The Great Wall Of China

I am a long, sleepy stone dragon, stretching across the tops of green mountains and rolling over golden deserts. I twist and turn for miles and miles, so long that if you stand on my back, you can't see my beginning or my end. My body is made of strong stone and brick, wide enough for people to walk along. Every so often, I have strong square towers that stick up like scales on a dragon’s back. A long, long time ago, guards would stand inside them, watching over the beautiful land below. They would peer out of the windows, keeping everything safe. The wind would whisper secrets to them as it whistled past my towers, and the sun would warm my stony skin.

I am the Great Wall of China! My story started a very, very long time ago, even before your great-great-great-great-grandparents were born. It began with an emperor named Qin Shi Huang. Around the year 221 BCE, he looked at all the small walls scattered across the land and had a big idea. “Let’s connect them!” he declared. “We will make one giant, strong wall to protect everyone inside our kingdom.” And so, the work began. But I wasn't built in a day, or even a hundred years. Over many, many centuries, lots of different families and rulers added more and more pieces to me. During a special time called the Ming Dynasty, which was from 1368 to 1644, people worked very hard to make me the strongest I had ever been. They used heavy stones, sturdy bricks, and packed earth. Thousands of people worked together under the hot sun and in the cold, biting wind. It was hard work, but they wanted to create something that would last forever to keep their homes safe.

Today, I don't guard against armies anymore. My job is different, and I think I like it even more! Now, I welcome friends from all over the world. I love hearing the sound of happy feet running along my back. Children laugh as they play hide-and-seek around my towers, and families take pictures, smiling brightly. People from faraway lands come to visit and look out from my highest points. They marvel at how I stretch all the way to where the sky touches the mountains. I am a bridge that connects the past to today. I remind everyone that amazing, giant, wonderful things can be built when people work together with a big dream. I will stand here for many more years, a friendly stone dragon sharing my story with anyone who comes to walk with me.