GREAT POPULARITY: Extremely dense crowds stroll the Badaling section of the Great Wall, a major tourist destination in Beijing, on October 3, 2011, during a weeklong public holiday around China's National Day (LIU DEBIN)

"This section of the wall is considered 'the cream of the crop' of the Ming Great Wall. It is really a pity," said Guo Jianyong, a senior engineer with the Ancient Architecture Studies Institute of Hebei.

Damages to the Great Wall by mining have also been reported in recent years in Inner Mongolia, China's main coal reserve region.

Experts warn that these cases suggest the problem might be common across all regions along the Great Wall.

Preservation efforts

To prevent the Great Wall from further damage, the Central Government rolled out a regulation in 2006, establishing funding for protection, restoration and maintenance for the Great Wall. It also bans people from taking soil or bricks from the wall, planting trees, carving on the wall, holding commercial activities or building anything that does not protect it.

Anyone violating the regulation faces fines of up to 50,000 yuan ($7,854), while institutions can be fined as much as 500,000 yuan ($78,540).

The regulation also spells out that those who cause serious damages to the Great Wall are subject to criminal prosecution. According to the Criminal Law, anyone who deliberately destroys state- or provincial-level cultural relics can be jailed for up to 10 years.

In November 2008, new rules specifically protecting the Great Wall went into effect, imposing fines of up to 500,000 yuan for those who take soil or bricks from it.

However, experts and cultural relics officials admit that the bans are poorly enforced in remote regions.

Guo said that cultural relics authorities tasked to enforce the protection rules are understaffed and short of funds and equipment to conduct effective monitoring of irregularities on and around the Great Wall.

In Laiyuan, for example, the Great Wall stretches 123 km, but the county only has 10 full-time workers engaged in its preservation.

"Most of the 40 counties where the Great Wall stands in Hebei face the same problem," Guo said, adding that patrollers in some counties in Hebei are only able to conduct an inspection tour once a year.

In Gansu, the lack of research personnel and protective technology also torments local cultural relics authorities.

"The preservation of ancient Great Wall sections in west China is very challenging," said Duan Qingbo, a researcher with Shaanxi Northwest University in Xi'an, the provincial capital. "For example, the dozen researchers from the Dunhuang Academy in Gansu assigned with taking care of the remaining sections scattered in the province are insufficient. New systems and all-around efforts from society are needed if the task is to be successful."

He suggested that awareness must be raised among local residents, as well as tourism operators, of the need to protect cultural relics.

"We are not only aiming to protect the Great Wall itself, but also the culture of the Great Wall," Duan said.

Nevertheless, the five-year SACH survey finally gave cultural relics authorities and local governments a comprehensive and accurate picture of the status quo of the Great Wall, which could serve as a solid foundation for future protection projects, experts say.

In Shaanxi, small parts of the Great Wall that had long been forgotten by people were discovered by Li Gong, a researcher in charge of the Great Wall survey at the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, and his colleagues, using historical records, artifacts and information from locals. Before the survey, Li revealed, they knew only 20 percent of the walls built before the Ming Dynasty.

"With the survey, we are clear about the location of the Great Wall, so the government can take steps to protect the walls, and local governments are clear about their responsibility to protect them," said Yan with the China Great Wall Society.

According to Tong, the SACH will work out a general preservation guideline by 2015 and set up a monitoring and warning system to eradicate major risks so as to ensure effective preservation of the Great Wall.

Email us at: yinpumin@bjreview.com