Beijing began Tuesday repairing a 12.4-kilometer section of the Great Wall in a suburban area at cost of 12 million yuan (US$1.45 million).

Located 29 kilometers northwest of the Chengguan Town of Huairou District, the Huanghuacheng section of the Great Wall was first built in the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577). The existing ruined Huanghuacheng section of the Great Wall was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

It has attracted numerous visitors with its original look of ancient Great Wall, careful architectural handicraft, colorful patterns, steep mountains and dense forest and plants.

A major purpose of rebuilding this section of Great Wall was to ensure the safety of visitors there, said a source with the city cultural heritage bureau.

The Great Wall is generally considered to start at Jiayuguan Pass in northwestern Gansu Province and ends at Shanhaiguan Pass on the shores of Bohai Bay at the east.

The Great Wall stretches for 6,000 km, rising and falling, twisting and turning along the ridges of the Yanshan and Yinshan Mountain chains, traversing Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei and Liaoning. The wall's construction first began in the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

Chinese archaeologists claimed that they have found sections of Great Wall in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest and Shandong Province in the east in recent years, bringing the total length to 7,200 kilometers.

The current repair project will cover rebuilding of 13 towers, two gates, 3,300 meters of wall and other facilities on a four-kilometer stretch of the Huanghuacheng section. The total area of the repair of buildings totals 18,870 square meters.

The repair project is scheduled to be carried out in three phases, said the city cultural heritage bureau, but did not give a final time of completion.

Investigations by the Beijing city cultural heritage bureau show that the total length of Beijing section of the Great Wall is 629 kilometers, less than one-fifth of which are well-preserved and intact.

Currently, only 10 kilometers of the Beijing section of the Great Wall is developed for tourists.

Beijing issued the measures for protecting Great Wall in May last year. Taking effect in August last year, the measures forbid climbing sections of the Great Wall that have not been approved to open to visitors and commercial activities including illegally charging tourists.

The Great Wall was rebuilt many times through the centuries, many sections of it have suffered serious damage from wind and water, as well as human destruction. Since the 1980s, the Chinese government has allocated special funds to restore this national monument, such as the sections at Badaling and Mutianyu in suburban Beijing.

Currently, many sections of the Great Wall, such as the sections at Badaling, Mutianyu, Simatai, Shixiaguan Pass, Jiayuguan Pass and Shanhaiguan Pass, are open to tourists.

(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2004)