# Was the Great Wall of China a realistic deterant **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 25, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-great-wall-of-china-a-realistic-deterant/735728 "2015-10-25T15:34:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-great-wall-of-china-a-realistic-deterant/735728/21 "2015-10-26T23:56:29Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > The wall is called the “Long Wall” in Chinese, to distinguish it from the similar but much shorter walls which surround(ed) many Chinese cities. I once received a sweatshirt from some tourist shop at the Great Wall. It showed a picture of the Wall with a caption in Chinese characters. I would always joke that it said, “My mom went to the Great Wall of China and all I got was this lousy sweatshirt.” I wore it in a Chinese restaurant one time, and a Chinese-speaking server said the closest he could figure out was “Thousand Mile City”. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-great-wall-of-china-a-realistic-deterant/735728/22 "2015-10-27T09:34:51Z")
As so often happens when I read a thread on SD, I have to go and do some research and expand my knowledge. This quote seems to sum up why a powerful ruler would build a wall. > [@](#): > > Archaeologists and historians have long debated whether Hadrian’s Wall was an effective military barrier…Whatever its military effectiveness, however, it was clearly a powerful symbol of Roman military might. The biographer of Hadrian remarks that the emperor built the wall to separate the Romans from the barbarians. In the same way, the Chinese emperors built the Great Wall to separate China from the barbarous steppe peoples to the north. In both cases, in addition to any military function, the physical barriers served in the eyes of their builders to reinforce the conceptual divide between civilized and noncivilized. They were part of the ideology of empire. (Ancient Civilizations, 313) > [Hadrian's Wall - World History Encyclopedia](http://www.ancient.eu/Hadrians_Wall/) I suppose that the great castles that the Normans built all over Britain served the same purpose. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-great-wall-of-china-a-realistic-deterant/735728/23 "2015-10-27T15:26:39Z")
I recall reading something once about the improved Great wall (600AD) was responsible for redirecting the Mongols under Attila to head west to Europe instead. (IIRC numerous walls were built to 200BC; the next serious upgrade was 600AD, with a final massive building project in 1400AD that gave us those massive sections, particularly around Beijing, that we see on the news and think of as “The Great Wall”) ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-great-wall-of-china-a-realistic-deterant/735728/24 "2015-10-27T16:32:51Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I recall reading something once about the improved Great wall (600AD) was responsible for redirecting the Mongols under Attila to head west to Europe instead. This was once common historical speculation, but is no longer believed. The Huns may or may not have originally migrated from Mongolia, but even if they did it was a long, slow process over many generations and not a simple cause and effect. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-great-wall-of-china-a-realistic-deterant/735728/25 "2015-10-27T18:22:16Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > I’m sure 3 seconds on Wikipedia would tell me the validity of such a statement, but I can’t seem to be bothered. You don’t realize how common this is on the Dope. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-great-wall-of-china-a-realistic-deterant/735728.md?page=1)