During the last century of China’s Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the government of Huguang Province constructed a “border wall” in the “Miao territory” (aka the “Great Wall on the Chu Borderland” in the late Ming, or the “Southern Great Wall” as promoted in China today). While this border wall is smaller in scale and thus less known compared to the Great Wall in the northern frontiers, it is by no means less significant in illustrating the enduring process of identity building in China during both imperial times and the People’s Republic. Drawing on my field research as well as historical documents, this talk seeks to explore the cultural meaning of the Great Wall on the Chu Borderland, examining how the Ming government perceived and constructed the cultural and ethnic identity of their political entity along the Han-Miao borderlands. It will address some critical issues regarding the empire-building in the Ming, such as What kind of country should be built? Where were its boundaries? What values should be embraced? Who should be included? And what was the nature of the “Miao territory”? It will point out that the Ming quest for their new identity after overthrowing the Mongol regime left remarkable legacy for modern China’s identity search and construction.