World Cultural Heritage: The Great Wall

Date of Inscription: 1987

Chinese name: Chang Cheng

English name: The Great Wall

Approval date: December 1987　

Heritage category: Cultural heritage

Selection criteria: According to cultural heritage selection criteria C(I)(II)(III)(IV)(VI), the Great Wall has been included in the World Heritage List.

Evaluation of the World Heritage Committee:

Around the year 220 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty who unified the entire China, connected the defense projects built at earlier times into a complete defensive system called the Great Wall. This was done to resist foreign aggression. In the Ming Dynasty, between 1368 A.D. and 1644 A.D., the Great Wall continued to be built, making it the world's longest military installation. Its cultural value is equally important with its historical and strategic roles.

Introduction

The Great Wall is an ancient defense project with the longest building time and the largest amount of work in the world. Since the 7th or 8th century B.C., the Great Wall had been built for more than 2,000 years, and it is mainly distributed in northern and central China, with a total length of more than 5,000 kilometers. Therefore, the Great Wall has a construction history of more than 2,000 years and covers a large area of land. Such a huge project is the only one of its kind in China, and even the whole world. Therefore, it had been listed as one of the seven wonders, including the Roman Coliseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa from the Middle Ages.