How Many People Worked On The Great Wall of China?
What could be called the first Great Wall of China, which Qin Shi Huang (the first emperor of China) finished during the Qin Dynasty (221BC – 206BC) by connecting sections built by different kingdoms during the War & States Period and Spring & Autumn Period, had approximately 300,000 soldiers and 500,000 commoners and hard laborers work on it. (some estimates put this as high as three million, or 70% of China’s population at the time)² Later sections saw even more people work on the Great Wall. The Northern Qi Dynasty (550AD-577) used 1.8 million people to build its wall. The Sui Dynasty (581-618) used one million people to build its wall in present day Inner Mongolio (a Chinese province.
