Great Wall needs urgent protection
By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-12 08:49
Parts of the Great Wall may collapse and disappear in the near future unless
protection efforts are improved, a leading expert has warned.
Only about
20 per cent of the 6,300-kilometre wall is in reasonable shape, another 30 per
cent is in ruins, and the rest has disappeared permanently, the China Great Wall
Society, a non-governmental organization that champions restoration of the wall,
announced on Thursday.
What remains of the wall is "in danger of
collapse" because of weathering, erosion and human damage, said Dong Yaohui,
secretary-general of the society.
Dong has just finished a 35-day
inspection tour of the Great Wall from Shanhaiguan in the east to Jiayuguan in
the west. Between 1984 and 1985 he walked the entire length of the wall in 508
days, the first person to do this since 1949.
Tourists visit the Badaling section of the
Great Wall during the May Day holiday. Parts of the Great Wall may
collapse and disappear in the near future unless protection efforts are
improved, a leading expert has warned.
[newsphoto] |
He said he was distressed to find that
even though long-time weathering and erosion have changed the inner structure of
many sections of the wall and roots of wild plants have made brick crevices even
larger, "no rescue efforts have been made."
Dust is another problem. In
some areas it can be as thick as one metre, providing suitable growing
conditions for wild plants. "The situation is especially serious in
Beijing, Tianjin and North China's Hebei Province," he warned.
Human
damage is also hastening the collapse of the wall. In a village near the
Panjiakou section in Hebei's Qianxi County, almost all pigsties and henhouses
are built of bricks stolen from the wall, the inspection found.
In Fugu
County, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, local villagers have dug coal mines
under the wall. When Dong spoke with a local farmer, the man pointed at the wall
and said, "What's the use of this?"
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