BIZCHINA / Center

Great Wall needs urgent protection
By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-12 08:49

Amateur renovation often does more harm than good, for example at the Shahukou section in Youyu County, North China's Shanxi Province. During the renovation, the local government did not follow the original design, and it did not get approval from the county's cultural relics administration bureau.

Dong said a few sections of the Great Wall are listed as conservation sites at the moment, but the majority, especially those in rural areas, receive no attention at all. Added to this, there are no laws to punish people who damage sections that are not conservation sites.

He argued that the Great Wall should be protected as a whole, as "the value of the wall lies in its unique size and complexity, not in a few towers."

The society is pushing for an adopt-a-wall scheme with tablets erected every kilometre citing who is responsible for that section. In remote areas, Dong said, farmers or forest rangers should be mobilized to perform guard duty.

"Greater publicity is needed to educate people, and help them understand the great value of the wall and the severe, irrecoverable damage inflicted upon it by humans," he urged.

The central government plans to conduct an inspection of the whole Great Wall to measure its exact length this year. Dong disclosed that the State Council might pass a law on protection of the Great Wall by the end of this year.


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