Editing Qin Shi Huang (section)

===Public works===
[[File:Qin State Warring States-Qin Dynasty Bronze Dragon (46740307754).jpg|thumb|Qin dynasty twin bronze dragons, found near the [[Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor]]]]
====Great Wall====
{{Main|Great Wall of China}}
Numerous state walls had been built during the previous four centuries, many of them closing gaps between river defences and impassable cliffs.{{sfn|Clements|2006|pp=102–103}}<ref>Huang, Ray. (1997). ''China: A Macro History''. Edition: 2, revised, illustrated. M. E. Sharpe. {{ISBN|1-56324-731-3|978-1-56324-731-6}}. p. 44</ref> To impose centralized rule and prevent the resurgence of feudal lords, the Emperor ordered the destruction of walls between the former states, which were now internal walls dividing the empire. 

However, to defend against the northern [[Xiongnu]] nomads, who had beaten back repeated campaigns against them, he ordered new walls to connect the fortifications along the empire's northern frontier. Hundreds of thousands of workers were mobilized, and an unknown number died, to build this precursor to the current [[Great Wall of China]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Slavicek |first1=Louise Chipley |url=https://archive.org/details/greatwallofchina00loui/page/35 |title=The Great Wall of China |last2=Mitchell |first2=George J. |last3=Matray |first3=James I. |publisher=Infobase |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7910-8019-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/greatwallofchina00loui/page/35 35]}}</ref><ref>Evans, Thammy (2006). Great Wall of China: Beijing & Northern China. Bradt Travel Guide. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 3. {{ISBN|978-1-84162-158-6}}</ref><ref>[http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Tourism/history-Great-Wall-3-defense.html "Defense and Cost of The Great Wall"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617105147/http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Tourism/history-Great-Wall-3-defense.html|date=17 June 2013}}. Paul and Bernice Noll's Window on the World. p. 3. Retrieved 26 July 2011.</ref> Transporting building materials was difficult, so builders always tried to use local materials: rock over mountain ranges, [[rammed earth]] over the plains. "Build and move on" was a guiding principle, implying that the Wall was not a permanently fixed border.<ref>Burbank, Jane; Cooper, Frederick (2010). Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 45.</ref> There are no surviving records specifying the length and course of the Qin walls, which have largely eroded away over the centuries.

====Lingqu Canal====
{{main|Lingqu}}
In 214 BC the Emperor began the project of a major canal allowing water transport between north and south China, originally for military supplies.<ref name="Mayhew">Mayhew, Bradley. Miller, Korina. English, Alex. ''South-West China: lively Yunnan and its exotic neighbours''. Lonely Planet. {{ISBN|1-86450-370-X|978-1-86450-370-8}}. p. 222.</ref> The canal, 34 kilometres in length, links two of China's major waterways, the [[Xiang River]] flowing into the [[Yangtze]] and the [[Lijiang River]], flowing into the [[Pearl River]].<ref name="Mayhew" /> The canal aided Qin's expansion to the south-west.<ref name="Mayhew" /> It is considered one of the three great feats of ancient Chinese engineering, along with the Great Wall and the Sichuan [[Dujiangyan Irrigation System]].<ref name="Mayhew" />