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He who doesn’t reach the Great Wall is not a true man. The majestic Great Wall touches the billows of the Bohai Sea in the east, and traverses the vast expanse of the Gobi desert in the west. It crosses prairies and deserts, nestles up to the Yellow River, surmounts high mountains, stretches 10,000 li and, like a soaring dragon, leaps over the boundless land of China. It was built with the blood and sweat of the laboring people of ancient China. It is a symbol of the brilliance of China’s ancient culture and a pride of the Chinese nation.
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The beacon fire towers, built at the top of mountains beyond the Great Wall, were used as communication facilities in the ancient time. Soldiers would burn smokes to report the arrival of enemies. What tourists ascend on the Great Wall are watchtowers, not beacon fire towers. The latter are piers largely constructed with gravels and loess in the very places. When finding out enemies, the soldiers would burn smokes during the day, known as Sui, and start a fire at night, known as Feng. They were joined as Fengsui or smoke piers. Beacon fire towers are even older than the Great Wall. The story of “King You of Zhou teases the nobles with beacon fires, winning Bao Si smile but losing the regime” has become wide spread in the country. |
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“Badaling Great Wall is an everlasting monument in the diplomatic history of New China,” said Qian Qichen, former vice-premier and foreign minister, in praise of the role of Badaling Great Wall in the country’s diplomatic history. In 1972, President Richard Nixon of the United States climbed up the Badaling Great Wall. In the face of all the majesty of the Great Wall, he uttered a sigh “Only a great nation, in order to come to such a great build the Great Wall. In 2002, US President George W Bush toured Badaling Great Wall after a successful state visit to China. He stood at the same spot where President Nixon visited, and prompted a witty remark “I will surpass the record of President Nixon.” Before departure, President Bush wrote down in the visitors’ book “May our people enjoy a lasting peace and good luck.” To date, Badaling Great Wall has received a total of 150 million Chinese and foreign visitors. They included 460 heads of states, heads of governments and numerous men of the day, such as Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Elizabeth II, Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Boris Yeltsin, George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, and Barack Obama. They have left historical footsteps here and their infinite impressions of the Great Wall. They have sown seeds of friendship here and sung the songs of peace. For this purpose, in 2002, Badaling Great Wall was conferred by the Shanghai Great World Entertainment Center Disney headquarters the Guinness records as a “scenic spot receiving the largest number of tourists in the world” and a “scenic spot receiving the largest number of foreign heads of state and heads of government.” |