A Brick’s Tale of The Great Wall
Jared Sean Gallagher, Group 2: Non-Fiction, Shanghai Singapore International School
was a brick that was dropped, broken and forgotten. Over 2000 years ago, I was part of 8851.8km long
Great Wall of China, doing my part to protect China from invaders. Amongst the labourers and prisoners
who were coerced into constructing the Great Wall, the one who carried me up died minutes after we were
up on the mountain.
I was praying for mercy when he was huffing and puffing, lugging me all the way up to the mountain.
Being one meter across and fifty centimetre tall, weighing about three hundred pounds, I couldn’t stop
wondering, “How could a fragile and malnourished labourer survive carrying me up the mountain?”
Finally, one fateful day, the labourer carrying me died from heat exhaustion. He was not the only one; I saw
glimpses of people slowly fading away to their deaths from the horrible conditions surrounding them. I felt sorry
for his death and I was rather certain that the Great Wall would eventually become the ‘longest cemetery’ ever.
“What will happen to me then?” I pondered.
I accepted my fate to be just left alone as the labourer dropped me when he collapsed.
Being forgotten and left in one corner on a steep slope beside Litao section of the Great Wall (today’s Min
County in Gansu Province), I witnessed how the discontinued fortification gradually evolved into one of the
Seven Wonders of Medieval World and how it was eventually included on the World Heritage list by United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in recent years.
The ordeal of the labourers started when Emperor Qin ordered for the Great Wall to be constructed in 221
B.C to protect the Qin Dynasty from the Mongolians. I was made in 222 B.C when they ran out of the first stash
of bricks and there were estimated 3,873,000,000 of me being cloned and stacked upon each other in order for
the Great Wall to be standing tall till today!
However, the Great Wall could not seem to deter invaders. Countless Mongolians continued to invade
China by evading the wall, crawling over and going around it. During the Ming Dynasty, the Emperor decided
to extend the length of the wall. I thought soldiers would then come and make me part of the durable wall, but
they didn’t. Despite countless human lives and resources invested in building the Great Wall, it was still proven
to be ineffective in keeping enemies away.
Nowadays, the Great Wall has become a landmark for China, all thanks to the rumour that it could be seen
all the way from the Moon. With the new found fame, sports events such as the Summer Olympics and
marathons have been held on part of The Great Wall. Tourists from all over the world have flocked to The Great
Wall too. I am proud to be able to witness how the history of Great Wall has evolved, but I have been stepped
on by thousands of them. Crumbling and breaking into pieces, I am really envious of some of my friends who
could be part of the Great Wall, being treated with respect and having professionals to brush and bathe them
regularly. They have also been appearing in millions of pictures taken by tourists.
Different brick, totally different fate!
* * *
I
