Did Marco Polo Go To China? by Wood Frances

Author:Wood, Frances
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

11

He missed the biggest wall

Though Marco Polo's descriptions of places and buildings range from the full and elaborate description of Hangzhou to the brief and unsatisfactory accounts of Quanzhou and Yangzhou, one massive construction that he failed to mention was the Great Wall. At first sight, this omission seems particularly damning, but the issue is complicated by the question of what the Great Wall might have looked like in the thirteenth century and how much of it actually existed at the time.

Whether looking at a map of China today, flying over the north of China, or arriving on the Trans-Siberian railway, only someone who is severely visually challenged could fail to notice the Great Wall and, indeed, be very impressed by it. It is generally acknowledged as one of the wonders of the world, snaking back and forth for thousands of miles over the hills of northwestern China. Arguments still continue as to its length with estimates ranging from 24,482 to 31,250 miles.1 These vary largely because of the way the Wall was built, over centuries and over varied terrain with double interior walls in some sections. Despite its unarguably tremendous length and its considerable breadth (wide enough for four cavalrymen to ride abreast along the eastern sections), the most recent myth about the Wall is quite without foundation. It has been said that it is the only manmade structure visible to the naked eye from the moon: but although dramatic in length, it simply is not wide enough to be seen from the moon.

Based on smaller earlier, walls, and demonstrating the age-old Chinese love of enclosure (keeping strangers out of their houses, keeping people in their places), the Great Wall was first constructed during the reign of the Qin emperor Shi huangdi, who reigned from 221 BC to 206 BC and who is better known for the immense mausoleum with its side pits filled with a 'buried army' of larger-than-life terracotta warriors that he created for himself near Xi'an. Qin Shi huangdi was clearly keen on massive public works built by soldiers and citizens, who were compelled to do manual service as part of their tax payment to the state, constructing roads and walls throughout his empire. His Great Wall linked and extended existing walls which had been built to protect the separate 'warring' states that occupied the north of China until his conquest and unification of the territory in 221 BC.

During the subsequent Han dynasty (206 BC to AD 220), when the Chinese empire extended its control westwards across the Gobi desert, the Wall was extended, too, and garrisons were installed to maintain the signal beacons and defend the Wall. At this time, the Wall was probably constructed in the main from earth. For thousands of years the Chinese have used the 'yellow earth' of north-west China to construct city walls, houses, palaces and towers. The method of construction remains the same today: earth is shovelled in between frames of planks and pounded down in layers creating remarkably long-lasting walls and platforms.

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