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00:00It's a thousand times longer than any monument ever built.
00:09Started before the birth of Christ, it was still being built when Columbus sailed to America,
00:15and millions died in its making.
00:21What unspeakable fears drove the Chinese to build the Great Wall,
00:26a wall they called the longest cemetery in the world.
00:33This is the wall that everybody knows about, where American presidents pose, and millions of tourists visit every year.
01:02But few of those visitors realize that the floor they are rapidly wearing away,
01:12and the walls they carved their initials on, is younger than they are, rebuilt only a few decades ago.
01:19But there is a lost wall, rarely visited, and seldom filmed, that lies just over the horizon.
01:31This is the real Great Wall of China.
01:37It starts on the shores of the Yellow Sea, and stretches through the mountains north of Beijing,
01:49and into the heartland of North China.
01:53It has great fortified castles, and watchtowers, at crucial mountain passes,
01:59where enemy armies could easily breach the defenses.
02:06It runs down to the shoreline of great rivers, then for thousands of miles it stretches through uninhabited deserts,
02:13across unscalable mountains.
02:23At first, it is built of stone, but as it reaches the desert, it reverses into mud brick.
02:30And finally, the Great Wall ends here, at this lonely watchtower, overlooking the White River.
02:38It's the greatest feat of engineering in the world, running a staggering total of more than 4,000 miles from start to finish.
02:46This is the 15th dawn Cheng Dahling has photographed in this month alone.
03:14But Cheng is not only a photographer.
03:18He is a man who has dedicated his life to discovering everything he can about the Great Wall of China.
03:28For years, he searched the Chinese countryside for evidence of long-forgotten and abandoned walls.
03:34The zombi lived here in the Old Testament.
03:35Often, the only clue he has is from some ancient text.
03:49ancient text and it is up to him to puzzle out the arcane references and make them fit
03:57the modern landscape
04:19armed only with a walking stick to fend off snakes and rabid dogs
04:24he has walked many thousands of miles
04:30but he has had many successes
04:32after struggling up this forested mountainside
04:35he discovered a long lost wall
04:43no one had ever noticed it before
04:45but once it was part of an ancient great wall
04:48though much earlier and in a completely different location from the wall everyone knows
04:54and the more scientists and archaeologists probe
05:00the more mysterious it all becomes
05:04in a lifetime of searching
05:06cheng has discovered thousands of miles of forgotten walls
05:10in fact
05:11if you add up all the walls that we now know about
05:14it comes to a staggering total of 35,000 miles
05:18almost enough to stretch around the planet twice
05:22but why build so many walls at such an enormous cost
05:28what were the chinese afraid of
05:32it was said
05:42you could smell them coming
05:44even before you heard the thunder of their hooves
05:48then they were on you
05:52slaughtering
05:57raping
05:58pillaging
05:59and burning
06:02behind them
06:03they left a trail of smoking cities and bleached bones
06:08they were the nomadic hordes of the northern plains
06:11the huns
06:12mongols
06:13the manchus
06:14all at war with the settled life of the chinese
06:24the chinese were terrified by the nomads
06:27and detested their harsh way of life
06:29a famous poem said
06:31they have no fields or pastures
06:34only wastes
06:36where white bones lie among yellow sands
06:40nomads live solely off their livestock
06:43their animals provided every basic need
06:46food
06:47milk
06:48meat
06:49hides for clothes
06:50and the yurt
06:51the nomadic tent
06:53animal dung provided fuel
06:55in this uncompromising landscape
06:57it was the only way to fuel a fire
07:03the harsh climate kept the nomads always on the move
07:06looking for pasture suitable for their flocks
07:09when disease and freezing weather decimated their animals
07:13the nomadic hordes raided the chinese
07:16when they refused to trade with them
07:21china had everything the nomads didn't have
07:23rice
07:24silk
07:25writing
07:26and a very elaborate civilization
07:28the great wall was a barrier between the civilized world of the chinese
07:32chinese
07:33and barbarians
07:43throughout their long history the chinese have been farmers
07:50if you are committed to your land you stay put and accumulate possessions
07:54land
07:56livestock and homes that you fill with furniture and goods
07:59it's a way of life constantly threatened by nomadic raids
08:05and so from earliest times the chinese built walls
08:09walls around their homes
08:11walls around their cities
08:13and walls around their country
08:16to keep the have nots out
08:18wall building was so deeply ingrained in the chinese mentality
08:23wall building was so deeply ingrained in the chinese mentality
08:26that the chinese character for city
08:28is also the chinese character for wall
08:31building a wall surrounding a country the size of china
08:42needed a man of prodigious ego and power
08:45a man so powerful
08:46that china is named after him
08:49emperor chin
08:50the first emperor of china
08:54he began two centuries before the birth of christ
08:57with the wall stretching more than four thousand miles from lintao
09:00in modern central china
09:02across deserts over mountains and plateau
09:05all the way to the korean border
09:08incredibly it was built in only twelve years
09:11imagine building a wall 32 feet high
09:1415 feet wide from new york to california
09:17without any modern equipment
09:19the emperor chin
09:21was a remarkable man
09:27originally chin ruled only a small state in the northwest corner of china
09:31but that wasn't enough for him
09:33chin built an invincible army
09:35and one by one he conquered his neighbors
09:38it was said
09:40chin ate up his neighbors
09:42as a silkworm devours a leaf
09:45with all of china under his rule
09:48emperor chin standardized measurements
09:50created a single currency
09:52the world's first euro
09:54that's the good news
09:56the bad news is that he was a paranoid tyrant
09:59who rewrote history to begin with himself
10:06chin's tomb reveals both how magnificent and terrifying his reign must have been
10:13here in 1974
10:15just to the east of his tomb
10:17a vast buried army was discovered
10:19a terracotta army guarding its emperor from evil spirits
10:23these aren't miniatures
10:28they are life size
10:30so far the chinese have only dug up ten percent of the site
10:34and already thousands of warriors and some ten thousand weapons have been discovered
10:38look closely at the faces
10:41each one is different
10:42the terracotta army
10:44was sculpted from its real life counterpart
10:47the army is drawn up in battle formation
10:54at the rear a command post of senior generals give commands
10:58their age and status shown by their spreading waistlines
11:02in all
11:06it took almost seven hundred thousand men thirty eight years to complete the construction of emperor chin's tomb
11:18once china was united
11:20and he had reorganized his empire
11:22chin sent three hundred thousand soldiers to the northern frontier
11:25to drive back the ever-threatening nomads
11:28when their job was done
11:30chin ordered his army to stay
11:32and with an extra half a million peasants
11:35they built the first great wall of charlotte
11:38the wall was made with compressed earth
11:53it's a technique still used every day in the chinese countryside
11:58first wooden planks are laid parallel to one another
12:01as wide apart as the walls thickness
12:03then earth is shoveled between the planks
12:06watered
12:07and packed down by human feet
12:10then the planks are built upwards
12:12and the wall continues to grow layer by layer
12:15it is a cheap and fast way to make a wall
12:18a hundred times easier
12:20it has been calculated than building with stone
12:22that's how chin built four thousand miles of wall
12:26in just twelve years
12:28surprisingly
12:31these walls can last a very long time
12:34the walls of this ancient city
12:37are nearly two thousand years old
12:39preserved by the extreme dryness of the gobi desert's climate
12:43the wall protected china
12:46but it took a terrible toll on its people
12:49millions of men died of exhaustion while working on the wall
12:55some say the dead were used as mortar and buried in it
12:59they said that the bones of the dead were so numerous
13:02it turned the mortar of the wall white
13:05no one escaped the terrible rule of the emperor chin
13:08every peasant paid his taxes and contributed to the growing wealth of his empire
13:13the greatness of china was built on the backs of the poor
13:17and the history of the chin dynasty is laced with tales of sadness
13:22there is a fairy tale in china as well known to the chinese as the story of snow white or robin hood is to us
13:31in the heart of a harsh winter
13:35meng chang nu decided to visit her husband
13:38who had been sent to work on the construction of the wall
13:42bringing warm clothes for her beloved husband
13:45she went to the first tower and asked the soldiers where she could find him
13:49they knew he was dead
13:51but they couldn't bring themselves to tell her the truth
13:53so they sent her to the next watchtower along the wall
13:56once again she was told the same story
13:59so she walked along the wall searching desperately for her husband
14:04from the tibetan plateau to the yellow sea
14:07here at last someone told her that her husband was dead
14:14one of the million tortured souls who haunted the wall
14:18her sadness was so great and her despair so intense
14:24that her tears made a great breach in the wall
14:39there is still a temple dedicated to meng chang nu
14:42here pilgrims come to ring the bell for good luck
14:46and offer a prayer in front of her statue
14:49they can even look through a telescope at the breach in the wall
14:52caused by the tears of their long dead heroine
14:55in the years after emperor chin's death
15:06the people revolted against his empire
15:09they seized the weapons of his terracotta army
15:12and smashed its harmless soldiers
15:14setting roof timbers on fire
15:17and burying the army
15:18until its recent discovery
15:21but this peasant revolt had little effect on future emperors
15:28soon a new dynasty began to build a wall
15:31even greater than emperor chin's
15:35emperor chin built his great wall with the blood and lives of the peasants
15:41now a new dynasty
15:43the han continued his obsession with wall building
15:46but they had some extra help
15:48the bronze statue of the flying horse of hunan
15:55is one of the greatest discoveries in chinese archaeology
15:58this was the ultimate weapon of the han dynasty
16:02a new breed of horse introduced into china
16:05by her nomadic enemies
16:07it was stronger faster and tougher than any horse the chinese had ever seen
16:12it was the cruise missile of that generation
16:16so it is no wonder the artist crafted it flying through the air
16:19its hooves resting on the back of a startled swallow
16:22now despite their military success
16:27the new rulers of china
16:29the han
16:30still needed a great wall
16:32so around the time that christ was alive
16:34they constructed a second great wall
16:37in total this great wall stretched for 6700 miles
16:50and was the longest construction in all human history
16:55it is a staggering 2700 miles longer than the first great wall of the emperor chin
17:02there is no wood water or stone in the desert
17:06but the han managed to build a wall that has resisted 2,000 years of erosion
17:13you can still see the layers constructed with only local materials
17:17layers of compressed sand, twigs, bark, tamarisk and horse manure
17:22the wall has withstood conditions that alternate between torrid heat for half the year
17:27and freezing winds for the rest
17:30building this wall in the middle of the barren desert was only half the task
17:34it had to be manned
17:37soldiers were constantly told to be vigilant and not to move an inch from their posts
17:42this was particularly true of those manning these towers built miles in front of the actual wall
17:49despite millions of soldiers in the army
17:53the wall is so long they didn't have enough men to post a sentry every few yards
17:58so plenty of advance warning from these towers was crucial
18:02using smoke signals the chinese evolved a highly sophisticated and successful signaling system
18:11a beacon lit here in the gobi can pass its message some 700 miles in only 24 hours
18:17alerting the entire frontier to the danger
18:32chariots and horsemen are directed to keep on guard
18:35and the men at the watchtowers to keep a sharp lookout for fire signals
18:42and keep the border clear
18:45says a han military document
18:48each beacon was constructed within clear view of its nearest neighbor
18:52so that fire signals at night or smoke in the day could be seen and the message passed on
18:58and this was their most precious commodity in a barren desert
19:04it is firewood used to light the ancient signal fires
19:08it's still here where it was abandoned some two thousand years ago
19:13we know so much about these ancient lives
19:17because the dry gobi desert has preserved their letters
19:20buried next to the watchtowers where they lived and often died
19:25dear all
19:29in this far-off labor camp
19:31i must clear grounds in the middle of the silence
19:34this remote camp
19:35is like a tomb
19:37and i miss you so much
19:38last week
19:39i received a punishment
19:40i can't express properly
19:42my gratitude toward you dear elder brother
19:45do you remember that night
19:47we drank so much
19:49thanks for the food and medicine you sent me
19:51words can't translate what my heart feels for you
19:54there is only some assignment
19:56today
19:57we made a hundred and fifty weeks
19:59we all look like slaves
20:01the moon is shining through a sea of clouds
20:07when we are on guard
20:09all we can see is this desolate landscape
20:13devoid of any sign of life
20:15the memory of our home becomes so painful
20:19our exile seems as though it will never end
20:26and many never returned home
20:28ending up in graveyards like this one
20:30large tombs for generals
20:32small ones for the soldiers
20:34and all of them died
20:36defending the great war
20:38the great war
20:45but the soldiers misery did benefit someone
20:49their presence provided safety from attacks to traders and travelers
20:53and the war
20:56hugging the wall for protection from bandits
20:58caravans left china laden with silk
21:01furs pottery and rhubarb
21:03a plant unknown in the west
21:05and highly prized as a medicine
21:11this was the famed silk road
21:14the traders returned with gold ivory and coral
21:29it was a dangerous route
21:31running through some of the world's worst deserts
21:33but at least the wall and its guards stopped raids by nomadic bandits along much of its length
21:39and it wasn't just trade goods that flowed up and down the silk road
21:46along with the commodities came ideas and inventions
21:51from china came the magnetic compass
21:54an invention that made it possible for columbus to find america
21:57and from the west came religion
22:00early forms of christianity
22:02and most important for the chinese
22:04buddhism
22:09the art that came with buddhism revolutionized china
22:16accustomed to building on a massive scale
22:19the chinese applied what they had learned from building the wall
22:22to the new religious art
22:24and the result was colossal
22:31these giant carved stone buddhas are among the largest sculptures ever created
22:36a mixture of native artistic talent and foreign ideas
22:43but the art wasn't always on such a grand scale
22:48the little desert oasis of dunhuang
22:50is where the travelers on the silk road sheltered by the great wall
22:54rested and prepared for one of the toughest stretches of their journey
22:58soon they passed through the jade gate
23:03the last gateway in the great wall
23:05and head for the terrors of the taklamakan desert
23:09the worst desert in the world
23:11to help ensure their safe journey
23:15travelers paid local artists to paint buddhist shrines in the cliffs around dunhuang
23:19shrines in which they had their own portraits painted
23:34a reminder to the gods of the help they would require in the next few weeks
23:40so when they left the sheltering walls of dunhuang
23:50heading for the desert that local people referred to as
23:53go in and you will not come out
23:56they knew they had a little extra spiritual protection on their side
24:01and this is where they finally left the protection of the wall
24:10and face the dangers of the unknown
24:13the jade gate at the end of the wall
24:16is famous for the poem that says of this lonely spot
24:20the yellow river runs up to the white sky
24:23a lonely tower stands in the thousand mountains
24:28spring never reaches jade gate
24:48the great wall was the start of a wonderful chain reaction for the han dynasty
24:53the wall protected the caravans of the silk road
24:56the caravans increased and prospered
24:58and the han grew wealthy
25:00and extended their territories to the north and west
25:03of the great wall itself
25:05tired at lapping at the base of a wall they couldn't breach
25:10the nomads thundered west
25:12and conquered central asia
25:14and eastern europe
25:16threatening the other great power of the ancient world
25:19Rome
25:21when attila the hun
25:23the scourge of god marched on Rome
25:26he was so feared
25:27that pope leo went outside the gates
25:30to plead with attila to spare the holy city
25:32the meeting of pagan and pope
25:35never would have taken place
25:37without the great wall of china
25:39legend says that attila highly superstitious
25:44retreated because the pope's name meant the lion
25:51but it was just a short reprieve for rome
25:53a later fatal invasion finally brought rome to its knees
25:57plunging europe into five centuries of dark ages
25:59while europe suffered china was entering its golden age
26:12the tang dynasty
26:14the richest and most powerful rulers in china's history
26:20scattered throughout the countryside are spirit guardians
26:23protecting the tombs of china's most golden age
26:30one of the few royal tombs excavated is that of princess young tai
26:35the daughter of an emperor
26:37it reflects the luxurious life these internationally minded aristocrats led
26:42with their fashions imported down the silk road
26:45and their games of polo
26:58the tang armies controlled vast areas on both sides of the great wall
27:03so it was no longer needed as a defense
27:06and it fell into ruin
27:09to maintain order in the steppes
27:11the tang preferred to make their mark with trade and diplomacy
27:14rather than with walls
27:16and the best diplomats at the time
27:18were chinese princesses
27:21every so often a princess was chosen to marry a nomadic ruler
27:26and was sent off with her eunuchs
27:28servants
27:29and piles of luxurious gifts
27:35exile was a torture for these princesses
27:41they were used to being treated as fragile
27:43precious porcelain beauties
27:46now they were forced to eat chunks of boiled meat
27:49and drink fermented mare's milk
27:51and sleep with barbarian husbands who never washed
27:55one princess lamented
27:57a yurt is my home
28:00felt are my walls
28:02sour milk is my drink
28:05living here in a foreign country
28:08i dream of turning into a yellow crane
28:12and flying back to my home
28:15sacrificing a princess to exile and life for the barbarian seemed a small price to pay for peace
28:21it was certainly a lot cheaper than building and guarding a great wall
28:26but this policy had only short-term success
28:30a new danger was developing in the northern wastelands
28:33china was about to face the most legendary warrior the world has ever known
28:38beyond the great wall barbarians thundered across asia destroying villages pillaging and plundering everything in their way
28:50and here china's worst nightmare began with the birth of a baby
28:55his right hand drenched in blood
28:58an omen of things to come
29:01as he matured temujin grew strong mastered the art of tribal politics
29:12and by cunning and treachery became leader of his tribe
29:16and then of many tribes
29:19by 1204 all the tribes answered to temujin
29:23and he became the first king of all the nomads
29:26they acclaimed him Genghis Khan
29:29the king of kings
29:34it was said that his fierce and ruthless warriors never knew what pain and mercy meant
29:39they could ride for days without dismounting
29:42when food ran low
29:44they just sucked the blood of their horses
29:46no prisoners were ever taken
29:48and they often slaughtered whole cities
29:51populations were so frightened
29:54that they would surrender without fighting
29:57Genghis soon turned his attention southward
30:01to the fertile lands of china
30:04the bloody hand at his birth was about to fulfill its terrible destiny
30:09in summer dried up river valleys offered easy invasion routes for horsemen bent on sacking the rich chinese towns of the plains
30:22and this is why these passes were heavily fortified
30:27even though they had let the rest of the great wall fall into ruins
30:31a mongol army of a hundred thousand warriors invaded china through this pass north of the capital beijing
30:37it is still the main highway where the train and motorway to beijing passed through the mountains
30:43Genghis Khan halted here
30:46in front of the north gate of the ji yung guan fortress
30:50the chinese pierced the ground in front of the gate with spikes to slow down the mongol hordes
30:56and seal the great gate of the fortress with iron to prevent it from being opened
31:00after a month of stalemate and no sign of weakening in the fortress
31:07Genghis Khan decided to outflank it
31:09he sent a team of soldiers through the hills
31:12where the chinese at this stage had not maintained the wall
31:15and came from behind the fort
31:17by the time the chinese army realized what was happening
31:21it was too late
31:23the mongols were swarming through the plain
31:26attacking ji yung guan from the rear
31:29they destroyed the north gate
31:31and opened the way to the main army
31:34foreigners and barbarians now rule china
31:37it was a bitter lesson that the chinese would never forget
31:44the successor to Genghis Khan was Kubla Khan
31:47who ruled the largest empire the world has ever known
31:50running from china to the very borders of europe
31:53and he had no need of a great wall
31:56he controlled it all
32:00this is when the famous traveler marco polo visited china
32:03and wrote his famous book on his experiences
32:08many people have wondered why he never once mentioned china's most famous monument
32:12the great wall
32:14it's simple
32:15the great wall was in such ruins by his time
32:17it wasn't worth mentioning
32:19despite his power
32:27Kubla Khan wasn't going to last
32:29the chinese still viewed their mongol rulers as invading barbarians
32:37devastating floods in the yellow river triggered a popular revolt against the hated foreign rulers
32:42and the mongols were overthrown
32:44they were replaced by a chinese dynasty
32:54the ming
32:55who were determined that the mistakes of the past
32:58would not be repeated
32:59these are the descendants of the men who built the wall for the ming
33:02and chased the mongols out of china
33:07they are proud of their ancestors
33:09men and women who built and defended the last great wall of china
33:13that's why these farmers in a remote village
33:17that's why these farmers in a remote village still perform martial arts every morning
33:21before heading off to work in the fields
33:23with the mongols expelled the new rulers the ming emperors would determine that an invasion would never happen again
33:38and so in 1368 when europe was being decimated by the black plague the ming rulers created the world's largest and greatest civil engineering project
33:52even greater than earlier walls
33:54even greater than earlier walls because this wall was mostly built of stone
33:59the ming wall stretches from shanhai guan on the yellow sea
34:05to jai huguan in the gobi desert
34:07it lies across china like a long winding spine four thousand miles in length
34:20with thousands of watchtowers poking out like vertebrae
34:24much of the great wall was made of stone
34:35a building material a hundred times more labor intensive than mud brick
34:46the wall builders were not in the least daunted by spiked mountain peaks
34:50and even among these misty mountain tops the wall had to be zealously guarded
34:55watchtowers were crucial to the protection of the wall
34:58if reinforcements were needed the guard signaled to the village a mere half mile away
35:05here the old garrison walls of a long abandoned barracks still stand
35:18some 500 troops would have been stationed here
35:20and if this wasn't enough
35:22there were even larger concentration of troops in forts a few minutes signaling away
35:26in this way a small number of men on the wall could alert an army of over one million men in a matter of a few hours
35:41army garrisons competed with each other in wall building
35:45each general wanted his section to be more impressive than all the others
35:53a plaque proclaims that in the spring of the year 1597
35:57tong kai was commander in charge of the gang building this section of the wall
36:01chen yi ting was in charge of food
36:04and even the lowly stonemason Wu Zeng Ye had his name carved
36:20to build a wall to this standard was not easy
36:23much of the labor was carried out by convicts
36:25who if they died had to be replaced by another member of their family
36:29and so on until the sentence was completed
36:32hardly a method that encouraged happy workers
36:40every 50 feet the builders installed drains to carry off rainwater
36:47these water spouts were always built on the inside of the wall
36:50the side away from the enemy
36:52so we couldn't lasso a spout and climb up the wall
36:55here on a steep slope defensive walls rise in steps up to the watchtower
37:03so if the enemy did make it to the top of the wall
37:06the crucial watchtowers could be fiercely defended
37:16the watchtowers themselves stand out beyond the wall
37:19so that archers could rain arrows down on any soldiers below
37:22the tower had a covered area for the troops to keep warm
37:28sleep and store weapons
37:30in an open area at the top protected by battlements
37:33the troops kept watch and could repel invaders
37:40it is an amazing defense system
37:41particularly when you see the terrain it was built over
37:44this section is almost vertical as it climbs a mountain slope
37:49here it's only a couple of feet wide
37:52here it's only a couple of feet wide
37:54and guards a drop of more than 1,000 feet
38:04determined that no barbarian would ever rule China again
38:07the Ming fortified every inch of Chinese territory
38:10lest small bands get through and open the gates to a larger army
38:14the Ming emperors were willing to bear any burden
38:21pay any price to keep their dynasty in power
38:24and this is where they ruled from
38:29the great forbidden city in Beijing
38:32with its gardens, halls, temples and palaces
38:35the city sprawls over a hundred and eighty acres
38:39surrounded by a moat and formidable walls
38:42the forbidden city
38:46a place of seclusion
38:48a place where the godlike Ming emperors
38:51could rule and dwell
38:53without being inconvenienced by the ordinary citizens of his realm
38:57within its vermilion walls existed a life unique in all of human history
39:03at its center was the emperor
39:05whose days were filled with the complicated rituals required of the ruler of China
39:10if the rituals were carried out
39:12the country would prosper
39:14and the Ming dynasty would flourish
39:20serving the emperor was an army of concubines
39:23and guarding the concubines
39:26an even larger army of eunuchs
39:28one of the last of the Ming
39:32emperor Wan Li
39:34was a weak monarch
39:35who managed to hold on to his throne for forty-seven years
39:39Wan Li ruled deep within his palace
39:42and was never seen by his people or his ministers
39:45and rarely even by his eunuchs
39:47cut off from almost everyone
39:49he had little idea of what was happening in the country he ruled
39:53the Ming emperors were buried in tombs north of their capital Beijing
40:09the tombs all followed the same basic design
40:12a temple in front
40:13and a wall enclosure with the underground tomb behind
40:16because Wan Li ruled for so long
40:28he constructed a huge tomb
40:30and in 1956 Chinese archaeologists decided to open it
40:35the only Ming emperor's tomb ever excavated
40:38as the workmen opened the heavy tomb doors
40:41a giant corridor was revealed
40:43far larger than any Egyptian pharaoh's tomb
40:47and there lay the lacquered coffins of the emperor
40:50and two of his wives
40:52the tomb was opened by the communist authorities
40:56as a lesson in class consciousness
40:58to demonstrate how the capitalist rulers
41:01had lived a life of luxury
41:03whilst the toiling masses starved
41:05they could not have chosen a better example
41:08as the lavish grave goods amply demonstrated
41:11amongst them this light as air woven gold cap
41:16the combination of lavish living
41:20and incompetent governing couldn't last
41:23twenty-four years after this tomb was completed
41:26the dynasty was over
41:28but it wasn't the wall that let the Ming down
41:31it was a love affair
41:33the Chinese believed that their great wall
41:40constructed by millions of workers
41:42would protect them forever
41:43but in fact it was destroyed by a pretty face
41:47the story begins with the sack of Beijing
41:52in 1644 by a rebel army
41:54in the chaos that followed
41:56a nomadic tribe the Manchu
41:58saw a perfect opportunity to invade
42:01their immense army marched against China
42:04but the great wall remained intact
42:06not an inch of wall was destroyed
42:08or even damaged during the invasion
42:10this is the fort the Manchu really wanted to capture
42:16it was commanded by the greatest and most faithful general
42:20of the entire empire
42:21General Wu
42:22which makes it all the more strange that he is not here
42:28among the fort's collection of China's greatest soldiers
42:37he is not included because of what he did
42:39when he was confronted by the Manchu army
42:44the general had only one weakness
42:47his love for a concubine
42:49the Lady Chen
42:50famous as the round-faced beauty
42:53Lady Chen unfortunately also attracted the attention
42:56of the Chinese rebel leader
42:58who had just sacked Beijing
43:00desperate to regain his lost love
43:03General Wu called upon his hated enemy
43:06the Manchu's to help him crush the rebellion
43:08and of course free his beloved Lady Chen
43:12here at Shanhaiguan
43:15General Wu did the unthinkable
43:17he opened the gates of the Great Wall
43:20and let the Manchu army in
43:22the greatest civil engineering project in history failed
43:28but not because of any structural weakness
43:31it crumbled because of the smile of a pretty girl
43:35the new Manchu dynasty tried something different with their neighbors
43:49diplomacy
43:50here in their lovely summer palace
43:52they greeted delegations from all over the eastern world
44:02attendance was compulsory
44:04neighbors were expected to pay tribute to the Emperor
44:07this was Manchu diplomacy
44:14but guests had to be comfortable
44:16the Emperor even sent officials to Tibet
44:19to draw and measure the Dalai Lama's residence
44:22and then built a scale model to make his guest feel at home
44:25the Dalai Lama never made the trip
44:31but the other great spiritual leader of Tibet
44:41the Panchen Lama did pay a visit
44:43so great was his prestige
44:49that according to Tibetan sources
44:51he was asked by the Emperor to sit on the Dragon Throne
44:54a totally unique privilege
44:57Chinese sources picture him in a rather more humble pose
45:03offering the Emperor a sacred scarf
45:06and for him
45:09the Emperor had his palace in Tibet faithfully reconstructed
45:12it was certainly cheaper to build these great temples
45:15with their sinuous golden dragons
45:17than to man and maintain the great wall
45:24the Emperor even went so far as to learn Tibetan
45:27so as to talk to his visitor with our translators
45:30and he ordered all the main public inscriptions
45:32to be in all the languages of the Manchu Empire
45:35Tibetan, Chinese, Mongolian, and Manchu
45:49many monks settled here and still continued to worship
45:52long after the last Emperor had left his throne
45:56and as for the great wall
46:19it was allowed to fall into ruin once again
46:22a defense no longer needed
46:25the only wall the Manchu dynasty cared about
46:28was the one that ran right around their palace
46:30built to protect the wild game they loved to hunt
46:34the great wall
46:36for the first time in its history
46:38was of no value to the Chinese people
46:41and now the wall's last intriguing chapter
46:44was about to be written
46:55the great wall the longest and most astonishing of all the world's ancient wonders
47:01lasted 2,000 years
47:04but it was only in the last 200 years that the West got a good look at it
47:08in 1793 the British dispatched a diplomatic expedition to China
47:13led by Lord McCartney in an effort to open it up to British trade
47:18when McCartney stopped to admire the wall as he journeyed across China
47:22his Chinese guides were puzzled
47:24why would anyone be interested in a pile of ancient stones?
47:28one member of the team drew a sketch of the wall
47:31one that was reproduced thousands of times
47:33and is still how most people view the great wall today
47:37every ambassador to China received by the Emperor
47:42was obliged to kowtow
47:44that is to bow three times
47:46each accompanied by three acts of prostration
47:49the forehead touching the ground nine times in all
47:52when the British arrived at the Emperor's summer residence
47:58they were lavishly entertained
48:01and spent days touring its beautiful parks and temples
48:05McCartney, a good Englishman and loyal to his king
48:09refused to kowtow to the Emperor
48:11and provoked a huge scandal at the Chinese court
48:15in their final meeting
48:17the British were asked to bow to a scroll from the Emperor
48:20and when they opened it
48:22its message was pointed
48:25we possess all things
48:28I set no value on objects strange or ingenious
48:32and have no use for your country's manufactures
48:36O King of England
48:39tremblingly obey and show no negligence
48:44this is a story of pride
48:47two empires each convinced they were the masters of the universe
48:51one of the British delegates said
48:53in short we entered Beijing like paupers
48:56we remained in it like prisoners
48:58and we quitted it like vagrants
49:00humiliated the British plotted their revenge
49:04knowing full well from all the military intelligence
49:07they had gathered
49:08that when it came to war
49:10the Chinese were centuries behind the Western world
49:13the Great War was obsolete
49:16a century of Chinese humiliation
49:24civil war
49:25foreign invasions
49:26and chaos
49:27was to follow
49:28in the 20th century
49:30during the turmoil of Mao's cultural revolution
49:33wonderful stretches of the ancient wall were destroyed
49:36today the wall is protected
49:44and is an icon for China
49:46used in advertisements from cough drops to banking
49:49but preserving and conserving an ancient monument
49:54some 35,000 miles long
49:56is a nightmare for the Chinese
49:58in an era when almost everything on the planet has been mapped
50:01the wall remains so complicated and so vast
50:05that not one single accurate map of it exists
50:08all of this is a constant worry
50:13to the man who knows the wall better than anyone else
50:16now in his sixties
50:19Cheng Dahlin spends every day photographing
50:22and looking for lost sections of his beloved wall
50:24he worries that no young Chinese scholar is ready to take his place
50:31he worries that the wall will be spoiled by commercial exploitation
50:35and he worries
50:37that the more remote parts of the wall will be destroyed
50:40simply
50:41because no one knows their importance
50:44as Cheng walks across China
50:56he is also walking back in time
51:03as far back as the Emperor Qin
51:06and the millions of Chinese who died building the wall
51:10he is afraid they will be forgotten
51:15as Cheng puts it
51:17they died building the greatest construction
51:21ever built by man
51:40at the Brazil
51:46the red agreement
51:47the pineapple
51:49Gotham
51:51what
51:53the
51:55music
51:57sauce
51:59a
52:02NY
52:03was
52:05a
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