrior conqueror
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Chengis Khan. Khan and his sons were the first
foreigners to defeat and occupy the entire Chinese Empire in the
13th century. For almost 160 years, they ruled
China's biggest empire ever witha Yuan dynasty, which also
included all of Mongolia. The mighty Ming finally
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overthrew the Han dynasty and reinstalled Chinese rule in the
14th century. But the Mongol threats cast a
long shadow over China, forcing the Ming to fortify their
borders. They were the last dynasty to
build the final, most comprehensive wall across
northern China, completing the longest wall ever at 5600 miles,
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twice the width of the USA. Returning to our journey along
the main Great Wall just north of Beijing, we're now about 160
miles from the coast. We head higher into the
mountains. It's easy to see why the Great
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Wall was such a barrier to Mongol invaders from the north.
Now restored, the tourists replace the Chinese soldiers who
once defended these impressive ramparts.
But there's an important story here of how 500 years ago,
Mongol invaders forced a dramatic burst of wall building
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after they nearly conquered Beijing itself, and it changed
the entire shape of the Great Wall.
This spectacular section of the wall was constructed by the most
famous and ruthless of all the Great Wall builders.
Commander Chi Ji Guang, the Great Wall Master builder, is
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honored in this marble freeze. His amazing story shows us why
China so often build walls as the solution to the constant
threat of Mongol invasion. Mongol horsemanship and warrior
skills meant they could rise easily into Chinese territory to
plunder the valuable silks, tea and gunpowder that China was
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famous for. In 1550, Beijing was at the
heart of the Ming Dynasty when a10,000 strong Mongol attack left
the city under siege. The shock of this immediate
Mongol threat brought a swift response from the powerful Ming
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dynasty. Chi Ji Guang was given unlimited
cash and resources to do what the Ming you worked best.
Build more fortifying walls, bigger and better than ever.
Over 20 years, the commander built hundreds of watchtowers on
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every peak to house troops and supplies.
He created wider ramparts to connect all these new towers and
designed the first sophisticatedsignalling system to warn
against advancing Mongol troops.For the first time in 2000
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years, messages could now be transported along the wall
itself and across the whole nation.
Yet despite this key role and visionary work, when his
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imperial supporter died suddenly, Commander Chi fell out
of favor with the new regime. Aged 55, he was banished S never
to see his Great Wall again. Yet it was his vision that
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helped preserve and protect the Ming Dynasty until 1644.
Even today, the evidence of his Great Wall ambition can be seen
across the distant rolling mountains here, in what the
Chinese call the Wall without End.
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Travelling 80 miles West in another beautiful valley lies
the magnificent wall of Wang Wacheng.
Look closely at the crafted quality of the brickwork here,
so solid and compact, it's hard to believe these ramparts have
stood here for 500 years. But this is not rebuilt tourist
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wall, It's the original work of a master Craftsman, and his
story in the life of the wall isa tragic 1.
The ancient craft of wall building offers a unique insight
into Chinese culture. Thousands of wall building
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families were imported here for generations to devote themselves
to building this imposing wall. Many were dedicated to their
task, inspired by the great Chinese philosopher Confucius.
For 500 years BC, China adopted Confucius's teachings and his
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ideas of perfectionism, caution,justice, kindness, sincerity,
and above all, dedication. But for the man in charge of the
wall here, Chief Wall builds a tie his perfectionism.
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His cautious, careful attention to detail and commitment to the
cause were to be his downfall. According to local legend, his
Beijing bosses warned his team'srate of wall building was
consistently too slow. A year later, when Ty hadn't
speeded up and his rate of wall construction remains slower than
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others, he was removed from the job and executed.
Years later, destructive rainstorms caused extensive
landslips and damaged most of the wall in this region, but
Thai section of the wall remainssolid.
Thai was posthumously pardoned and commemorated on a stone
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tablet, which you can still see today inside this tower.
In Chinese culture, keeping goodrelationships is of the highest
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priority. It's the vital key to success in
business, social and public life.
Losing favour, especially with those in power, means losing
everything, and it's a recurringtheme in China's history, from
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the first emperor to the revolutionary founder of modern
China, Mao Zedong. Ahead, we explore China's oldest
railway station and discover whythe busiest section of the Great
Wall attracts 11,000,000 visitors a year.
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Continuing our journey, we are now just 40 miles north of
Beijing, approaching a famous part of the wall that welcomes
up to 65,000 tourists a day. This is the Badaling section of
the Great Wall. With a high speed bullet train
station right on site, this is the Great Wall at its most
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accessible. Each year, 11,000,000 visitors
from around the world make Badaling the most popular spot
on the Great Wall. This is the very first section
of Walls who ever opened tourists back in 1957.
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Badaling certainly has its fair share of monumental history.
This is the oldest surviving train station in China, built by
Yan Tianyou, father of China's railroads.
Born into a family of tea traders who fell into poverty,
Tianyo's father recognized the power of education and sent him
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to school, where he discovered his passion for engineering.
After studying at Yale, he returned from America and in
19105 he became the 1st engineerto build a Chinese railroad
unsupervised by European expertise.
Today's bullet trains make the journey from Beijing in as
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little as 20 minutes, which explains why Badaling is such a
popular destination for touristslooking for the quickest way to
see one of the Seven Wonders of the modern world.
Engineer Tian Yu wasn't the onlyAmerican connection at Badaling,
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as it was here in 1972 that China first welcomed the US
President Richard Nixon. After the revolution of 1949,
which led to the foundation of the People's Republic of China,
it's new leader, Chairman Mao, closed the country to outsiders.
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But it was here, on top of the Great Wall, the very symbol of
China's historic aversion to foreigners, that Mao introduced
his nation to Nixon and to the world.
Since then, three more US presidents and some 500 world
leaders have visited the Great Wall, including Her Majesty the
Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1986.
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It's the perfect backdrop for China's grand entrance onto the
international stage. Today, China and the US are
battling it out to be the dominant global superpower, with
China swiftly catching up as thesecond biggest economy on Earth.
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A measure of its ambition is theworld's deepest and largest
underground bullet train stationbeing built right here in
Badaling for 20/22. Even the Great Wall isn't immune
to China's high speed modernization.
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Remaining true to it's extraordinary history.
China is building it's newest, greatest station 500 meters
below it's oldest. We leave by Darling and travel
on 30 miles. Peering through the mists of
this wild mountain. It may be hard to believe that
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sections of the Great Wall were constructed along these perilous
peaks 4 1/2 centuries ago. A dizzying 1000 meters above sea
level, this is perhaps the most recognizable section of the
Great Wall here at Diankiu. Although not far away, these
(26:23):
treacherous ramparts don't attract the same number of
visitors as Badaling. You may recognize it from
postcards and coffee table books.
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With the help of local peasants,troops and their families were
stationed all along these dangerous cliffs to build and
then man the wall and it's watchtowers.
It's thanks to their efforts andsacrifice that if we can still
enjoy this glorious view today, could those wall builders all
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those years ago have ever imagined that their work will be
seen across the world? But within China, the wall
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hasn't always been appreciated. During the Cultural Revolution
under Mao, from 1966 to his death in 1976, large sections of
the wall were neglected. In his mission to propel China
into the future, Mao Zedong declared war on what he called
the Four Olds. Old custom, old culture, old
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habits and old ideas. It was in this period that the
wall was relegated as an irrelevance, though even stories
of people dismantling the wall in order to reuse its bricks.
With extreme levels of poverty during this time, it's no
surprise that the desperate Chinese people resorted to such
(28:25):
drastic measures. Fast forward to 2020 and the
wall is under construction again, this time under the
watchful eye of Chinese conservationists.
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After decades of falling into disrepair, a new project aims to
preserve this wild section of wall.
Workers today are using the sametechniques and materials as
their ancestors. They're even using such unlikely
ingredients as sticky rice in mortar.
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The Great Wall remains a passionproject for this nation, but
whether it has provided protection or building
materials, its purpose has always been the same, to serve
and protect its people. Now it's the people's turn to
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serve and protect their Great Wall.
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We're now over 250 miles away from the start of our journey on
the coast of the Yellow Sea in Lai Yuan County.
Here in these remote hills are some of the best preserved
sections of Great Wall, But we're a long way from the
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tourist buzz of Beijing and Batali.
In this provincial corner of China, we find a land lost in
time. Local farmers still live and
work right here beside the GreatWall, as their ancestors did
when they manned the towers. Built in just three years in the
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16th century, this section of Wall 2 was a reaction to the
threat of the Mongols to the Ming Empire.
The soldiers worked in shifts, manning the towers 24 hours a
day, their eyes always on the lookout for northern invaders.
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It was their job to clear the forests around the wall in order
to keep visibility high, ready at any time, to set off smoke
signals tower by tower as a warning.
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On mornings like this, there's aspecial atmosphere.
The site of the Great Wall at dawn remains as incredible today
as it must have been centuries ago.
And yet the wall has a darker secret.
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It's been described as the long graveyard, having claimed
countless lives, perhaps as manyas a million.
It stands as a record to the devotion and perseverance of the
Chinese people and their nation.For the soldiers who dedicated
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their life to protecting China to see the wall in the
spectacular morning sun, the mighty monument must have seemed
incredible. When soldiers were stationed on
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the wall, they had to rely on their wives and families to
bring them food and supplies from the villages while they
were on duty. Without the support of their
families, the soldiers never would have been able to build
the wall. Nowadays, the farmers that still
(33:34):
live here are like a time capsule of China's agricultural
past, still using century old techniques.
Despite only 15% of its land being arable, China has 200
million farms. Most of them are small family
(33:55):
run farms like this, typically around 1/4 of an acre each.
And yet today, China feeds over a fifth of all humans on Earth.
But in 1958, Mao's Great Leap Forward, which aim to modernize
China's agricultural sector, left millions starving in the
(34:18):
Great Famine of 1959. These last remaining farming
families have seen a lot of change over the last century.
The number of farming householdshas decreased by over 70% in the
last decade alone. Thanks to the hard work of those
(34:45):
soldiers so many years ago, these robust limestone towers
remain in use today. They provide shelter for this
farmer's goat herd rather than the Ming's imperial troops.
(35:08):
Despite the fast-paced development of modern China and
as many of the young move to China's modern mega cities here,
the way of life remains the same.
(35:54):
Now we're coming to the end of the Stonewall section of the
Great Wall. Just over 1/4 of the way along
our journey, we're about to discover a very different kind
of Great Wall channelling through Inner Mongolia.
This is rammed earth wall. This is not the Great Wall seen
(36:19):
in films or TV made using compacted soil.
It may be surprising to see thiswall and its watchtowers too
have stood the tests of time. 2/3 of the Great Wall of China
were constructed in this way. As we pass through, we continue
(36:40):
to travel W discovering a new Great Wall, less relound but
still impressive. On the next stage of our
journey, we discover where the mighty Great Wall meets the
spectacular Yellow River and uncover a disaster that kills
nearly 2,000,000 Chinese people.We are now 400 miles from our
(37:07):
start point in the east. We're climbing down from the
mountain ridges north of Beijingand following the wall westwards
into this great plateau across Inner Mongolia.
Out here, the Ming were a long way from their traditional
building material of stone. Not to be deterred, they found
(37:36):
an alternative. This wall was made using a
traditional method of construction which compacts wet
soil within a wooden frame, leaving it to bake in the
roasting sun. The result is surprisingly
(37:56):
sturdy. 400 years later and it still stands strong.
(38:17):
Today, Inner Mongolia is a region in the People's Republic
of China and has the largest ethnically Mongolian population
in the world, outnumbering even the country of Mongolia.
It was from here in eastern Inner Mongolia that the Mongols
spread across China under Chengis Khan.
(38:52):
In the 20th century, the Chinesepeople were divided by civil
war, but the Great Wall in this region saw the country uniting
once again against a new threat.This time it was the Japanese
trying to invade. They had already managed to
(39:17):
seize and occupy the territory in north of this border, and in
1931 this ancient Great Wall served as the barricade that
kept them at Bay. 30 miles further along the wall
(39:52):
in Bathaiza, the influence of ancient China collides with
another powerful force. This Christian village can be
seen to the right of the Great Wall.
An unexpected meeting of East and West.
(40:20):
When French missionaries came toChina in the 16th century, the
Ming dynasty that had built the wall had already fallen and been
replaced by the Qing dynasty. The new Chinese emperor ordered
the missionaries to map the Great Wall for him in 17108.
It was to become the earliest documented map of the wall,
(40:44):
which has survived to this day. The drawings were made just
under 70 years after the wall was abandoned, and they show us
the disintegration of the wall. A recent survey suggests that up
to 1/3 of the wall no longer exists, but we wouldn't have
(41:04):
known this without the work of those Christian missionaries as
a point of reference. Nearly two centuries later, in
1899, there was an anti Christian rebellion.
(41:27):
The Boxer Rebellion saw organized wide scale attacks on
Christians and their monuments. This church fell victim to the
uprising. It was set on fire and almost
destroyed. Despite this troubled history,
(41:57):
though, Christianity still continues to thrive in China
Today. Estimates of the number of
Christian Chinese range between 90 and 120 million, and it is
predicted that by 2030 China will have the world's largest
(42:17):
Christian population. Here in Bethaisa, this church
stands side by side with the most commanding monument of
Chinese culture, the Great Wall.Like China itself, the Great
(42:50):
Wall has both resisted and givenin to invasion.
Over the centuries, outsiders have continually tried to impose
their ideals and threaten Chinese traditions.
Here, the villagers have learnedto live contentedly with that
culture clash. Travelling further West, we
(43:26):
reach the Yellow Earth Plateau. In this area, the land is
made-up of soft sediment blown over from the Gobi Desert, which
is collected here over thousandsof years.
Most of the Great Wall in this region has been destroyed by the
elements, but the locals have made the most of some of the
(43:51):
Great Wall ruins that remain, such as this walled fortress
that has been transformed into afarm.
Farmers in this region have usedclever techniques to make the
most of the fertile soil here, even terracing the land around
abandoned watchtowers to grow crops.
(44:18):
Now we're following the wall back in time to discover the
origins of China. For the first time on our
journey, the wall meets a giant of China's landscape.
(44:54):
As the Nile has for Egypt, the mighty Yellow River has been
dubbed the cradle of Chinese civilization.
This waterway is often known as the Mother River.
It is the life giver of this landscape.
(45:19):
Recorded history traces the start of Chinese civilization
back to the Yellow River. In fact, Confucius himself is
said to have been born in a village on its waterfront.
(45:40):
As agriculture developed, the farms on this land were able to
feed more people, sustaining larger and larger communities.
But there was also more and moreto protect, and so walls were
built first around homes and farms, the towns and cities, and
(46:08):
finally around whole regions andnations, protecting what was
inside from the threat of the outside.
At this section of the Yellow River, known as Old Ox Bend, the
extraordinary landscape converges with the Great Wall.
(46:31):
At the very tip of the Ox's horn.
There's an imposing hilltop watchtower, built in 1467, which
is strategically placed. There are stories of how ancient
humans have shaped this river, building canals to divert the
(46:55):
river into the sea and protect their villages, using the river
but protecting themselves from its dangers.
(47:17):
Stretching almost 3 1/2 thousandmiles, the waters of the Yellow
River also have an immense powerto destroy.
A catastrophic flood in 1887 killed nearly 2 million people
and brought imperial China to its knees.
(47:41):
The Mandate from Heaven, which was the foundation of China's
imperial rule, was called into question by the devastating
flood, and as a result, in 1912,the Chinese Republic was formed.
(48:04):
The advance of China continues as ancient ways of life are lost
and Chinese society evolves. All the while, this Great Wall
watchtower looks out over China's Yellow River, the birth
(48:27):
place of this mighty nation. Just ahead, we reveal how the
Great Wall helped trade to flourish and pave the way for
(48:49):
the famous Ming vases. The Great Wall and the Dragon
are both icons of Chinese history.
They have both come to symbolizewealth and protection.
We have now followed the wall from Old Dragon's head, staking
(49:13):
halfway across China to this midway point known as the Heart
of the Dragon, on the outskirts of the city of Yulin, here at
Jianbei Tai. During the Ming's Empire, this
fortress was the backdrop to a change in tactics to defend the
country. Before the Ming Dynasty, the
(49:38):
Mongols had ruled over the wholeof China as the Yuan Dynasty
from 1279 until 1368. It was they who unlocked the
great potential of continental trade under the Mongol Empire.
Indigo from Iran was transportedinto China, and the resulting
blue and white porcelain became so iconic that it inherited the
(50:00):
name of the nation, China. Then came the Ming, who refined
this craft and created the worldrenowned Ming Vas.
But they also reinvented the wayin which the empire traded.
They built huge fortresses like Jembe Tai, an unmissable symbol
(50:24):
of China's might and wealth. It was in the horse tea markets
that took place in this fortressin the 1550s that the Ming
realized the power of commerce. Not only did trade create wealth
for the country, favorable tradedeals with their northern
(50:45):
enemies created peace. For centuries China continued
like this, massively in control of its growing economy.
Today, on this battlement, we see the people of Yulin
practicing ancient martial arts.Tai Chi, though a fighting
(51:06):
style, is based on the principles of yin and Yang and a
deep belief that all things are made-up of opposites that can
come to exist in perfect harmony.
Defence and commerce, fighting and trading, Balancing these
apparent opposites was an essential strategy for China's
(51:27):
rulers. Like Tai chi, Xinbei Tai is not
what it first appears to be. It's not a battleground, but a
marketplace. The art of Tai Chi is partly
about self-defense, but it is primarily about control over the
self and achieving balance. By the late 16th century, China
(51:52):
as a nation could certainly be said to have mastered this idea,
keeping control of its borders and its economy.
For the next 200 years. Goods were traded peacefully all
along the Great Wall. China had what many European
powers wanted, silks, tea, China.
(52:13):
But increasingly these trade partners had little to offer
China in return except the highly lucrative but illegal
drug opium. But with growing mass addiction
in China after Britain turned toillegally smuggling the drug,
tensions escalated, leading to the Opium Wars, which lasted
(52:34):
until 1860. The Chinese who invented
gunpowder were eventually defeated by their very own
creation at the hands of their former European trading
partners, who then dominated thenext 100 years of international
trade. By the 1900s, floods, civil
(52:54):
unrest and poor trade deals meant China's grip over its
empire had started to weaken. Building Great Walls was no
longer enough to keep China protected from the outside
world. When Chairman Mao came into
power in 1949, there had been decades of civil conflict
(53:15):
between the Communists and the Nationalists.
China was one of the world's poorest nations.
Under Mao. Almost 3 decades of failed
initiatives to modernize the country followed when new leader
Deng Xiaoping came into power. It finally brought a new era of
Chinese prosperity. Deng Xiaoping opened up China to
(53:38):
foreign investment by setting upspecial economic zones in select
cities. 60 years later and the tables have turned. 850 million
Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty.
The good fortune of the dragon has reawakened in modern China.
(54:06):
We're nearing the edge of the Gobi Desert, travelling W over
300 miles from the hubbub of Yulin's urban sprawl.
Even in this barren landscape, the Great Wall can be seen
impressively intact, standing 7 meters tall as it runs through
the desert, reaching even the remotest corners of this vast
(54:30):
territory. China has once again been
innovative, but its latest construction is in
sustainability, and it's now well on its way to being the
world's first renewable energy superpower.
China's great legacy of its pioneering past stands alongside
(54:53):
this pioneering future. Next, the wall reaches a jewel
of the Ming's empire, Yong Tai. This walled desert town, built
in 16108, is also known as Turtle Town and was one of
(55:16):
thousands dotted all across northern China.
From the air, it's clear to see how it got its name.
Built 12 meters high, this mile long barrier wall provided an
(55:36):
effective defence for the town, once again protecting the people
and the precious resources inside.
Today, the town still needs protection, this time from
neglect. As China's mega cities continue
to grow, places like Yang Tai have uncertain futures.
(56:00):
Once thriving, the town now onlyhas around 76 households and
with just the elderly remaining,the primary school lies empty,
classrooms abandoned. The latest figures show that 60%
of China's population now live in urban areas, compared to only
(56:23):
16% in 1960. There is some hope for
settlements like these though. Turtle Town has been given
cultural relic protective statusand much needed injections of
cash have come from some surprising sources.
The town has drawn in tourists, but it's also caught the
(56:45):
attention of film makers thanks to it's awesome architecture.
This church is not an artifact of 16th century Christian
missionary influence. It was built for a film set, and
the locals here were also involved, taking a break from
their usual day's work to try their hand at being film extras.
(57:08):
This remote desert town is in many ways a victim of China's
modern advancement. But with the tourist industry in
China booming, these magnificentdefensive walls of young Tai
might yet encourage outsiders inonce again.
These walls here might just savethe residents of Turtle Town.
(57:37):
Ahead, we explore the Changis Han city of ghosts buried in the
remote Gobi Desert as we finallyreach the spectacular end of
China's mighty Great Wall. We're heading 200 miles north on
a Great Wall detour to one of the most remote, uninhabitable
(57:58):
places on Earth, the Gobi Desert.
This wall city, once in Oasis, was built in 1026 but captured
by Chengis Khan 2 centuries later.
He made it a stronghold for the Yuan Mongol Empire a century
before the Ming gained power. This place has a unique and
(58:25):
bloody history. Known as Karakoto, it's the
ancient site of a military massacre that saw the downfall
of 1 Empire and the dawn of another.
In the siege of the city in 1372, the Ming's imperial troops
attacked, blocking the river to cut off the water supply.
(58:48):
Trapped inside, the residents held out, but their desert Oasis
soon dried up. When it became clear that there
was no way out, their leader, King Karabata, killed his entire
family and then himself. The Ming swarmed into the town,
(59:10):
killing all the inhabitants in the streets.
Their bodies were left beneath the baking sun, eventually
buried by the desert sands. Some say their spirits still
roam the ruins to this day. This eerie city had been a final
(59:31):
bastion of Mongol rule in China,an emblem of Genghis Khan's
powerful legacy and empire. The famous Silk Road explorer
Marco Polo was invited here by Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai
Khan before the Ming takeover. In Marco Polo's book, he noted
the city dwellers did not concern themselves with trade
(59:55):
despite their position right on the Silk Road, the Cross
Continental trading route. This was an Oasis that revelled
in its isolation and self-sufficiency, protected by
mighty walls much like China itself.
(01:00:17):
But Karakoto's refusal to move with the changing tides of power
and commerce led to its demise. For a nation preoccupied with
innovation and development, the fate of Karakoto offers a stark
omen. Those who dwell in the glories
of the past will be swept aside by progress.
(01:00:44):
This is now the last section of the journey towards Jiyuguan.
After over 1200 miles, the wall runs through an area known as
the Hershey Corridor. This wide valley is nestled
between the Chilean mountains tothe South and the Gobi Desert to
the north. It's at the end of this last
(01:01:05):
stretch that we find the final watchtower on the Great Wall and
reach our journey's end. On this westernmost frontier,
the Ming did everything they could to complete their takeover
from the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. The result?
This spectacular fortress city, the final battlement in the
(01:01:30):
Ming's extraordinary Great Wall border.
This is Jiyuguan Fortress, standing tall at dawn.
(01:02:12):
630 years ago, around the same time that Karakoto was captured,
Central Asian commander Tai Moore and his Nomad army were
headed eastwards towards China. He was undefeated, the devotee
to Chengis Khan's military ideology and equally driven in
(01:02:33):
his conquering ambitions. His goal was to reinstate Mongol
rule across the continent, driveout the Ming and resurrect the
Yuan dynasty. And so the Ming rushed to build
this powerful double walled fortress.
(01:02:56):
His aim? To halt Commander Taimur and his
army and protect their new empire's border here at the
narrowest point of the Hershey corridor.
In the end, the death of the formidable Taimur on his way to
China meant this grand fortress never experienced that final
(01:03:16):
dramatic battle. Instead, for 500 years, this
magnificent monument became the Ming's imposing barrier to
outsiders. Imagine for traders and camel
trains arriving from the Silk Road.
This was their intimidating gateway into mighty China.
(01:03:53):
Heading West past the fortress and along this final four mile
stretch, we reach the very end of our epic 1500 mile journey.
This crumbling single watchtoweris the unlikely final end of the
Ming Dynasty's Great Wall of China.
(01:04:14):
Here the wall meets head on withthe force of nature from which
it cannot be protected. Instead, the wall and its
builders took full advantage of it.
The Great Wall stops at the Taolai River, which has carved
out this deep Canyon framed by the Chilean mountains.
(01:04:36):
Against this magnificent backdrop, this westernmost
watchtower balances on the edge of collapse.
This is the end of our Great Wall journey.
(01:04:57):
Just over 1500 miles later, we have followed the length of the
Great Wall from its watchtowers,ramparts and fortresses.
We have looked out onto this mighty nation and seen the birth
of civilizations, the rise and fall of Genesis, the sites of
(01:05:19):
military victories and massacres, the lives of ordinary
people. We have witnessed the Wall
encompassed the history of Christianity, the geography of
Mongolia, the philosophies and beliefs of Eastern Asia.
Travelling along the Great Wall has revealed the timelessness of
(01:05:40):
so many of China's customs and how its turbulent past continues
to shape its attitude towards the present and the future.
The same desire to innovate thatproduced the Great Wall drives
the country forward today to expand its cities, grow its
economy, progress its power. This is the story of how China
(01:06:07):
made the Great Wall and how the Great Wall made China.
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