1930s China through American eyes

The Great Wall of China on the rugged hills

This is a part of the ancient barrier set up by the Chinese to keep out "barbarians" from the North. It begins at the seacoast behind and runs for more than 1,200 miles, up and down mountains, over plains and valleys, in any direction deemed desirable by the extraordinary engineering practice of those days. It consists of two parallel walls of substantial brickwork about fifteen feet apart, the intervening space packed with earth and stones.

It is impossible to imagine the labor and hardship which must have been endured by countless thousands of laborers in shaping and transporting into the wilderness such enormous quantities of brick and stone as were required for such an undertaking, in laying the walls and filling the space between them, even in carrying up to the mountain heights the water needed for mixing mortar.

[Photo provided to China Daily/Keystone View Company]