The Great Wall of China is one of the seven Wonders of the World modern, but its extension makes it difficult to maintain. It is a fortification built between the 5th and 16th centuries BC with more than 21,000 kilometers long, although at present only less than a third part of it is preserved. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997, in 2015 the State Administration of Cultural Heritage assured that a 10% of the wall had disappearedeither due to lack of maintenance or vandalism.
This week, the Youyu County Police, some 500 kilometers from Beijing, the capital, announced the arrest of two people for damaging a section of it, from the Ming dynasty, having used an excavator for construction work near it. On August 24, the Public Safety office of this county received a notice that a dug a hole in the 32nd Great Wall, as a fraction of the wall built between 1368 and 1644 is known, at the height of the municipality of Yang Qianhe.
After inspecting the area, the Police determined that the Great Wall had suffered irreparable damage due to the use of heavy machinery to later find an excavator that a 38-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman were working with. Although they were working near but not on the same wall, they had used the vehicle to dig over a natural gap for facilitate the passage of the excavator and “save time” by moving from one side to the other, causing irreparable damage to the section of the wall.
The Great Wall of China is over 2,000 years old. It is a defense fortification that has been built and rebuilt on multiple occasions, with more than 21,000 kilometers (estimated) in length. The affected section is part of one of the extensions of the Ming dynasty, during which rough brick and stone walls, considered especially strong and resistant.
With a well-preserved watchtower, this area is listed as folk cultural relic and area of special protection and research. Despite its extension, the Chinese authorities have intensified their strategy to protect the wall in recent years, taking strong measures against vandalism. In 2006, the Chinese government passed a nationwide law to protect it from activities that could harm it, such as brick mining or unauthorized construction. From the Executive, in addition, they indicated to the tourism as one of the causes of deterioration of the wall
In 2021, three nationals were expelled and added to a ‘blacklist’ for having carved their names into a section of the wall with a sharp object. That same year, two foreign tourists were added to the same list of people banned from the complex by access one of the prohibited wall areasa section of the Great Wall closed to the public for repair.
Source: Lasexta
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