Roaming Chuck Taylors

The Great Wall(s)
Beijing is surrounded by the North and West by mountains, with a valley in between. This valley is considered the only North entrance to Beijing, and so a wall was built to protect it from invaders.

2000 years a go, the first Great Wall was built by some million people, approximately one-fifth of the population, many of whom died. The second Great Wall was built not long after, in the North, but neither endured time because they were contructed of clay.

The Great Wall as we know it was built by the Han people, 600 years ago, taking 200 years to build. It was constructed of stone and so, has lasted the test of time. Many ingenious methods were devised to build the wall, including transporting the stone by cable car style devices and ice tracks in winter.

The Boy Emperors and The Dragon Lady
When she was 17, the Dragon Lady was selected to be a palace maid because she was very beautiful. But she was also very ambitious and wasn't happy to simply be a maid, so she bribed the palace unixes to help her get close to the Emperor.

She finally met him in the garden and he fell for her beauty. He wanted to marry her, but marriages were arranged by his mother, who wouldn't agree to it. Instead, the Dragon Lady became Seventh Concubine. The Dragon Lady, however, gave birth to the Emperor's only son and was promoted to Second Concubine.

The boy was only three years old when the Emperor died and became a puppet emperor. His mother, the Dragon Lady, would sit in a throne behind a curtain behind his, telling him to repeat her orders and decisions to the officials. Apparently, this is where the saying "power behind the throne" comes from, or "power behind the curtain". So, it doesn't really come from The Wizard of Oz.

The Boy Emperor died of smallpox when was 19, so she adopted her young nephew to succeed him, in order to maintain her power. When the Second Boy Emperor was 20, he sought the advice of an Army General who told him to begin a Democratic Revolution to overthrow her. But the General realized that the Second Boy Emperor was of weak character and told the Dragon Lady of his plans.

She staged a coup and had him put under house arrest, but kept it a secret so that she continued to rein over China for many more years. Strangely, she died one day after he did, and it is a mystery whether she had him killed or if he died of natural causes.

The Dragon Lady managed to find another Emperor to succeed her before she died, another relative, who was only six years old. During the Ascension Ceremony, he started to cry and his father tried to console him, saying not to worry as it will all be over soon. He had been referring to the ceremony, but some officials who overheard him thought he was referring to the Dynasty and considered it rather bad luck. After only a few years, the new Emperor was overthrown by the Democratic Revolution initiated a few years ago, and so, he was the Last Emperor.

For more (accurate) information about this amazing saga, I believe this Dragon Lady's name is Wu (there are others referred to as Dragon Ladies as well), and there are some biographies written about this period, that includes murder, infanticide and all manner of riveting drama.