Ming Dynasty
明朝
Building the Great Wall
修建长城
After the Ming army defeat at Battle of Tumubao and later raids by the Mongols under a new leader, Altan Khan, the Ming adopted a new strategy for dealing with the northern horsemen： a giant impregnable wall.
土木堡之役战败以及蒙古的新领袖俺答汗威胁之后，明朝采取了对付北方马背上的民族的新策略——一座巨大的坚不可摧的城墙。
Almost 100 years earlier (1368) the Ming had started building a new, technically advanced fortification which today is called the Great Wall of China.
早在100多年前，明朝开始修建了一个新的、技术先进的防御工事，今天我们称其为“长城”。
Created at great expense the wall followed the new borders of the Ming Empire.
这座城墙沿着大明帝国的新边界，耗资巨大。
Acknowledging the control which the Mongols established in the Ordos, south of the Huang He, the wall follows what is now the northern border of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.
意识到蒙古人在黄河南部的鄂尔多斯建立的统治，城墙围住了现在的陕西省和山西省的北部边界。
Work on the wall largely superseded military expeditions against the Mongols for the last 80 years of the Ming dynasty and continued up until 1644, when the dynasty collapsed.
修建长城的工事远远超过了对于蒙古的军事远征，它一直持续到明朝的最后80年，直到明朝于1644年灭亡。
The Great Wall seen today was built during the Ming Dynasty (明朝）， on a much larger scale and with longer lasting materials than any wall built before.
今天我们看到的长城就建于明朝，明长城规模更大，其使用的材料也比早先建的长城更加持久。
The primary purpose of the wall was not to keep out people, who could climb the wall, but make it difficult for semi-nomadic people outside the wall to cross with their horses or return with stolen property.
修建长城最原始的目的并不是为了阻止会爬墙的人们进入而是为了使游牧民族的人们骑马翻过墙并偷走财物更加困难。
The Ming Dynasty Great Wall starts on the eastern end at Shanhai Pass, near Qinhuangdao, in Hebei Province, next to Bohai Gulf.
明城墙东起河北省秦皇岛渤海湾附近的山海关。
Spanning nine provinces and 100 counties, the final 500 kilometers have all but turned to rubble, and today it ends on the western end at the historic site of Jiayu Pass (嘉峪关）， located in northwest Gansu Province at the limit of the Gobi Desert and the oases of the Silk Road (丝調之路）.
跨过9省100市，其最终的500公里今天已经全部化为废墟，现在它西至西南甘肃省的嘉峪关遗址，这几乎到达了戈壁和丝绸之路。

Jiayu Pass was intended to greet travelers along the Silk Road.
嘉峪关本来是为了丝绸之路上的游人的地方。
Even though The Great Wall ends at Jiayu Pass， there are many watchtowers (烽火台）extending beyond Jiayu Pass along the Silk Road.
尽管长城止于嘉峪关，在嘉峪关之外的丝绸之路上仍有很多烽火台。
These towers communicated by smoke to signal invasion.
这些烽火台通过狼烟来发出入侵的信号。
The Kokes Manchus crossed the Wall by convincing an important general Wu Sangui（吴三桂）to open the gates of Shanhai Pass and allow the Manchus to cross.
满洲人通过说服重要的守关将领吴三桂打开山海关的大门放他们入关通过了长城。
Legend has it that they took three days for the Manchu armies to pass.
传说满洲军队花了三天时间入关。
After they conquered China, the Wall was of no strategic value as the people whom the Wall was intended to keep out were ruling the country.
在他们征服中国之后，长城就没有了战略价值，因此它所要抵挡的人们已经统治了整个国家。