The Great Wall - The Making Of China

In a breath-taking aerial journey we fly the entire length of The Great Wall of China to follow the longest man-made monument in the world. We travel all along the Great Wall from the Yellow Sea in the east, to the Gobi Desert in the west, to uncover 3000 years of history. This epic adventure explores 19 different location highlights of this UNESCO-world-heritage site, starting at Old Dragon’s Head and ending at the extraordinary Jiayuguan Fortress - once the gateway into China on the ancient Silk Road trading-route. Along the way we discover who built this Great Wall, and why. We find the spot where the first iconic picture of the Great Wall was painted and uncover darker secrets behind the Wall’s construction. We visit China’s oldest train station and go to the very spot on the Wall which has welcomed 500 heads of states, including her Majesty the Queen and American President Richard Nixon. In a sleepy Chinese village beside the Wall we find out how Imperial soldiers lived and worked centuries ago and get an insight into their age-old ways of life that remain, even today. At a special section of the Wall that runs through Inner Mongolia we discover some of the surprising and little-known facts about how the Wall was made, exposing unique locations packed with unexpected history, from Christian missionaries to Ming Vases. The final dramatic climax comes at the Qilian Gorge, 80 metres above a roaring river, with snow-capped mountains of the Tibetan plateau in the distance. The end tower of the entire wall is just a few kilometres from the impressive double-walled Jiayuguan Fortress. This was once the intimidating welcome to all new arrivals entering China from the West. All this seen from the air, in a single journey, flying the Great Wall.