I read it as an April Fools' Day joke in September, but it turned out to be true. A stretch of the Great Wall in Liaoning province, built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), has indeed been turned into a smooth, white trail of cement in the name of restoration. To say the irreversible damage caused to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the pride of the nation, is outrageous would be an understatement.

The Great Wall with a cemented trail is like the Taj Mahal adorned with glitzy modern tiles or the statue of Venus de Milo with restored arms.

Architecture and aesthetics aside, the damage to the Great Wall is also a crime against history. What makes it more deplorable is that, instead of feeling remorse, officials of Suizhong county's cultural relics bureau, who were in charge of the project, insisted they had done nothing wrong, claiming the repair work that started in 2013 and ended in 2014 followed the regulations and laws on the protection of the Great Wall. One official even said netizens who have raised a storm over the "destructive nature of the repair work" do not fully understand how the national treasure is protected.