The Great Wall helped rulers of the Central China Plains secure a relatively peaceful environment for development of an agricultural civilization. However strong it is, the Great Wall, made of stones, lime, bricks, wood or rose willow, still faced wind erosion and people's influence over centuries so that in many sections, only obscure ruins remain. "This is why we need to capture images for posterity," says 72-year-old Hohhot photographer Lei Qinghui.
长城帮助中原统治者为农业文明的发展营造了相对和平的环境。无论有多么坚固，由石头、石灰、砖块、木头或柳木建成的长城几百年来仍然饱受风雨侵蚀和人类活动影响，目前许多段落的长城仅存断壁残垣。“所以，我们需要为子孙后代留下长城的影像，”72岁来自呼和浩特的摄影师雷青辉表示。
Since he retired 10 years ago, Lei has visited 95 percent of the 924-km-long Ming Great Wall in Inner Mongolia and snapped 80,000 pictures. What fascinates Lei the most are the beacon towers, some of which are 22 meters tall, a feature "rarely seen" elsewhere.
自从十年前退休以来，雷青辉走访了内蒙古自治区内长达924千米的明长城的95%的部分，拍下了八万张照片。让雷青辉最着迷的是烽火台，有些高达22米，这在其他长城段落十分“罕见”。
The Ming Great Wall is in relatively better shape than the sections built by other dynasties. Some portions are still magnificent, like the Badaling section in Beijing, which has hosted many world dignitaries, including former US president Richard Nixon and the late Queen Elizabeth II. "Apart from some beacon towers, some sections of the Great Wall, despite the vicissitudes, still appear tough and glorious after so many years, which is really touching to see," he says.
明长城相较其他朝代长城保存完好，一些部分仍然很壮观，比如北京八达岭长城，美国前总统理查德·尼克松（Richard Nixon）和已逝的伊丽莎白女王二世等世界名人就曾造访过这里。“除了烽火台外，长城的一些段落在历经多年风霜后仍然雄伟坚毅，的确令人动容，”他说。
In Alshaa League, Lei used drone cameras to capture the breathtaking beauty of the three lines of the Ming Great Wall. Alshaa League is also famous for the section built under the Han Dynasty, especially in Juyan, a military stronghold 17 km southeast of Ejine Banner. Running through a bleak desert, the fortifications, including beacon towers and castles for stationing troops, are well-preserved.
在阿拉善盟，雷青辉使用无人机摄像头捕捉到了明长城三道防线的壮丽景观。阿拉善盟还以汉代修建的长城段闻名，特别是在距额济纳旗东南17公里的军事重镇居延。长城穿越荒凉的沙漠，沿途的防御工事，包括烽火台和驻军堡垒，至今保存完好。
During an excursion in 1930, Swedish archaeologist Folke Bergman unearthed in Juyan more than 10,000 bamboo slips dating back to the Han Dynasty — most of them are military archives, while the rest are books, private letters and calendars. These bamboo slips piece together the defense system of the Great Wall, as well as social lives of local people, says Jing Xueyi, director of the Alshaa League cultural heritage bureau.
1930年，在一次考察中，瑞典考古学家福尔克·贝格曼在居延挖掘了1万多枚汉代竹简——其中大多数是军事档案，其余则是书籍、私人信件和历书。阿拉善盟文化遗产局局长景学义表示，这些竹简拼凑出长城的防御系统以及当地人的社会生活。
Another major portion of the Great Wall in the league was built under the Western Xia regime (1038-1227). Facing threats from the Liao in the north, the Jin in the northeast and the Song (960-1279) in the east, the Western Xia rulers erected the bulwark against rivals.
阿拉善盟的另一部分长城是在西夏王朝（1038-1227年）期间修建的。面对北方的辽国、东北的金国以及东方的宋朝（960-1279年）的威胁，西夏统治者修筑了这道屏障以抵御敌对势力。
Since the Han Dynasty, Alshaa League has been an area of overlapping agricultural and nomadic cultures, especially with the involvement of the central government of many dynasties, whose troops and farmers came and stayed there, Jing says. Despite its pronounced military role, the Great Wall in Alshaa League symbolized order instead of chaos in peacetime, which covers a greater part of history, Jing adds.
景学义表示，自汉代以来，阿拉善盟一直是农耕文化与游牧文化交汇的地区，特别是历代中央政权的介入使得朝廷的军队和农民来到这里并定居。尽管阿拉善盟的长城在军事上有着重要作用，但它在和平时期象征的是秩序而非混乱，而和平时期占据了更长的历史时段。
