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world's greatest cultural heritages. The Great Wall is not only a historical monument of China, but also a symbol of the Chinese People.

The Great Wall, with a history of more than 2,000 years, still keeps its imposing manner and looks magnificent today. When they arrived on the moon, American astronauts of the space-shuttle Apollo-II said excitedly that only manmade structure to be visible from the moon was the Great Wall of China. The engineering of the Great Wall is astonishing! According to a rough estimation, if you took all the bricks and rocks used in the great wall of the Ming Dynasty and built a wall 1 meter wide and 5 meters high, it would go around the earth once or more. The Great Wall is really a miracle of the world.

The Great Wall had never ceased to be perfected from its beginning to its end of the role as a means of defence. Rising and declining along with the long history of China, the Great Wall lost gradually its original function, the erosion of wind and rain with the manmade damage dilapidated the Great Wall. After the foundation of the People's Republic of China the Great Wall was assigned one of the most important historical sites to be repaired. After restoration of many of its important sections the Great Wall has its imposing manner; it is now an important tourist attraction for people from all over the world.

2. National holidays

(Legal) official holidays in China are: New Year (January 1st), a national one-day; Spring Festival (the Lunar New Year), a national three day holiday; International Working Women's Day (March, 8th), Arbor Day (March 12th); International Labour Day (May 1st), a national one-day holiday; Chinese Youth Day (May 4th); International Children's Day (June 1st); Army Day (August 1st); Teacher's Day (September 10th); National Day (October 1st), a National two-day holiday.

Each year, between the end of winter and the beginning of spring, people throughout China enthusiastically celebrate the first traditional festival of the year, the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year. During the Spring Festival every household will display Spring Festival couplets and pictures and decorate the home. It's an important time for family reunions. In the evening the entire family gets together for a New Year's Eve dinner. After dinner all family members sit together to chat or play games, staying up till early the next morning. In the morning people pay New Year calls on relatives. During the festival many people also attend traditional recreational activities, such as lion dance, dragon lantern dance and stilt-walking.

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3. Famous people

Mao Tse-Tung (1893 – 1976) – led a long struggle that made China a Communist nation in 1949. He then became the ruler of China and One of most powerful persons in the world. Mao controlled all of China's artistic, intellectual, military, industrial and agricultural planning and policies.

Mao was born to a peasant family in Shaoshan, a village in Hunan province. He was still a student when the revolution of 1911-1912 over-threw the Manchu government and made China a republic. While attending the National University at Peking in 1918, Mao became attracted to Communism.

In 1921 Mao and 11 others founded the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai. The Communists joined forces with Nationalists in the effort to unite China. But distrust between them soon led to open warfare between two groups.

Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1931 and launched a full-scale war against China in 1937. The Communists and Nationalists joined in an uneasy alliance until World War II ended in 1945. As the Nationalist armies were driven inland during the war, Mao organized guerrilla warfare to spread Communism. By 1945 the Communists controlled areas populated by nearly 100 million Chinese. They gained control of China by October 1949, and the Nationalists withdrew to Taiwan.

Mao turned the Chinese into a tight – controlled society. After taking power he made an alliance with the Soviet Union. He began a series of programs to expand China's agricultural and industrial production.

In 1959 Mao gave up his title of chairman of the People's Republic. But he kept control of the country and of the Communist Party. By the 1960's disputes between China and the Soviet Union had expanded into a struggle for leadership of the Communist world. Mao considered himself the true interpreter of Marx, Lenin and Stalin. He believed that poor nations would inevitably revolt against richer nations. He also accused the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of being too soft toward the United States.

In the mid – 1960's China suffered a series of diplomatic defeats. Mao died in September 1976 after a long illness.