Great Wall: The Extraordinary Story of China's Wonder of the World Book

China, it seems, is a land that conjures much myth among non-Chinese, and "the Great Wall," as historian John Man deftly illustrates, is one such myth. To begin with: there is no wall; it doesn't exist. Rather there are a whole series of walls, built at different times, by different rulers, of different materials, and for a whole host of different reasons. This assortment of barriers was never effective at keeping out the marauding barbarian hordes, chiefly because it was never intended to do that. And those barbarian hordes, as Man explains, were never that barbaric to begin with. In fact, just about every notion you ever had about the divide(s) is most likely dead wrong, and part of the pleasure of reading this book is finding out the truth.

Man's style is a bit workmanlike in places, but occasionally it glimmers with poetic description. He's a researcher - an expert on Mongolia, for example - and an explorer, and his tone is intelligent and down to earth. He tracks the walls' sections through most of the country, and his travels, supplemented by his copious research and excellent knowledge of ancient Chinese and Mongolian history, are really fun to read. Here's a man on a serious mission in an often baffling, bizarre, and not-so-serious nation.

I really liked this book. I learned heaps and was entertained while doing it. In fact, I went out and bought another one of his books, The Terracotta Army, also very good. With The Great Wall, don't expect to be bowled over with elegant prose, but do expect do come away knowing a great deal more about China's national symbol - and its national mindset - than just about anyone.