Great Wall protected China, now China must protect Great Wall
A national standard for how repairs should be carried out is necessary as is an education campaign promoting the wall’s cultural and historic importance
No structure is as symbolically significant or culturally important to China as the Great Wall. It embodies two millennia of Chinese civilisation and epitomises the safety of the nation and its people. There can only be shock, then, when repairs to the ancient fortification are so shoddy that they denigrate its appearance. The fault lies as much with insufficient appreciation of the barrier and what it means as with a lack of a national preservation policy.
The restoration work on the mountainous, 2km part of the wall in Suizhong county in Liaoning (遼寧) province was carried out in 2014 after storm damage.
Visitors noticed it only recently, though, posting photographs on social media showing a smooth concrete-like surface along the top of a section that was among the most stunning wild stretches of the 21,000km-long structure. Local cultural authorities defended their actions, saying the portion had been in danger of collapse and as unsightly as the use of tightly packed sand may have been, it was a necessary protective measure. The matter has ignited concerns about how vulnerable the relic is to the forces of nature and human activity.