[00:00.00]2.1 The Great Wall is the name for a wall.
[00:09.68]It first comes from the time
[00:11.76]of the Qin Dynasty.
[00:13.84]Shihuangdi of th Qin Dynasty united China
[00:17.26]in 221 BC.
[00:20.48]He wanted to protect China's northern border.
[00:23.78]So he ordered his soldiers to build walls
[00:26.73]along the border.
[00:28.47]Today,there are few parts of the wall
[00:31.42]of Shihuangdi left.
[00:33.45]Nobody really knows how long it was
[00:36.59]or what route it followed.
[00:39.51]Today's Great Wall follows a different route.
[00:42.58]It comes from the time of the Ming Dynasty.
[00:46.04]People from the north part of China
[00:48.05]took some parts of the country.
[00:50.57]The Ming wanted to keep them out.
[00:53.23]So,at the end of the 15th century,
[00:56.69]they began to build walls
[00:58.33]along the northern border.
[01:00.98]They built the first walls with earth.
[01:03.73]Then,they built strong stone walls
[01:06.44]around Beijing.
[01:08.30]Other parts of the country had shorter walls.
[01:11.86]The Ming walls run about 1500 miles
[01:15.85]from Qinhuangdao in the east to Jiayuguan
[01:19.04]in the west.
[01:20.22]The walls followed the shape of the land.
[01:22.96]On the top of the wall there were space
[01:25.67]for soldiers to march
[01:27.30]and there were watchtowers.
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