China Revealed: The Great Wall of China

China Revealed is an expedition into a still undiscovered land. Lost in the vastness of China are sublime landscapes and cultural sites many have never seen.

In this documentary we’ll take a look at the history and engineering feat of one of the biggest structures the world has ever seen: The Great Wall of China.

The Great Wall originally started out as fortresses spread around the ancient Chinese kingdom, in the years between 771–476 bc. The Great Wall wasn’t a reality until the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, set off to connect these fortresses with a wall around 475–221 bc to protect his newly founded Qin dynasty.

The Great Wall was then later built upon by later dynasties, most notably by the Ming dynasty. They rebuilt much of the wall in stone and brick, often extending its line through challenging terrain and at the cost of thousands of worker lives.

Some sections remain in relatively good condition or have been renovated, while others have been damaged for ideological reasons, deconstructed for their building materials, or lost due to the ravages of time.

Tracing the walls long history reveals the evolution of the Chinese homeland. A history which has become indelible edged into the hearts of the Chinese culture and people.