# The Great Wall: China's best kept secret? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 15, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357 "2007-02-15T16:47:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357/21 "2007-02-15T20:33:34Z")
Did he mention being hungry again an hour after he left? ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357/22 "2007-02-15T20:48:28Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] I’ve never seen the great wall, but I have read that there’s a very heavy Marxist interpretation at the tourist sites…that the wall was built by oppressed and suffering peasants by orders of the bloodsucking aristocracy and their running dogs. Which isn’t too far from the truth. [/QUOTE] Hmm. I need to go back and look at my photos, but I’ve been to touristy parts of the Wall twice and don’t recall such an interpretation. Mostly I remember about a thousand people trying to sell me something. And an even greater number of school children, all dressed in yellow, all wanting to say hello to the sweaty white dude. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357/23 "2007-02-16T03:40:36Z")
I knew of the Great Wall of China long before Nixon’s trip, but I didn’t find out until much later that the Wall isn’t nearly as old as most people think it is. Only small stretches of the original Great Wall remain. Most of the existing “Wall” (actually “walls,” since there isn’t one continuous wall, but a serious of them) is only about 500 years old. And while the Wall looks impressive, it was practically worthless for keeping out the Mongols, who penetrated it almost at will, whenever they felt like it. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357/24 "2007-02-16T03:57:26Z")
[QUOTE=Rube E. Tewesday] Now, it’s interesting that Marco Polo never mentions the Great Wall. (He also doesn’t mention tea, or women with bound feet.) [/QUOTE] Some believe Polo never really went to China, but rather just made it up and threw in a few facts he gleaned from somewhere. That sounds sort of like a medieval conspiracy theory, though. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357/25 "2007-02-16T04:18:55Z")
the great wall would have been seen by all silk road travellers. there were plenty of westerners throughout history on the silk road. 1800’s saw missionaries living around the wall. the boxer rebellion and all the british and US troops that occupied beijing would have most certainly seen the wall over a century ago. I didn’t see any marxist rants when I got off the gondola at the mutianyu section of the great wall outside beijing 2 months ago. you don’t see maxist stuff anymore, and what relics are left are ignored by the masses ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357/26 "2007-02-16T13:53:53Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Some believe Polo never really went to China, but rather just made it up and threw in a few facts he gleaned from somewhere. That sounds sort of like a medieval conspiracy theory, though. [/QUOTE] Yeah, I know. It is odd, though, that despite the supposedly high position he held under the Great Khan, he doesn’t appear at all in the Chinese records. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357/27 "2007-02-16T14:18:49Z")
[QUOTE=Pork Rind] Mostly I remember about a thousand people trying to sell me something. And an even greater number of school children, all dressed in yellow, all wanting to say hello to the sweaty white dude. [/QUOTE] Mostly I remember every young (Chinese) man in sight wanting his picture taken with my much-too-attractive 15-year-old daughter, while I went climbing with my 3-year-old daughter because she insisted “to the top, daddy!” (She did it, too.) And, to actually contribute (however minimally) to the thread: note that the anthem mentioned by **Throatwarbler Mangrove** was written in 1943 or some such–doesn’t exactly qualify as documenting antiquity. ---
**Author:** ![Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357/28 "2007-02-16T15:37:54Z")
> [@](#): > > note that the anthem mentioned by Throatwarbler Mangrove was written in 1943 or some such–doesn’t exactly qualify as documenting antiquity. It was to address this: > [@](#): > > In fact, the Chinese tried to keep its existance hidden, as a sort of embarassment. It was not until Nixon opened up relations that the Wall became known to the west ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357/29 "2007-02-16T15:47:57Z")
[QUOTE=astorian] And while the Wall looks impressive, it was practically worthless for keeping out the Mongols, who penetrated it almost at will, whenever they felt like it. [/QUOTE] One would think that the U.S. politicians wanting to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would learn this lesson from history. Sadly, they will not. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357/30 "2007-02-16T18:27:57Z")
[QUOTE=Spiff] One would think that the U.S. politicians wanting to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would learn this lesson from history. Sadly, they will not. ☹ [/QUOTE] Whether that wall works or not, it won’t be because the Mexicans will form a larger army and invade. The two walls cannot be equated in that way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-wall-chinas-best-kept-secret/392357.md?page=1)