Product Description

China's Great Wall north of Beijing is one of the world's most famous sights. Millions every year climb the line of stone snaking over mountains. We all feel we know the Wall. But we are wrong. It is too big, too varied, too complex to be captured by a few images or a day-trip. Myths surround it. Many believe that the stone barrier marches across all China, that it has been in existence for over 2,000 years, and that it is the only man-made structure visible from the Moon. In fact, most of it is made of earth, and much of it is not there at all. It cannot even be seen from earth orbit, let alone the Moon.Estimates of its length vary from 1,500 to 5,000 miles. Even its name is deceptive - it is not an it, a single entity, but many walls (hence the uncertain length), built at different times. Yet behind the confusion are great simplicities. The many walls are united by two ideas - self-protection and unity - which go back to the First Emperor, who founded the nation in 221 BC. For 2,000 years, the Wall marked the border between China and nomadic peoples to the north and west.Mutual hostility inspired centuries of attacks, counter-attacks and Wall-building, until the northward spread of China in the 20th century made the Wall redundant. For this riveting account, John Man travelled the Wall from the far western deserts to the Pacific, exploring the grandest sections and many 'wild' ones. He is the first writer to describe two unknown walls in Mongolia. He covers two millennia of history, from the country's first unification to the present day, when the Great Wall, built and rebuilt over centuries of war, has become a symbol of tranquillity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #370054 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Telegraph - March 2008
"characteristically breezy, lavishly illustrated travel history"

From the Back Cover
The Great Wall of China is a wonder of the world. Hundreds of thousands of tourists every year make the five-mile journey from Beijing to climb its battlements. It is instantly familiar to millions more from the myriad photographs of this extraordinary landmark. But what do we really know about the Great Wall?
Many myths surround it - for example, that it is visible from space. Not true: it cannot even be seen from earth orbit. Estimates of its length vary from 1,500 to 5,000 miles. Even its name is deceptive – it is not in fact a single entity, but many walls (hence the uncertain length), most of which are built not of stone but of earth. Different sections were built by different states and were first joined together in the third century BC, to counter the threat from nomadic barbarians from the north – a threat that was to menace China’s borders for almost 2,000 years.
In this riveting history John Man travels the entire length of the Great Wall and across over two millennia. In so doing, he finds a fascinating way into China’s remarkable and complex history, taking us from the country’s tribal past, through the war with the Mongols, right up to the modern day, when the Great Wall is once more a powerful emblem of the resurgent superpower.

About the Author
John Man is a historian and travel writer with a special interest in Mongolia. After reading German and French at Oxford he did two postgraduate courses, one in the history of science at Oxford , the other in Mongolian at the School of Oriental and African Studies. His GOBI: TRACKING THE DESERT (Weidenfeld, 1997) was the first book on the subject in English since the 1920s. He is also the author of THE ATLAS OF THE YEAR 1000, (Penguin 1999), ALPHA BETA (Headline, 2000) on the roots of the Roman alphabet, THE GUTENBERG REVOLUTION (Headline 2002) on the origins and impact of printing, GENGHIS KHAN, ATTILA THE HUN and KUBLAI KHAN.

Customer Reviews

More than a simple history.
Another great book by John Man.

This book's subject is the Great Wall of China. It is not only a history of the wall but also deals with its cultural and sociological effects and is all the better for that. Mr Man travels around China visiting the wall and visits communities nearby to it, academic who have studied it, photographers etc. It is an interesting study and one which is informative as well as entertaining. For example, I had always assumed that there was just one wall but in fact there are several and they are not joined up, indeed it was not even the intention to ever have one continuous wall that would cross the entirety of China. Did you know that one theory even says that Roman soldiers garrisoned a part of it at one time (although this theroy is rather discredited nowadays).

Definitely one to recommend.

A great story
John Man does a great job in telling the history of the Great Wall. But he does a lot more than that and he also cleans up two myths about it.
Myth Number One: the Great Wall can be seen from Space or from the Moon. This myth was invented in the 1930s and people quite readily believed it. Now that even the Chinese have been to Space and confirmed that it is not possible to see the Wall from up there all doubts should be laid to rest.
Myth Number Two: The Great Wall is one coherent monument. John Man quite clearly shows that the Wall was never the unity its name suggests. It comes in all shapes, forms and sizes both made of earth and stone. His book should really be called the `Great Walls'.
John Man covers the various Walls built in China and Mongolia in quite some detail with part one covering the walls made of earth and part two covering those made of stone. What makes this book such great reading are all the tales he recounts which are connected to certain sections of the Walls and the time in history when they were built.

great walls
At least this author admits that none of the Chinese walls can be seen from space and that there is more than one wall(at last count there were 14) but continues to use the misnomer The Great Wall Of China which should at least be in the pleural.
The author recounts in well written detail a)the earth walls which includes the 3 walls of the Warring States (350-300bc)and the Han Wall (202bc-220ad) plus b)the stone walls-the Jin Wall(1115-1234)and the Ming wall (1368-1644) Only the Ming Wall which runs from the Pacific coast at the border of China with North Korea to the JadeGate at Juiyguan about 4000 miles to the west could be considered the Great wall which in fact is a European invention as the Chinese Call the walls frontier walls.
The pictures are excellent but a few more would have enhanced the book. The maps are of below average quality.
There is a good bibliography,the appendix giving dates of dynastys and the chronology of the walls is excellent but it should have been placed at the front of the book.
The chapter on the Lost Legion is a nice touch.