The Great Wall of China Length

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The Great Wall of China length? What's the exact number?

We know that the length of all Chinese defense walls built over the last 2,000 years is approximately 31,070 miles (50,000 km), which is longer than the Earth's circumference of 24,854 miles (40,000 km). But how long exactly is the Great Wall?

In 2007, China undertook the task of sizing up the Great Wall. The plan was divided into three stages. Each of the stages would focus on one part of the Great Wall depending on the time when it was built, namely the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall of the Qin Han Era and the Great Wall built in other times.

In 2009, the first stage of the work was done. Two parts of the Ming Great Wall were found. The Great Wall of the Ming crosses ten provinces and 156 counties in Northern China.

The total length of the Ming Great Wall is 8851.8 kilometers (5500.253 miles), of which 550 km ( 341.754 miles) is in Beijing alone.

The Great Wall is constituted of different type of structures, like walls, trenches and watchtowers, etc. The Ming Great Wall has 6259.6 km (3889.5 miles) of walls, the trench of 359.7 km (223.5 miles) and the integrated natural barrier 2232.5 km (1387.2 miles).

The survey also found that there were dozens of kilometres of clay side wall along the Beijing Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty in Yangqing county. It served as a protective barrier for the Great Wall. The clay Wall that has coexisted with the brick Wall also had annexe structures like battle forts and beacon towers.

For the exact length of the other parts of the Great wall of China, we have to wait for the result of China's national project of measuring the Great Wall.