Great Wall of China (Bandaling)

Image credit: Phoenix Han

The Great Wall of China spans over 4,000 miles. Originally built to protect China against invaders, the wall is now a hot destination for tourists visiting from all over the world. The most popular section can be found at Bandaling, where a 10km section is open to the public for exploration. The actual number of visitors to the wall annually varies depending on the source you ask, but rumor has it that the local municipality caps visitation at 16 million people per year.





The Great Wall-2

The Great Wall is the world's longest human-made structure, stretching over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total.It is also the largest human-made structure ever built in terms of surface area and mass. At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.