China’s Great Wall damaged by workers bulldozing shortcut

Great upset: The section of the Great Wall in Youyu province had been dozed to allow construction machinery to pass. Photo / Supplied; Youyu Public Security Bureau

Part of China’s 21,000km-long Great Wall has been damaged by builders in Shanxi province, who knocked through a shortcut to their construction site.

Police in Youyu County have held two people who are suspected of damaging the 2000-year old structure. They are suspected of building the illegal road to make their commute shorter.

They released photos of the “big gap” which had been dozed by an excavator.

The man, 38, and woman, 55, are thought to have widened an existing area of damage to allow their construction machinery to pass. The two suspects are from Helinger, inner Mongolia.

The two are accused of causing “irreversible damage to the integrity of the Ming Great Wall and to the safety of the cultural relics,” say police.

The 32nd Great Wall in Youyu County is named after the 32nd signal beacon, which was used to pass messages along the vast frontier country.

In 1987 it was recognised as an Unesco world heritage site, recognising the country-long defence that had been maintained since 220BC. Although the images that spring to mind are of more recent, impressive 1600s fortifications.

The Badaling Great Wall section is an imposing, well-maintained tourist attraction. Within reach of Beijing, around 10 million tourists climb the wall museum a year.

However, in the vast hinterland, much of the wall is not in great shape.

In 2016 paper The Beijing Times suggested that around 30 per cent of the original Ming Dynasty structure had disappeared, broken down by time and - in some cases - locals. At its height the wall stretched over 20,000km in length but by the 1600s was closer to 8000km of actual wall defence.

Less than 10 per cent of the wall is considered to be well preserved.

Tourists pose for photographs at The Great Wall near Beijing, China. Photo / Adam Dean

China’s Great Wall debate: Tourism versus conservation

Recently the issue of Great Wall conservation has become a public issue that provoke strong feeling.

In 2018 Airbnb Had to announce an embarrassing climb down, following anger towards a publicity stunt on the Wall. Hosting a sleepover in one of the 14th century guard towers, they were forced to cancel the competition after public backlash.

Officials from the Yanqing district - home to the section of the Great Wall that was to host the sleepover - said in a statement that they had not been notified about the event and that no approval was given.

Airbnb confirmed that the competition was being cancelled due to the feedback it had received about the contest.