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2.1 The Great Wall is the name for a wall.
It first comes from the time
of the Qin Dynasty.
Shihuangdi of th Qin Dynasty united China
in 221 BC.
He wanted to protect China's northern border.
So he ordered his soldiers to build walls
along the border.
Today,there are few parts of the wall
of Shihuangdi left.
Nobody really knows how long it was
or what route it followed.
Today's Great Wall follows a different route.
It comes from the time of the Ming Dynasty.
People from the north part of China
took some parts of the country.
The Ming wanted to keep them out.
So,at the end of the 15th century,
they began to build walls
along the northern border.
They built the first walls with earth.
Then,they built strong stone walls
around Beijing.
Other parts of the country had shorter walls.
The Ming walls run about 1500 miles
from Qinhuangdao in the east to Jiayuguan
in the west.
The walls followed the shape of the land.
On the top of the wall there were space
for soldiers to march
and there were watchtowers.
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