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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