The Great Wall of China - How a 22000 Kilometer Wall Was Built, Origin, Cost, and Its Role in Protecting China across 2000 Years #882569

In 221 BCE, a person called Qin Shi Huang announced that he was the First Emperor of all China. Within a few decades, he did what numerous warlords had tried and failed to do for centuries: He brought an end to the chaos of the Warring States period and built an empire that extended from the East China Sea deep into the heart of Asia.
But he went on with larger ambitions than conquest. No, the true monument to Qin Shi Huang’s vision was not so much the empire as the wall he constructed — or rather, the ideal of it.
We like to imagine the Great Wall of China as an unbroken ribbon of stone and earth, winding its way through the deserts, plains and mountains of northern China. And, in fact, the Wall is less a thing than an idea, a moving target in response to a moving series of threats and requirements.
It was constructed, reconstructed, extended and left to deteriorate over more than two millennia by emperors who agreed only on the necessity of one thing: China’s northern frontier could not be left inattentive.