A true feat of endurance: Dong Yaohui and his two friends once spent 508 days (May 4, 1984-September 24, 1985) walking along China's Great Wall. They covered a staggering 6,700 km, from the wall's east end Shanhaiguan Pass to Jiayuguan Pass, its west end.
"I wanted to write something at the time to become a professional writer," says Dong, who was an electricity linesman then. "My purpose for the adventure was to collect some material for my writings, for instance, the state of preservation of the Great Wall and the life of the people living along it."
Dong did not become a professional writer but his writings, as he is aware, are now of great value, containing first-hand information on what the Great Wall looked like in 1984. He went on to publish many articles on Great Wall research and protection. He is now the Executive Vice President of the China Great Wall Association (CGWA) and China's famous Great Wall protection expert.
"The Great Wall was a personal favorite 20 years ago," he continues. "But now it represents responsibility."
The wall stretches across China, from the west to the northeast. Its construction dates back to the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.), when separate sections were built in scattered strategic areas to defend China against invasion by northern nomadic tribes.
"The Great Wall was of great importance not only to Chinese history, but also to humanity," says Luo Zhewen, President of the Chinese Culture Relics Society.
Today, however, nearly two-thirds of the existing Great Wall has been damaged by natural erosion or human destruction, including commercial use. Dong believes that the current year presents an excellent opportunity to promote awareness of the importance of the wall's protection. The Chinese people, he says, are now beginning to realize how crucial it is to protect and restore the world's largest man-made cultural heritage.
On July 7 this year, the New Seven Wonders of the World were announced at a glittering ceremony in Portugal, and China's Great Wall ranked first. The contest, organized by the New7Wonders Foundation, determined the winners on the basis of the number of votes, indicating that an increasing number of people are beginning to care about the Great Wall. According to Dong, the results of the election will give the public new insight into the need to protect the Great Wall.
"The Great Wall had been damaged because there were people who had failed to recognize its importance," he says. "Its protection requires the effort of the whole society, especially the people living nearby."
The Great Shrinking Wall
The Great Wall of China (known in Chinese as changcheng, meaning "The Long City") has always been renowned for its magnificent length of 6,700 km, and a history stretching back more than 2,000 years.
"Unfortunately," says Dong, "according to the latest survey of the CGWA, the total length of the Ming Great Wall -- which was mostly built during the Ming Dynasty (1279-1644) -- and its ruins is now no more than 2,500 km." He observes that the present length of the Ming Great Wall in an acceptable state of preservation is no more than one-fifth of its original length, and the number of visible relic sites is less than a third. In some places, thanks to inclement weather or lack of governmental management, the wall has totally vanished.
"Compared with what I saw 23 years ago, the state of the Great Wall has seriously deteriorated," says Dong.
Regional ecological problems such as desertification also pose grave threats to the Great Wall. The remaining sections of the wall are mostly situated in arid desert areas, semi-arid areas and semi-humid areas; also, the wall is prone to weathering all year round, and many chunks of it are on the verge of collapse. Portions of the wall in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region are frequently exposed to soil erosion, sandstorms, heavy rain and snow, landslides and earthquakes. In the Baotou earthquake of 1995, the sections of the Great Wall inside the city, built in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), were seriously damaged. Furthermore, several segments of the wall, located in remote areas, cannot be reached by ordinary vehicles.
"It is a natural process for the Great Wall to become old and dilapidated," says Dong, "and this is irreversible. We should learn to enjoy the beauty of the incomplete Great Wall, but this does not mean that it does not need protection."
Compared with natural disasters, he adds, the damage from anthropic factors are much more serious. In some regions, the locals pull bricks off the Great Wall for construction and even took down whole parts to construct roads, houses and factories.
According to Zhou Xinghua, former Deputy Director of the Ningxia Cultural Relic Department, in 2005 alone more than a dozen such cases were reported. In September 2006, perpetrators damaged a 200-meter section of the Qin Great Wall in order to build a road. In Pengyang County of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a road was constructed on the foundation of a part of the Qin Great Wall.
In 2002 when Dong and his colleague went to Zhangjiakou of Hebei Province, he was shocked to find that more than 1,000 meters of the Great Wall had completely disappeared. The locals had sold the bricks for road construction at 15 yuan apiece. They had even dug deep into the foundation for more bricks. This part of the Great Wall is now a river. Ironically, the signboard declaring that this part of the Great Wall is a key cultural relic of Hebei Province still stands there.
"The reasons for these," says Dong, "are on the one hand, lack of effective government management, and on the other hand, insufficient punishment to the offenders."
Governmental action
These incidents eventually caught the attention of the Central Government. On December 1, 2006, China's first such special law, the Regulation on the Great Wall Protection, came into effect, strengthening protection methods and meting out punishment to the officials who had failed to prevent the portions of the Great Wall under their jurisdiction from being damaged.