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The Ming Dynasty Great Wall starts on the eastern end at Shanhai Pass, near Qinhuangdao, in Hebei Province, next to Bohai Gulf. Spanning nine provinces and 100 counties, it ends on the western end at Jiayu Pass located in northwest Gansu Province. Jiayu Pass was intended to greet travelers along the Silk Road. Even though The Great Wall ends at Jiayu Pass, there are watchtowers ( fe-ng huo( tái) extending beyond Jiayu Pass along the Silk Road. These towers communicated by smoke to signal invasion.
The Manchus crossed the Wall by convincing a crucial general Wu Sangui to open the gates of Shanhai Pass and allow the Manchus to cross. Legend has it that they took three days for the Manchu armies to pass. After they conquered China, the Wall was of no strategic value as the people who the Wall was intended to keep out were ruling the country (becoming the Qing Dynasty).
The government ordered people to work on the wall, and workers were under constant danger of being attacked by brigands. Because many people died while building the wall, it is often called the "longest cemetery on Earth".