I believe many people have watched the movie "Gladiator". When the imperial capital Rome appeared in it, it was so grand and the streets were so wide that it felt so magnificent.

Large city

Take the ancient Roman Empire, the pinnacle of Western civilization, for example. I believe many people have watched the movie "Gladiator". When the imperial capital Rome appeared in it, it was so grand and the streets were so wide that it felt so magnificent.

There is one thing that Westerners are stronger than Chinese, that is, their public publicity capabilities have always been far ahead of us for centuries.

In fact, the ancient Roman city is very small, and the streets of the ancient Roman city are also very narrow. There are only the main roads of the Arc de Triomphe in the entire city, which are relatively wide and can be used for military parades and gatherings. Other streets can only be called alleys.

The ancient Roman Empire built the Aurelian wall in 271-275 AD to protect its capital. China during this period was in the late Three Kingdoms. The total length of the Aurelian city wall is 19 kilometers. How big is the area inside the city wall? 13.7 square kilometers, which is the largest time for the ancient Roman city wall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian_Walls

The red line in the picture below is the ancient Roman city inside the Aurelian city wall. The blue line in the picture is the ancient Roman Servian city wall built six or seven hundred years ago in the 4th century BC, with a smaller area.

Ancient China's largest super city was the Chang'an City of Tang. Of course, this is definitely unfair, because the Tang Dynasty was already in the 7th century.

Let’s compare the Han Chang'an City, which was hundreds of years earlier than the ancient Roman city. It was mainly built in the Han Dynasty during the Western Han Dynasty before 100 BC. There are three palace groups: Changle Palace, Weiyang Palace and Jianzhang Palace. The Changle Palace only has a circumference of 10 kilometers, which is half the length of the ancient Roman Aurelian city wall. The Changle Palace has an area of ​​6.6 square kilometers, which is 48% of the ancient Roman city area. There are not only Changle Palace in Chang'an City, but also Weiyang Palace with an area of ​​4.6 square kilometers, which is 33.6% of the ancient Roman city area. In addition, there are Gui Palace, Beigong, Mingguang Palace, etc. in the city. The circumference of the entire Han Chang'an City is 25.7 kilometers, and the area within the city wall is 36 square kilometers, which is 2.63 times the area of ​​the ancient Roman city.

"History of Chinese Architecture (Sixth Edition)" - Pan Guxi China Construction Industry Press:

In fact, the three major palace groups, Changle Palace and Weiyang Palace, were inside the city wall, and Jianzhang Palace was still built outside the city wall. At that time, most of the people in Chang'an City also lived outside the city wall. The Jianzhang Palace ruins area covers an area of ​​9.38 square kilometers. In addition, the Han Dynasty also built ritual buildings outside the city wall, with a site area of ​​10.83 square kilometers. If combined with the Han Chang'an City within the city wall, the area reaches 56 square kilometers, which is 4 times the area of ​​the ancient Roman city.

http://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%B1%89%E9%95%BF%E5%AE%89%E5%9F%8E%E9%81%97%E5%9D%80/3343767?fromtitle=%E6%B1%89%E9%95%BF%E5%AE%89%E5%9F%8Efromid=5873844

Western historians, many people believe that the population of ancient Rome exceeds 1 million, which is hard to imagine what kind of scenario is it like to live in 14 square kilometers. When a Roman came to Chang'an, the capital of Han, I wonder if he would be shocked by such a magnificent city?

The circumference of Chang'an City of the Tang Dynasty expanded to 36.7 kilometers in length and the area was 87.27 kilometers. It is the largest city in ancient history in the world, seven times the area of ​​the ancient Roman capital, six times the area of ​​Baghdad, the capital of the Arab Empire during the same period of the Tang Dynasty, and seven times the area of ​​Constantinople. What is the Supreme Kingdom of the Celestial Empire? Only the Arabs and various Western Regions at that time immigrated to China on a large scale, while no Chinese were willing to immigrate to live in the Arab Empire. At that time, the capital of China, Chang'an and Guangzhou, and the port of China, gathered a large number of immigrants, which led to disasters later. This is a later story.

The ancient Chinese big cities are of course not only Chang'an, but also Yangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Kaifeng.

For example, Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty has an area of ​​27.37 square kilometers and more than 6,400 shops in the city. Needless to say, "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", reading "Dream of Tokyo" that describes the situation in Kaifeng at that time will definitely have a deep impression of Kaifeng's prosperity back then.

For example, the Ming city wall in Nanjing is about 25.1 kilometers away, and it is also the longest city wall in the world.

2: In addition to building cities, Chinese people are also interested in building large-scale buildings

The world's largest palace-type building site - Afang Palace Ruins

In 1992, after a UNESCO field survey, it was confirmed that the Afang Palace Ruins ranks first in the world in palace buildings.

http://www.hsw.cn/efg/

Of course, the Afang Palace was not completed, and the Qin Dynasty was destroyed. Today's Afang Palace Ruins Park has a core area of ​​2.3 square kilometers. The largest building in Afang Palace, the ruins of the front hall of Afang Palace, are 1,270 meters long, 426 meters wide, 7-9 meters high, and cover an area of ​​nearly 600,000 square meters, which is two-thirds of the Forbidden City. Note that the following stone tablet says that Afang Palace was burned by Xiang Yu. This is because the stone tablet was established by Xi'an Cultural Relics Bureau in 1995. In fact, archaeological discoveries in the 21st century cannot be confirmed that Afang Palace was burned by Xiang Yu.

Daming Palace, Chang'an, the imperial capital of the Tang Dynasty, is also magnificent, with an area of ​​3.3 square kilometers.

http://www.bilibili.com/video/av677003/

area is equivalent to three Versailles Palaces, four Forbidden City, twelve Kremlins, thirteen Louvres, and fifteen Buckingham Palaces.

During the Ming Dynasty, the Forbidden City of Beijing designed by Kuai Xiang, a native of Jiangsu, is one of the largest existing palaces in the world. It is 720,000 square meters, which is a little smaller than the Versailles Palace in France, and much larger than the Buckingham Palace and the Kremlin.

and the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, one of the largest tombs in the world, have not been fully excavated so far.

3: Super Project

In addition to cities and palaces, the Chinese also built two super projects that most human countries still cannot build even today: the Great Wall and the Grand Canal of Beijing and Hangzhou.

I said that most human countries are unable to build in the 21st century. In fact, it is a kind of humility for the Chinese. In fact, to build such projects, we must first have a vast territory and then money. Let’s talk about the vast territory. There are only 29 countries with an area of ​​more than 1 million square kilometers in the world. Then among these 29 countries, there are only seven countries with GDP of more than one trillion US dollars, namely China, the United States, India, Brazil, Canada, Russia, and Australia. That is, countries with vast territory and a little money, accounting for less than 4% of the number of countries on earth. If you don’t want to work for others, you will earn 100,000 yuan a month in the industry. If you want to earn 100,000 yuan a month, you are welcome to click [Learn More]

. Among these seven countries, except for China and the United States, which have a GDP of more than 10 trillion US dollars, India, with the highest GDP of the other five countries, has only 2 trillion US dollars.

In this sense, even today in the 21st century, China and the United States have the ability to build such super projects.

Let us Chinese people be proud of our lives, or we can brag about our lives for a lifetime, that we have built these two super projects in ancient times.

China has two world-class 5,000-kilometer rivers, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. However, the Chinese connected these two major water systems together by artificial rivers since the Sui Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago. Today, from Beijing to Hangzhou, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is 1,787 kilometers long and is the longest canal in the world.

Until 2012, the navigable mileage of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal was 1,442 kilometers, of which the annual navigable mileage was 877 kilometers, mainly distributed in Jining, Shandong, passing through the South Canal section from Jiangsu Province to Zhejiang, and the North Canal section will resume sailing by more than 100 kilometers from Tongzhou, Beijing, through Hebei to Tianjin, through more than 100 kilometers.

http://epaper.bjnews.com.cn/html/2016-08/03/content_646704.html

Who would have thought that the river below was dug up by the ancestors of the Chinese themselves?

So, except for the Grand Canal of Beijing and Hangzhou, who is the second longest canal in the world?

The Yili Canal built by the United States in the 19th century is the second longest in the world, with a total area of ​​584 kilometers, only one-third of the Grand Canal of Beijing and Hangzhou. None of the other canals in the world exceeds 200 kilometers.

The Suez Canal is third in the world, only 190 kilometers. In addition, the Panama Canal, which is well known to the Chinese people, is only about 82 kilometers.

Today, any country wants to build a 1,800-kilometer-long artificial river, its investment is huge.

The eastern line of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which has been completed by China today, uses the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and its parallel rivers to transport water to the north.

In addition to the Great Wall, which is the second longest city wall in the world? I believe no one knows.

How long is the Great Wall? The Great Wall in China is basically the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the State Administration of Surveying and Mapping jointly announced on April 18, 2009 that the Great Wall of Ming starts from Hushan, Liaoning in the east and ends at Jiayuguan in Gansu in the west, and travels from east to west through 156 counties in ten provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) of Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai, with a total length of 8,851.8 kilometers. It passes through the trench and has a natural barrier of 2232.5 kilometers.

On June 5, 2012, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced at the Juyongguan Great Wall in Beijing that after nearly five years of investigation, the total length of the Great Wall in China in history is 21,196.18 kilometers, including 43,721 Great Wall heritage sites such as Great Wall, trenches, single buildings, gatehouses and related facilities. This is the first time that China has scientifically and systematically measured the total length of the Great Wall of all dynasties.

Trump said that the isolation wall would be built on the US-Mexico border. The total length of the US-Mexico border is 3,169 kilometers. Even if the Americans really built it, it is the second in the world. It is only one-sixth of the length of the Great Wall and only 40% of the existing Great Wall.

In today's 21st century, with the United States as the world's largest national strength, it is not easy to build a 3,000-kilometer isolation wall. You should know that a long part of the US-Mexico border is flat, and the only thing that is guarded against is non-combatants from individual units, which is less difficult to build than the Great Wall.

Where the Chinese build the Great Wall generally chooses mountains and ridges with dangerous terrain. The city wall faces a fully armed barbarian army, and the requirements for the Great Wall wall are far higher than the former.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2017-03/03/c_129500093.html

It can be imagined how great it would be for the ancestors of the Chinese to build such a super project on the steep mountains in ancient times when science and technology were backward.

In addition to the two super projects above that are still difficult for humans to build in the 21st century, there is also the Dujiangyan Water Conservancy Project, which has survived to this day in the history of ancient water conservancy in the world and is the oldest existing one. It has built Sichuan into the country of Tianfu, with an irrigation area of ​​millions of acres.

Dujiangyan was built more than 2,000 years ago. In the same period, there were only small irrigation systems and no such grand water conservancy projects.

4: The largest ship in ancient history

Zheng He's treasure ship was the largest ship in Zheng He's fleet voyage to the West.

"History of Ming Dynasty: Biography of Zheng He" records: "Build a large ship and cultivate forty-four sixty-two." In the "Guoqian" written by the Ming Dynasty, it is said that "the treasure ships are 62, the largest one is 44 meters long and 18 meters wide."

In 2004, archaeological experts unearthed a wooden ruler used by ancient craftsmen to mark the goods they produced - "Weijia Qinji" at the Longjiang Shipyard in Nanjing. The unearth of the "Weijia Qin Ji" has also solved the mystery of the size of the treasure hull in recent years. The discovery of this wooden ruler proves that the practical ruler for shipbuilding in the Ming Dynasty was one foot equal to 31.3 cm today. According to this size, it can be converted to 44 zhang is about 138 meters.

Regarding the displacement of treasure ships, the Nanjing Museum excavated the tomb of Hong Bao, a eunuch of the Ming Dynasty in the rescue archaeology of the Zutangshan Social Welfare Institute in Nanjing. This eunuch was once the deputy envoy of Zheng He's fleet of voyages to the Western. What excited the experts was that although the ancient tomb was robbed, a very complete epitaph was found inside, with inscriptions engraved on it, which introduced Zheng He's voyage to the West.

inscription mentioned: "Yongle era was appointed as the deputy envoy of the Inner Carrier Depot, and was given the previous name. He served as the deputy envoy, commanded the soldiers, and took the Dafu 5,000-material ship. He carried the imperial edict and ordered various Western countries to persuade people from faraway people." After study, Wang Zhigao, a researcher at the Nanjing Museum, discovered that in just a few words, there was not only the record of the ship number, but also the load capacity of the ship. Wang Zhigao said that as the second in command of Zheng He's fleet, Hong Bao should be riding on Zheng He's treasure ship. And this treasure ship is called the "Dafu" and can accommodate "five thousand materials". In ancient times, material was a capacity unit. Five thousand materials are equivalent to the current displacement of more than 2,500 tons.

This is a miracle in the history of world shipbuilding, and it also shows that China has entered the ranks of civilized countries very early. After Zheng He voyages to the West for 87 years, he discovered Columbus in the New World, with a maximum displacement of only 100 tons of ships; after Zheng He voyages to the West for 100 years, there were only 5 ships in total, and the flagship "Trinida" had a displacement of 110 tons, while the other four ships were less than 100 tons.

Use wood to build a ship with a load of thousands of tons, which means that the anchor must weigh several thousand kilograms, and that the rudder must bear force in tons to achieve the steering of the ship. With such leading technology, unfortunately China missed the era of great navigation and gradually lag behind the West. It doesn’t matter if it is left behind. If it can maintain its opening up to the outside world, then ideas and technology will definitely flow to China during the exchange process, and there will be no generation difference between technology and Western technology. China is in a position thousands of miles away from the Western power and is in a weak area of ​​Western power. If it weren’t for the generation difference between technology, it would never have been possible to fall into the 400 million British soldiers who could not defeat 4,000 British soldiers from afar.

In fact, Russia and Japan have both gained the opportunity to rise by relying on their geographical distance from the West and being in a weak area of ​​Western power. The three Western invasions that China faced in modern history were not large in scale. The British invasion in the Opium War had a size of only 4,000 troops, and the subsequent increase was more than 10,000; the British and French coalition forces in the Second Opium War were only 18,000; the third Eight-Nation coalition was 50,000 (40% of which were Japanese troops)

Unfortunately, China was later conquered by backward nations on the frontier at a critical moment at this crossroads of history in the 17th century, and completely lost the last opportunity to keep up with the world.

Although the Republic of China was corrupt and backward, the country was not truly unified, but from top to bottom, from the Communist Party to the Kuomintang, everyone knew that foreign things were good, maintained an open trend, constantly introduced German, Soviet and American weapons, sent people to Japan, the West and the Soviet Union to learn, and introduced various modern ideas and national construction experiences, including communism, and encountered a full-scale invasion after just 26 years of establishment. It could even fight against the tens of millions of modern Japanese who were close to the point without the destruction of the country.

The biggest reason for the 400 million Chinese people could not defeat 4,000 British soldiers under the Qing Dynasty was that the technological generation difference was too big, and there were several eras. Other elements that determined the outcome of the war, such as the Qingming Dynasty in politics, the morale and courage of soldiers, and the combat experience of officers, all seemed pale and powerless in the face of huge technological generation difference.

, while the Republic of China is also poor and weak, with basically no heavy industry. Under the leadership of the corrupt Kuomintang, 400 million Chinese people fought alone against 70 million modern Japanese for more than four years without losing their country. The biggest reason is that although the technology gap between the two sides is large, they still belong to the same era. It can be seen that China must not be closed to the country, otherwise it will definitely be backward. If the British had not knocked on the door with strong ships and powerful cannons and allowed China to continue to develop in isolation, China might still be a feudal society ruled by the Qing emperors. Of course, this is a later story.

5: The oldest, tallest wooden tower and the earliest, largest single-arch stone arch bridge

, Shanxi Yingxian Wooden Tower, the building uses more than 2600 tons of wood, with a height of 67.3 meters, and is more than 20 stories high. It was built in the 11th century AD. It is 1,000 years ago. It has been experiencing many earthquakes and is still standing. The design is very scientific.

One of the few well-known ancient tower-style buildings in the world that can be compared with Yingxian wooden towers is the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. It was built in the 12th century AD and has a height of more than 50 meters. However, what is interesting is that the Leaning Tower of Pisa started construction in 1173 and lasted for two hundred years, and was not completed in 1372.

It is better for Chinese people to build buildings. Due to centralization, building construction is fast and efficient. Famous Western architecture, due to political instability and lack of a unified centralized empire, generally took a very long time to build. For example, the Cologne Cathedral was revised since the 13th century and the late 19th century was completed after 600 years.

Zhaozhou Bridge in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province is 50 meters long and was built in 605. It has been more than 1,400 years ago. It is the second earliest stone arch bridge in the world. In addition, the earliest existing Xiaoshang Bridge is also in China. Xiaoshang Bridge is where Yang Zaixing, a famous general in the Song Dynasty, died in battle.

Zhaozhou Bridge is a single arch bridge, which is also mentioned in the "Chinese Stone Arch Bridge" by Chinese bridge scientist Mao Yisheng.

Zhaozhou Bridge was built in 605 AD for more than 1,400 years ago. It has experienced 10 floods, 8 wars and multiple earthquakes. Especially on March 8, 1966, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake occurred in Xingtai. Zhaozhou Bridge is only more than 40 kilometers away from the epicenter, and none of them have been damaged. The single arch of Zhaozhou Bridge has a span of 37 meters. In fact, if it is used to build a stone building, it can be built into a dome building that is popular among Westerners, but the Chinese seem to have no hobby of stone building.

Let's compare the most famous ancient bridge in Europe. The picture below is the Rialto Bridge, the most magnificent bridge in Venice, Italy. It was built in 1503, 900 years later than Zhaozhou Bridge. The bridge has been selected for a new stone bridge design competition. Participants include Renaissance designers such as Michelangelo, Palladio and Sansovino. The final champion happened to fall on Antonio Da Ponte (Ponte means bridge). This bridge is mentioned in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice".

No matter the span of a single arch or the smoothness of the arc, it is not as good as Zhaozhou Bridge. If Li Chun, a designer of Zhaozhouqiao, came to Renaissance Europe, he would definitely be regarded as a guest of honor.

In fact, European bridges are mainly multi-arch styles in the picture below. The picture below is the world-famous Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic. It was built in the early 15th, 800 years later than Zhaozhou Bridge. It is also a well-known tourist attraction in the Czech Republic. It can be easily seen that the span of a single arch is not large. The span length of a single arch of Zhaozhou Bridge up to 37 meters can be said to represent the highest technical level of ancient bridges.

6: Zigong Tianche drilling technology, which is 800 years ahead of the world,

well salt salt in Zigong, Sichuan, Chinese people have dug more than 13,000 salt wells in Zigong, and have produced more than 70 million tons of salt in more than a thousand years. The Zigong well deep drilling and diversion process invented by the Chinese during the Northern Song Dynasty is far ahead of the world. It uses Tianche impact drilling technology, and the well depth can reach hundreds of meters. It is the first time in the world that the drilling depth exceeds 1,000 meters. The largest Tianche has a height of 113 meters.

7: Chinese garden

is different from other civilizations in the world’s fanatical love for religious architecture. Chinese people are more practical in infrastructure, and serving people is the main function of Chinese architecture.

Ninety-one buildings that are now preserved by other civilizations in the world are churches. The buildings left by the Chinese in the world are for the emperor to work and live, the walls and Great Walls of major cities are for defending against foreign invasions, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is for national transportation, and the Dujiangyan and Zhengguo Canal are for agricultural development.

In addition to these practical infrastructures, Chinese people also have a unique preference for courtyards. Rich families must have a yard, otherwise how can they show that they are rich? When Gui Youguang writes poems, he knows that "there is a loquat tree in the courtyard" and shows off his wealth in a low-key manner.

's pursuit of the courtyard has further magnified into garden architecture

Jiangnan gardens matured in the Song Dynasty. It can be said that they are still the peak of world aesthetics until today. Many beautiful elements of Chinese gardens are still not inferior to today. Taking lotus leaves as an example, the scene of endless green leaves in the sky and the unique red lotus flowers in the sun are believed to be loved by many people.

In fact, in addition to the ancient infrastructure I have listed above, there are many other projects established by the Chinese, such as Taoist temples that like to build in paradise. The picture below is Wudang Mountain.

There are others in Xinjiang Kanerjing, which laid the Lingqu for the economic status of the Chinese nation in Lingnan, etc.

In addition to various architectures, the Chinese have also written some classic architecture works, such as the Song Dynasty's "Creation of French Style" which can be called textbooks, etc.

Chinese people have a kind of persistence and enthusiasm for building that can be compared with growing vegetables.If there is really God on the earth where we live, let's assume that he airdropped 10,000 Chinese and 10,000 foreigners on the earth, and began to develop from primitive society. After hundreds or thousands of years, God came to the earth and looked again. He would find that the most classics in other parts of the world were religious buildings. In addition to the vegetable fields that must appear, there were also various water conservancy projects, artificial canals, large cities, various gardens, drilling towers... and religious buildings are only part of a harmonious society under the powerful Chinese culture. If you don’t want to work for others, you will earn 100,000 yuan a month and make money in the industry. If you want to earn 100,000 yuan a month, you are welcome to click [Learn More]