The Beijing municipal government has taken back the right to manage the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China from a listed company, a move demonstrating the government's determination to fulfill its duties to safeguard and protect the world heritage site.

The Badaling Special Zone Office in Yanqing County will take charge of managing and protecting the 7,600-meter-long Badaling section of the Great Wall.

All of the money the office takes in from tourism will be spent on protecting the wall, according to Li Shuwang, deputy head of the Badaling Special Zone Management Committee.

"Beijing has set a good example in protecting the Great Wall," said Huang Yongren, head of the Academic Department of the China Great Wall Society.

The Badaling section of the Great Wall has been managed by a joint venture company, Badaling Tourism Development Co Ltd, since 1997. The company, which is still in a dispute with the government over how much compensation it will receive for returning rights to manage the wall, sells admission tickets and operates museums, restaurants and other commercial facilities inside the scenic zone.

The company signed a 50-year deal to operate the wall in 1997, but several legal revisions since then have made the deal illegal. China's Law on Protection of Cultural Relics was revised in 2002, and the Administrative Regulations on Protection of the Great Wall of the Beijing Municipality went into effect in 2003. Both laws prohibit a commercial company from owning rights to the wall.

"It took us three years to take back the management right, and now we are expecting that Great Wall will be well protected in the future," said Li.

The Great Wall stretches 6,700 km, traversing Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei and Liaoning. Construction began during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), when separate sections were built in scattered strategic areas.

Like other sites of historical interests around the world, the Great Wall is being threatened by nature and human activities. An article carried on the latest edition of Newsweek magazine listed the Great Wall as one of the seven endangered heritage sites in the world.

A hip-hop party held on Beijing's Jinshanling section of the Great Wall last July stunned the world overnight. Some people said such activities pose a great threat to the wall.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization listed the wall as a World Heritage Site in 1987. It has been put under state protection in China.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2006)