Construction of the Great Wall
Tit Sum Wong, Group 2: Fiction, Ying Wa Primary School
ne freezing night, I was lying on the sofa at home, watching a travel show about the Great Wall of
China. I was amazed by the length of the Great Wall – 21196.18 kilometers! I wondered how our
ancestors could build it and why thousands of people had died from building it. I could not sleep
because the questions kept haunting me. I decided to go to the library to find some books about the
Great Wall tomorrow.
I got up the next morning and found myself in a strange house. I was wearing some traditional
Chinese clothes. I went out of the house and walked to the main street. It was very noisy and crowded. I asked a
man what happened and he said, “Today Meng Jiangnu is going to marry Fan Qiliang!”
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That night, someone knocked on the door and said, “Message from the Emperor!” I opened the door and
saw a man with many carts. He said, “The Qing Emperor requested all the men of this village to join the Great
Wall construction team. You must follow us and go NOW!!!” I was frightened so I followed them. My
neighbour Fan Qiliang was also caught by the federal officials.
After walking for fifteen days, we arrived at the Great Wall. From that day on, we had to work day and
night. The rocks were heavy and the weather was hot. In the morning, we were given a bun and some water. At
night, we slept on the ground that was covered with our sweat. Some people were starved to death because they
failed to complete the assigned work.
One day, the Qing Emperor came and said, “If you fail to finish the Great Wall in one month, all of you
have to die.” Since then, we worked extremely hard because all of us did not want to die. One month passed in a
blink of an eye but we had not finished our work. We thought, “We could not live any longer.” Suddenly,
someone yelled, “The Qing Emperor is coming.” We were very scared.
The Qing Emperor was very angry. He ordered the federal officials to kill us. We had no chance to escape.
One by one, we were executed. Once I knew I would be the next one, I closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes,
I found myself lying on my bed. The alarm clock was still ringing. It was just a horrible dream.
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