In 2014 I had the incredible opportunity to travel to China. It was a life changing and emotional experience. I traversed across half of the enormous country trying to see as many things as possible in those seventeen days, one of which was the Great Wall of China, a place I had dreamed of visiting ever since I was a child. When Level Chinese asked me to illustrate the Great Wall book I was ecstatic, I even used some of my own photographs as reference. Still to this day it is one of my favorite projects to have worked on.
The Great wall has been extended and re-built many times. The wall we see today was built during the Ming dynasty.
The Great Wall is in the northern part of China and spans about 8851 miles. Not only one of China's greatest achievements but considered one of human kind's most magnificent spectacles.
Emperor Qin Shihuang was not the first Emperor to build the Great Wall but remained a popular figurehead due to his great influence on the wall over the course of his rule.
During the Qin Dynasty, the tribes in the North ruthlessly invaded China. After the Emperor united China, he ordered the walls in the North to be completely connected. With the wall completed, it was very difficult for the tribes to invade, allowing the Chinese people to have a much safer and secure life.
When the Great Wall was built, each section had a beacon tower. When soldiers in the tower spotted an enemy army coming they would signal with smoke, other watch towers would know there was an incoming invasion when they saw the smoke, buying them time to prepare defenses.
There is a saying in China, "If you don't visit the Great Wall then you aren't a good Chinese citizen." Tourists from around the globe visit the Great Wall each year creating mass crowds in the more popular areas of the wall. This illustration shows an example of the astronomical crowd sizes that can occur.
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