Ordinarily I might have paused to catch my breath, but hiking up to the Great Wall of China is never an ordinary affair. Its silhouetted battlements running along the skyline spur me on.

"The Great Wall impresses everyone who sees it for the first time, from children to adults, from the general tourists to scholars,” says Henry Ng, the manager of the World Monuments Fund’s ...

According to legend, the Great Wall was built by the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang (Reigned 221-210 BC), though historical records trace the true origin of the wall to defensive ...