"Southern China Great Wall" Opens to Visitors

The newly-discovered "Great Wall" in south China's Hunan Province opened to visitors Tuesday, the first day of China's week-long Labor Day holiday.

The main part of the 190 km "Southern China Great Wall" is located in Fenghuang County in western Hunan. Built during the Ming Dynasty (1368--1644) by the local Miao minority ethnic group, the "Southern China Great Wall" is 2.3 m high and 1.7 m wide.

The main purpose of the "South Great Wall" was to be a military blockade.

"But now the 'Southern China Great Wall' is not used to isolate ethnic groups, but as a tourism site and an archaeological subject for China," said Long Chunsheng, a local official of the Fenghuang County.

Tens of thousands of tourists from both domestic and overseas China visited the "South China Great Wall".

In comparison, people are much more familiar with the Great Wall stretching over 6,000 kilometers in north China.






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