Franklin Mamo and Simon Degabriele, two students at the China Cultural Centre in Malta, have just been to China. There they joined other students from China cultural centres in Benin, Paris, Cairo and Mauritius. They visited the main cultural sites in Beijing and the neighbouring Shanxi province, attended lectures on Chinese culture and had the chance to try out some of China's varied cuisine. In Beijing they visited the Forbidden Palace, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven and, of course, the Great Wall. Franklin Mamo here talks about his experience of his visit to the Great Wall.

It may not be visible from the moon, as popular myth would have it, but that doesn't make it any less eligible to be classified as one of the wonders of planet Earth.

With a length of approximately 6,700 kilometres the Great Wall of China certainly lives up to its name and its reputation.

It is a surprisingly elegant structure when one considers that the intention behind its building was military. Standing at its top when visibility is clear the Wall appears to loop gently over the mountain ranges as far as the eye can see - resembling a dragon, as some travel guides point out.

It all started around 214 BC when Emperor Qin Shihuang strung together a number of separate defensive lines built by three different states into a single wall to protect a newly unified China.

Building is said to have taken many years with the workers who passed away during construction being buried on the spot. Later centuries saw the Wall being extended - to ward off more barbarians - and strengthened with more durable construction material.

Walking along the top of the Wall can be demanding: one has to walk through quite a dense crowd up some very steep steps. But the journey is rewarding. From the higher points the vista is breathtaking. And there is a sense of achievement every time a beacon tower is reached along the way.

Did the Wall serve its military purpose? Legend says that a breach was once made - not by enemies, by the wailing of Meng Jiangu. Meng's husband had been taken away from her on their wedding day to work on the construction of the wall. Five years later Meng's husband appeared to her in a dream telling her that he was feeling cold. The devout wife made some padded clothes and walked all the way to the construction site only to discover that her husband had died and had been buried under the Wall. Torn with grief, Meng wailed so hard that her cries brought down part of the Wall, exposing the remains of her dead husband underneath.

Other than that, the Wall generally lived up to its purpose and in its millennial history there were only two invasions of China: one by the Mongols, the other by the Manzhous. And the success of these invasions had more to do with weak domestic government and poor economy than failure of the Wall to protect the country - a reminder that sometimes civilisations collapse not because of barbarians without but because of decay within.

Mr Mamo thanks the China Cultural Centre in Valletta and the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China for sponsoring his trip.

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