vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
History of the Great Wall of China
The existence of a colossal wall in Asia had circulated in the Middle East and the West even before the first Europeans arrived in China by sea . The late antiquity historian Ammianus Marcellinus ( 330 ? -- 395 ? ) mentioned `` summits of lofty walls '' enclosing the land of Seres , the country that the Romans believed to be at the eastern end of the Silk Road . In legend , the tribes of Gog and Magog were said to have been locked out by Alexander the Great with walls of steel . Later Arab writers and travellers , such as Rashid - al - Din Hamadani ( 1248 -- 1318 ) and Ibn Battuta ( 1304 -- 1377 ) , would erroneously identify the Great Wall in China with the walls of the Alexander romances . Soon after Europeans reached Ming China in the early 16th century , accounts of the Great Wall started to circulate in Europe , even though no European would see it with their own eyes for another century . The work A Treatise of China and the Adjoyning Regions by Gaspar da Cruz ( c. 1520 -- 70 ) offered an early discussion of the Great Wall in which he noted , `` a Wall of an hundred leagues in length . And some will affirme to bee more than a hundred leagues . '' Another early account written by Bishop Juan González de Mendoza ( 1550 -- 1620 ) reported a wall five hundred leagues long , but suggested that only one hundred leagues were man - made , with the rest natural rock formations . The Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci ( 1552 -- 1610 ) mentioned the Great Wall once in his diary , noting the existence of `` a tremendous wall four hundred and five miles long '' that formed part of the northern defences of the Ming Empire .
History of the Great Wall of China
In 1368 , the Hongwu Emperor ( Zhu Yuanzhang , r . 1368 -- 98 ) ousted the Mongol - led Yuan dynasty from China to inaugurate the Ming dynasty . The Mongols fled back to Mongolia , but even after numerous campaigns , the Mongol problem remained .
History of the Great Wall of China
The campaigns against the Xiongnu and other nomadic peoples of the west exhausted the imperial treasury , and the expansionist policies were reverted in favour of peace under Emperor Wu 's successors . The peace was largely respected even when the Han throne was usurped by the minister Wang Mang in 9 AD , beginning a brief 15 - year interregnum known as the Xin dynasty ( 9 -- 23 ) . Despite high tensions between the Xin and the Xiongnu resulting in the deployment of 300,000 men on the Great Wall , no major fighting broke out beyond minor raids . Instead , popular discontent led to banditry and , ultimately , full - scale rebellion . The civil war ended with the Liu clan on the throne again , beginning the Eastern Han dynasty ( 25 -- 220 ) .
History of the Great Wall of China
In 907 , the Khitan chieftain Abaoji succeeded in getting himself appointed khaghan of all Khitan tribes in the north , laying the foundations to what would officially become the Liao dynasty . In 936 , the Khitan supported the Shanxi rebel Shi Jingtang in his revolt against the Shatuo Turkic Later Tang , which had destroyed the usurpers of the Tang in 923 . The Khitan leader , Abaoji 's second son Yelü Deguang , convinced Shi to found a new dynasty ( the Later Jin , 936 -- 946 ) , and received the crucial border region known as the Sixteen Prefectures in return . With the Sixteen Prefectures , the Khitan now possessed all the passes and fortifications that controlled access to the plains of northern China , including the main Great Wall line .
History of the Great Wall of China
Europeans first witnessed the Great Wall in the early 1600s . Perhaps the first recorded instance of a European actually entering China via the Great Wall came in 1605 , when the Portuguese Jesuit brother Bento de Góis reached the northwestern Jiayu Pass from India . Ivan Petlin 's 1619 deposition for his Russian embassy mission offers an early account based on a first - hand encounter with the Great Wall , and mentions that in the course of the journey his embassy travelled alongside the Great Wall for ten days . The
History of the Great Wall of China
The settlement of the north continued up to Qin Shi Huang 's death in 210 BC , upon which Meng Tian was ordered to commit suicide in a succession conspiracy . Before killing himself , Meng Tian expressed regret for his walls : `` Beginning at Lintao and reaching to Liaodong , I built walls and dug moats for more than ten thousand li ; was it not inevitable that I broke the earth 's veins along the way ? This then was my offense . ''
Gobi Desert
This great desert country of Gobi is crossed by several trade routes , some of which have been in use for thousands of years . Among the most important are those from Kalgan ( at the Great Wall ) to Ulaanbaatar ( 960 km ( 597 mi ) ) ; from Jiuquan ( in Gansu ) to Hami 670 km ( 416 mi ) ; from Hami to Beijing ( 2,000 km ( 1,243 mi ) ) ; from Hohhot to Hami and Barkul ; and from Lanzhou ( in Gansu ) to Hami .
History of the Great Wall of China
With that , the Yuan dynasty , established by Genghis Khan 's grandson Khublai Khan , became the first foreign dynasty to rule all of China . Despite being the head of the Mongol Empire , Khublai Khan 's rule over China was not free from the threat of the steppe nomads . The Yuan dynasty faced challenges from rival claimants to the title of Great Khan and from rebellious Mongols in the north . Khublai Khan dealt with such threats by using both military blockades and economic sanctions . Although he established garrisons along the steppe frontier from the Juyan Lake Basin in the far west to Yingchang in the east , Khublai Khan and the Yuan emperors after him did not add to the Great Wall ( except for the ornate Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass ) . When the Venetian traveller Marco Polo wrote of his experiences in China during the reign of Khublai Khan , he did not mention a Great Wall .
Hōryū-ji
The reconstructed buildings embrace significant cultural influences from the Three Kingdoms of Korea , particularly those of Baekje , as well as from Eastern Han to Northern Wei of China . The Chinese influence comes via Baekje , since Baekje had permanent trading relation with China .
Berlin Wall
The `` fourth - generation Wall '' , known officially as `` Stützwandelement UL 12.11 '' ( retaining wall element UL 12.11 ) , was the final and most sophisticated version of the Wall . Begun in 1975 and completed about 1980 , it was constructed from 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete , each 3.6 metres ( 12 ft ) high and 1.2 metres ( 3.9 ft ) wide , and cost DDM 16,155,000 or about US $3,638,000 . The concrete provisions added to this version of the Wall were done to prevent escapees from driving their cars through the barricades . At strategic points , the Wall was constructed to a somewhat weaker standard , so that East German and Soviet armored vehicles could easily break through in the event of war .
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City , the culmination of the two - thousand - year development of classical Chinese and East Asian architecture , has been influential in the subsequent development of Chinese architecture , as well as providing inspiration for many artistic works . Some specific examples include :
Second Sino-Japanese War
In 1933 , the Japanese attacked the Great Wall region . The Tanggu Truce established in its aftermath , gave Japan control of Jehol province as well as a demilitarized zone between the Great Wall and Beiping - Tianjin region . Japan aimed to create another buffer zone between Manchukuo and the Chinese Nationalist government in Nanking .
Berlin Wall
The barrier was built inside East Berlin or East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point . Generally , the Wall was only slightly inside East Berlin , but in a few places it was some distance from the legal border , most notably at Potsdamer Bahnhof and the Lenné Triangle that is now much of the Potsdamer Platz development .
Great Wall of China
In 2001 , Neil Armstrong stated about the view from Apollo 11 : `` I do not believe that , at least with my eyes , there would be any man - made object that I could see . I have not yet found somebody who has told me they 've seen the Wall of China from Earth orbit ... I 've asked various people , particularly Shuttle guys , that have been many orbits around China in the daytime , and the ones I 've talked to did n't see it . ''
Great Pyramid of Giza
Based on a mark in an interior chamber naming the work gang and a reference to fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu , Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb over a 10 to 20 - year period concluding around 2560 BC . Initially at 146.5 metres ( 481 feet ) , the Great Pyramid was the tallest man - made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years . Originally , the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface ; what is seen today is the underlying core structure . Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base . There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramid 's construction techniques . Most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place .
History of the Great Wall of China
In 202 BC , the former peasant Liu Bang emerged victorious from the Chu -- Han Contention that followed the rebellion that toppled the Qin dynasty , and proclaimed himself Emperor of the Han dynasty , becoming known as Emperor Gaozu of Han ( r . 202 -- 195 BC ) to posterity . Unable to address the problem of the resurgent Xiongnu in the Ordos region through military means , Emperor Gaozu was forced to appease the Xiongnu . In exchange for peace , the Han offered tributes along with princesses to marry off to the Xiongnu chiefs . These diplomatic marriages would become known as heqin , and the terms specified that the Great Wall ( determined to be either the Warring States period Qin state wall or a short stretch of wall south of Yanmen Pass ) was to serve as the line across which neither party would venture . In 162 BC , Gaozu 's son Emperor Wen clarified the agreement , suggesting the Xiongnu chanyu held authority north of the Wall and the Han emperor held authority south of it . Sima Qian , the author of the Records of the Grand Historian , describes the result of this agreement as one of peace and friendship : `` from the chanyu downwards , all the Xiongnu grew friendly with the Han , coming and going along the Long Wall '' . However , Chinese records show that the Xiongnu often did not respect the agreement , as the Xiongnu cavalry numbering up to 100,000 made several intrusions into Han territory despite the intermarriage .
History of the Great Wall of China
The Xinhai Revolution in 1911 forced the abdication of the last Qing Emperor Puyi and ended China 's last imperial dynasty . The revolutionaries , headed by Sun Yat - sen , were concerned with creating a modern sense of national identity in the chaotic post-imperial era . In contrast to Chinese academics such as Liang Qichao , who tried to counter the West 's fantastic version of the Great Wall , Sun Yat - sen held the view that Qin Shi Huang 's wall preserved the Chinese race , and without it Chinese culture would not have developed enough to expand to the south and assimilate foreign conquerors . Such an endorsement from the `` Father of Modern China '' started to transform the Great Wall into a national symbol in the Chinese consciousness , though this transformation was hampered by conflicting views of nationalism with regard to the nascent `` new China . ''
Islamic architecture
Chinese buildings may be built with either red or grey bricks , but wooden structures are the most common ; these are more capable of withstanding earthquakes , but are vulnerable to fire . The roof of a typical Chinese building is curved ; there are strict classifications of gable types , comparable with the classical orders of European columns .
Geography of China
Between the Qinling and the Inner Mongolian Plateau is Loess Plateau , the largest of its kind in the world , covering 650,000 km ( 250,000 sq mi ) in Shaanxi , parts of Gansu and Shanxi provinces , and some of Ningxia - Hui Autonomous Region . The plateau is 1,000 -- 1,500 m in elevation and is filled with loess , a yellowish , loose soil that travels easily in the wind . Eroded loess silt gives the Yellow River its color and name . The Loess Plateau is bound to the east by the Luliang Mountain of Shanxi , which has a narrow basin running north to south along the Fen River . Further east are the Taihang Mountains of Hebei , the dominant topographical feature of North China . The
Berlin Wall
The top of the wall was lined with a smooth pipe , intended to make it more difficult to scale . The Wall was reinforced by mesh fencing , signal fencing , anti-vehicle trenches , barbed wire , dogs on long lines , `` beds of nails '' ( also known as `` Stalin 's Carpet '' ) under balconies hanging over the `` death strip '' , over 116 watchtowers , and 20 bunkers with hundreds of guards . This version of the Wall is the one most commonly seen in photographs , and surviving fragments of the Wall in Berlin and elsewhere around the world are generally pieces of the fourth - generation Wall . The layout came to resemble the inner German border in most technical aspects , except that the Berlin Wall had no landmines nor spring - guns . Maintenance was performed on the outside of the wall by personnel who accessed the area outside it either via ladders or via hidden doors within the wall . These doors could not be opened by a single person , needing two separate keys in two separate keyholes to unlock .
Forbidden City
Constructed from 1406 to 1420 , the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 72 ha ( over 180 acres ) . The palace exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture , and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere . The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 , and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world .
Silk Road
Following contacts between Metropolitan China and nomadic western border territories in the 8th century BCE , gold was introduced from Central Asia , and Chinese jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the steppes , adopting the Scythian - style animal art of the steppes ( depictions of animals locked in combat ) . This style is particularly reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze , with other versions in jade and steatite . The tomb of a Scythian prince near Stuttgart , Germany , dated to the 6th century BCE , was excavated and found to have not only Greek bronzes but also Chinese silks . Similar animal - shaped pieces of art and wrestler motifs on belts have been found in Scythian grave sites stretching from the Black Sea region all the way to Warring States era archaeological sites in Inner Mongolia ( at Aluchaideng ) and Shaanxi ( at Keshengzhuang ) in China .
Qing dynasty
Li Zicheng then led a coalition of rebel forces numbering 200,000 to confront Wu Sangui , the general commanding the Ming garrison at Shanhai Pass . Shanhai Pass is a pivotal pass of the Great Wall , located fifty miles northeast of Beijing , and for years its defenses kept the Manchus from directly raiding the Ming capital . Wu Sangui , caught between a rebel army twice his size and a foreign enemy he had fought for years , decided to cast his lot with the Manchus , with whom he was familiar . Wu Sangui may have been influenced by Li Zicheng 's mistreatment of his family and other wealthy and cultured officials ; it was said that Li also took Wu 's concubine Chen Yuanyuan for himself . Wu and Dorgon allied in the name of avenging the death of the Chongzhen Emperor . Together , the two former enemies met and defeated Li Zicheng 's rebel forces in battle on May 27 , 1644 .
Geography of China
China has substantial mineral reserves and is the world 's largest producer of antimony , natural graphite , tungsten , and zinc . Other major minerals are aluminum , bauxite , coal , crude petroleum , diamonds , gold , iron ore , lead , magnetite , manganese , mercury , molybdenum , natural gas , phosphate rock , tin , uranium , and vanadium . China 's hydropower potential is the largest in the world .
Berlin Wall
Later , the initial barrier was built up into the Wall proper , the first concrete elements and large blocks being put in place on 17 August . During the construction of the Wall , National People 's Army ( NVA ) and Combat Groups of the Working Class ( KdA ) soldiers stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect . Additionally , chain fences , walls , minefields and other obstacles were installed along the length of East Germany 's western border with West Germany proper . A huge no man 's land was cleared to provide a clear line of fire at fleeing refugees .
Berlin Wall
A 2011 poll conducted by Russia 's VTsIOM , found that more than half of all Russians do not know who built the Berlin Wall . Ten percent of people surveyed thought Berlin residents built it themselves . Six percent said Western powers built it and four percent thought it was a `` bilateral initiative '' of the Soviet Union and the West . Fifty - eight percent said they did not know who built it , with just 24 percent correctly naming the Soviet Union and its then - communist ally East Germany .
Forbidden City
The Hall of Supreme Harmony ( G ) is the largest , and rises some 30 metres ( 98 ft ) above the level of the surrounding square . It is the ceremonial centre of imperial power , and the largest surviving wooden structure in China . It is nine bays wide and five bays deep , the numbers 9 and 5 being symbolically connected to the majesty of the Emperor . Set into the ceiling at the centre of the hall is an intricate caisson decorated with a coiled dragon , from the mouth of which issues a chandelier - like set of metal balls , called the `` Xuanyuan Mirror '' . In the Ming dynasty , the Emperor held court here to discuss affairs of state . During the Qing dynasty , as Emperors held court far more frequently , a less ceremonious location was used instead , and the Hall of Supreme Harmony was only used for ceremonial purposes , such as coronations , investitures , and imperial weddings .
Qing dynasty
Despite officially prohibiting Han Chinese settlement on the Manchu and Mongol lands , by the 18th century the Qing decided to settle Han refugees from northern China who were suffering from famine , floods , and drought into Manchuria and Inner Mongolia . Han Chinese then streamed into Manchuria , both illegally and legally , over the Great Wall and Willow Palisade . As Manchu landlords desired Han Chinese to rent their land and grow grain , most Han Chinese migrants were not evicted . During the eighteenth century Han Chinese farmed 500,000 hectares of privately owned land in Manchuria and 203,583 hectares of lands that were part of courrier stations , noble estates , and Banner lands . In garrisons and towns in Manchuria Han Chinese made up 80 % of the population .
Siege
In ancient China , sieges of city walls ( along with naval battles ) were portrayed on bronze ' hu ' vessels , like those found in Chengdu , Sichuan in 1965 , which have been dated to the Warring States period ( 5th to 3rd centuries BC ) .
Forbidden City
The wall is pierced by a gate on each side . At the southern end is the main Meridian Gate ( A ) . To the north is the Gate of Divine Might ( B ) , which faces Jingshan Park . The east and west gates are called the `` East Glorious Gate '' ( D ) and `` West Glorious Gate '' ( C ) . All gates in the Forbidden City are decorated with a nine - by - nine array of golden door nails , except for the East Glorious Gate , which has only eight rows .
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is a rectangle , with 961 metres ( 3,153 ft ) from north to south and 753 metres ( 2,470 ft ) from east to west . It consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,886 bays of rooms . A common myth states that there are 9,999 rooms including antechambers , based on oral tradition , and it is not supported by survey evidence . The Forbidden City was designed to be the centre of the ancient , walled city of Beijing . It is enclosed in a larger , walled area called the Imperial City . The Imperial City is , in turn , enclosed by the Inner City ; to its south lies the Outer City .
History of the Great Wall of China
飲 馬渡 秋水 My horse crosses the river in autumn , 水 寒風 似 刀 The cold wind off the water cuts like a knife . 平 沙 日 未 沒 Across the desert flats , the day is not yet finished , 黯 黯 見 臨洮 I can dimly make out Lintao .
History of the Great Wall of China
Early European accounts were mostly modest and empirical , closely mirroring contemporary Chinese understanding of the Wall . However , when the Ming Great Wall began to take on a shape still recognizable today , foreign accounts of the Wall slid into hyperbole . In the Atlas Sinensis published in 1665 , the Jesuit Martino Martini described elaborate but atypical stretches of the Great Wall and generalized such fortifications across the whole northern frontier . Furthermore , Martini erroneously identified the Ming Wall as the same wall built by Qin Shi Huang in the 3rd century BC , thereby exaggerating both the Wall 's antiquity and its size . This misconception was compounded by the China Illustrata of Father Athanasius Kircher ( 1602 -- 80 ) , which provided pictures of the Great Wall as imagined by a European illustrator . All these and other accounts from missionaries in China contributed to the Orientalism of the eighteenth century , in which a mythical China and its exaggerated Great Wall feature prominently . The French philosopher Voltaire ( 1694 -- 1774 ) , for example , frequently wrote about the Great Wall , although his feelings towards it oscillate between unreserved admiration and condemnation of it as a `` monument to fear '' . The Macartney Embassy of 1793 passed through the Great Wall at Gubeikou on the way to see the Qianlong Emperor in Chengde , who was there for the annual imperial hunt . One of the embassy 's members , John Barrow , later founder of the Royal Geographical Society , spuriously calculated that the amount of stone in the Wall was equivalent to `` all the dwelling houses of England and Scotland '' and would suffice to encircle the Earth at the equator twice . The illustrations of the Great Wall by Lieutenant Henry William Parish during this mission would be reproduced in influential works such as Thomas Allom 's 1845 China , in a series of views .
Second Sino-Japanese War
Afterwards , China began to adopt the Fabian strategy of `` trading space for time '' ( simplified Chinese : 以 空间 换取 时间 ; traditional Chinese : 以 空間 換取 時間 ) . The Chinese army would put up fights to delay the Japanese advance to northern and eastern cities , allowing the home front , with its professionals and key industries , to retreat west into Chongqing . As a result of Chinese troops ' scorched earth strategies , in which dams and levees were intentionally sabotaged to create massive flooding , Japanese advances began to stall in late 1938 . Second