<P> The travelogues of the later 19th century in turn further contributed to the elaboration and propagation of the Great Wall myth . Examples of this myth's growth are the false but widespread belief that the Great Wall of China is visible from the Moon or Mars . </P> <P> The Xinhai Revolution in 1911 forced the abdication of the last Qing Emperor Puyi and ended China's last imperial dynasty . The revolutionaries, headed by Sun Yat - sen, were concerned with creating a modern sense of national identity in the chaotic post-imperial era . In contrast to Chinese academics such as Liang Qichao, who tried to counter the West's fantastic version of the Great Wall, Sun Yat - sen held the view that Qin Shi Huang's wall preserved the Chinese race, and without it Chinese culture would not have developed enough to expand to the south and assimilate foreign conquerors . Such an endorsement from the "Father of Modern China" started to transform the Great Wall into a national symbol in the Chinese consciousness, though this transformation was hampered by conflicting views of nationalism with regard to the nascent "new China ." </P> <P> The failure of the new Republic of China fanned disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture and ushered in the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement of the mid-1910s and 1920s that aimed to dislodge China's future trajectory from its past . Naturally, the Great Wall of China came under attack as a symbol of the past . For example, an influential writer of this period, Lu Xun, harshly criticized the "mighty and accursed Great Wall" in a short essay: "In reality, it has never served any purpose than to make countless workers labour to death in vain...(It) surrounds everyone ." </P> <Dl> <Dd> Let our flesh and blood forge our new Great Wall! </Dd> </Dl>

When was the great wall of china built and by whom