Hello 大家好，第十一期上线啦，这一期我们来聊聊大家熟悉的长城，不知道大家会不会在这一期中学到关于长城的冷知识呢？ 欢迎分享！

Welcome everyone to another episode of Weekend English club, where I help you improve your English with short stories.

Today is the eleventh episode of this podcast and today I will talk a little bit about the Great Wall of China. I think that in the west, the Great Wall is probably the most famous Chinese monument. If you ask someone what they know about China, they will probably mention the Great Wall. It is an amazing monument, and I don't think there is anything like it in the rest of the world. I think a lot of people don't know that several walls were built in Northern China, with the most famous wall being built during the Ming dynasty. It is the longest building in the world, more than 6000 kilometers long. You can follow the wall all the way from Gansu province to Beijing.

Why did the Ming emperors and others before them build these walls though? Well, the most important reason was to protect the northern border of China at the time. Back then, China was often fighting with the Mongol tribes in the north. The wall was built to keep these people out, and the strongest part of the wall was built near Beijing to protect the capital.

It makes sense when you look at history, because the Mongols did invade China before and started the Yuan dynasty. The Ming emperors were afraid of something like that happening again, so they put a lot of effort into protecting the northern border. Of course we know China has always been very big, so the Great Wall is also very long. Building it was hard work, and not a nice experience for the people who had to do it. Back then the workers did not have the rights they have today and people had to transport stone from far away to build the wall. In some places they had to carry stone into the mountains, and most of the builders did not earn much money and got little food. It was hard work, but thanks to those people the wall was built and China now has one of the most famous monuments in the world. And it did work for a long time. The wall could be used to keep people out of China, but also as a road for traveling the northern border. But after almost 300 years, the people in the north made it past the wall again and started a new dynasty, the Qing dynasty. After this China would be ruled by Manchu people until the 20th century.

• Probably: 大概；或许
• Monument：纪念碑；遗物；名胜古迹
• Dynasty：朝代
• Emperor：皇帝
• Border：国境，边界
• Mongol tribes：蒙古部落
• Makes sense：容易理解的；讲得通；有道理；合理的
• Invade：侵略；武力入侵
• Be afraid of：害怕
• Effort：努力；艰难的尝试；精力
• Manchu people：满族人

主播：Daniel

校对：nan_nan