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The Great Wall News
New deal for commercial flights over the Great Wall
Sightseers can rise above the crowds and get a bird's eye view of the Badaling section by taking a spin with Capital Helicopter on a single-engine, six-seat AS350B3 Squirrel helicopter. Tours start at Badaling Airport and last about 15 minutes...
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Great Wall forests scorched in blaze
Police are investigating after a blaze close to the iconic Great Wall destroyed 33 hectares of forest and fruit plantations...
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Qinghai finds Great Wall remains
Archaeologists found in Qinghai Province new Great Wall relics, including the wall's body, beacon towers, so on in the recently-finished Great Wall Resource Examination...
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Great Wall, Hutong listed in the must-see places in the world
On March 8, Reuters listed 25 places in the world to see before they change forever, where the "Real" Great Wall of China and Beijing's Hutong Communities are on the list...
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Great Wall threatened by green fields
Updated: 2008-01-08 07:13
The Great Wall in Shandan County, Gansu Province, is made of mud. Even so, it is truly spectacular and despite centuries of weathering, it is unbroken for some 80 km.
Irrigation near the Great Wall in Shandan county, Gansu Province, is causing subsidence. Piao Tiejun
It was here, in 1987, that I was seduced into thinking that following the Wall on foot across China was going to be straightforward.
On my return I looked around Xiakou, once an important town on the Silk Road, now gearing up for tourism. I climbed a nearby hill for a view of the town and saw a new street lined with gray, concrete buildings that sported mock battlements. It was built recently for tourists, I was told.
Later, we drove north along the wall and eventually came to Changchengkou, which means "hole in the long wall".
In 1987 it had been a narrow opening, today it is much wider as National Highway No 312 goes through it. Juggernauts rumbled by, just meters away from one of the tallest watchtowers on this entire section.
We parked the jeep and took a walk, only to find that there were green fields where previously there was the Gobi Desert.
Fertile topsoil had been brought in, permitting crop cultivation immediately beside the Wall. At first I thought this was good news, but later discovered that heavy irrigation was undermining the Wall's foundations.
The Wall was sinking and I do not have to be a structural engineer to predict that if cultivation continues much longer, the Wall, on this section, will eventually crumble.
Saving Shandan's Great Wall is a must to maintain the Wall's continuity. If something is not done soon, we will be losing hundreds of meters of Wall a year.
It won't be long before tourists in Shandan may have to make do with new attractions in stone and concrete, instead of marveling at the serpentine construction of mud that is currently snaking its way across the desert.(China Daily 01/08/2008 page6)
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Greatwallchina.info is a web-based platform and community for the people who intend to learn, talk and find out more about the Great Wall of China - a construction feat first built 2200 years ago.