--- SEARCH ---
WEATHER
CHINA
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS
CULTURE
GOVERNMENT
SCI-TECH
ENVIRONMENT
LIFE
PEOPLE
TRAVEL
WEEKLY REVIEW
Learning Chinese
Learn to Cook Chinese Dishes
Exchange Rates
Hotel Service


Hot Links
China Development Gateway
Chinese Embassies
Info
FedEx
China Post
China Air Express
Hospitals in China
Chinese Embassies
Foreign Embassies
Golfing China
China
Construction Bank
People's
Bank of China
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
Travel Agencies
China Travel Service
China International Travel Service
Beijing Youth Travel Service
Links
China Tours
China National Tourism Administration

Regulation in Place to Preserve Valuable Ruins of Great Wall
Intrepid hikers will not be permitted to explore those unprotected sections of the Great Wall around Beijing from August onwards.

The move is part of a long-awaited regulation aimed at protecting the Great Wall and was brought in by the Beijing Administrative Bureau of Cultural Relics Thursday.

The Beijing Municipality which extends far beyond the city's urban environs, has some 629 kilometers of the wall. But an increasing number of visitors in recent years to the wilder and more fragile stretches is threatening irreparable harm to the structure.

Each year, an average 5 to 6 million people from all over the world visit sections of the Great Wall around Beijing, bringing in millions in revenue, but causing incalculable damage, according to the bureau's statistics.

In the past decade the municipality's counties and townships have designed a series of visitor areas along the wall and also a number of hotels, shops and other facilities including cable cars which carry visitors to the steep sections.

"Some areas of the Great Wall have lost parts of their original structures, such as military installations, and instead look more like a market," Sun Ling, an official with the bureau, told a press conference Thursday in Beijing.

The new regulation has given the bureau the authority to draft a ruling which prohibits the building of any structure that poses physical and aesthetic damage to the wall and its natural setting. The prohibition extends 500 meters on either side of the wall.

Another major problem for the relic protection department is that half of the Great Wall, mostly hidden in the mountains, is in a poor state, lacks protection and is in urgent need of renovation.

The daily activities of local villagers, such as herding, gathering firewood and cultivating wasteland, have hastened the natural deterioration of the wall.

More recently, as more and more people like to explore the wild sections of the wall, these parts have also been placed in jeopardy.

Under the new regulation, any activities, including those mentioned, which damage or threaten the Great Wall will be forbidden.

The new regulation is said to be the first one in the country dedicated to the protection of the Great Wall.

(China Daily June 27, 2003)

Great Wall Alters Evolution's Path: Feature
The Great Wall Heritage Site Needs Respect
Great Wall Museum Built in Liaoning
An Englishman's Lasting Bond with the Great Wall
Jinshanling Great Wall
Great Wall Brick Kilns in Sensational Discovery
The Great Wall a Pillar of China’s Travel Industry
Gubeikou --A Magnificent and Precipitous Section of the Great Wall
The Great Wall
Print This Page
|
Email This Page
About Us SiteMap Feedback
Copyright © China Internet Information Center. All Rights Reserved
E-mail: webmaster@china.org.cn Tel: 86-10-68326688