China earmarks $100m for Great Wall protection over past two years

BEIJING -- China's central government has allocated 700 million yuan ($100.72 million) to protect the Great Wall over the past two years, said a top cultural heritage official on Friday.

The figure was revealed by Liu Yuzhu, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH), at a national meeting attended by senior cultural heritage officials across the country.

In 2017, SACH aims to set up model zones for protection, launch training programs for protectors and volunteers, and establish a national research center for Great Wall protection, Liu said.

With a total length of more than 21,000 kilometers, China's Great Wall runs through 404 counties in 15 provincial regions, with much of it in poor condition due to natural erosion and man-made damage.

The government aims to formulate an outline for protecting the Great Wall and detailed plans for provincial-level protection, and it plans to release documents to standardize maintenance projects next year, according to the director.