China takes stock of its Great Wall
China takes stock of its Great Wall
December 3, 2006 By Jim Yardley The New York Times
导游网 www.daoyou.org
The Great Wall of China is falling apart.
Vandals have pilfered bricks or stones. In many stretches, small trees and bushes have pushed through the wall's stone flooring. In another spot, the flooring has simply vanished: A rusted metal ladder, installed to help navigate one potentially fatal descent, hangs precariously in the air.
But the Great Wall is not just crumbling. It is disappearing. Roughly half of the estimated 4,000 miles of the wall built during the Ming Dynasty no longer exists, according to a recent report.
It is also regularly being abused. Recently, a company was fined about $50,000 for building a road through a section of the Ming-era wall in Inner Mongolia. Last year, the police broke up a huge dance party of Chinese ravers atop the wall a few hours' drive outside Beijing.
The Chinese government is now alarmed enough that the first national regulations to protect the wall went into effect on Friday. Anyone who defaces the wall with graffiti, removes bricks or organizes events atop sections not open to tourists will face stiff fines and possible criminal penalties.
The wall's most inescapable problem is the burden caused by its growing popularity. Nationally, an estimated 13 million tourists visited the wall last year, more than double the 6 million of a decade ago, according to the Great Wall Society, a group of wall enthusiasts.
The biggest attractions outside Beijing continue to be Badaling and Mutianyu, each with long sections of restored wall. Badaling, a favorite photo op for visiting presidents, had 4.5 million tourists last year. The views are dazzling and, other than traffic, the trip is easy enough that you can buy an "I Climbed the Great Wall" T-shirt and barely break a sweat.
But a growing number of Chinese tourists are looking for a different experience on the Wild Wall. The Great Wall, built to keep out Mughals and other marauders, is now under siege from yuppies.
Deterioration, to a degree, was inevitable, given that construction of the wall ended with the end of the Ming Dynasty in 1644. The Ming wall was the last of 16 built by different dynasties -- a reminder that there is no such thing as a single Great Wall, but rather a succession of walls. By one estimate, these walls collectively would stretch 31,000 miles were they all still standing.
In the first half of the 20th century, the wall suffered during a protracted war against Japan, as well as during the Chinese civil war. But the ascension to power of the Communist Party in 1949 marked a period of serious decline.
Mao regarded the wall and other historical relics as remnants of China's feudal past and saw little justification for preservation. Farmers were encouraged to use bricks to build homes. A reservoir outside Beijing was built from bricks and stones taken from the wall.
"The worst destruction came during the 1950s through the 1970s," said a Great Wall Society official. "There was absolutely no protection. (The government) thought the Great Wall was absolutely useless."
Today, the new national regulations are part of a government effort to improve protection. Officials concede they still do not truly know how much of the wall remains intact from its western origins in Gansu province to its eastern terminus at the city of Shanhaiguan.
Vandals have pilfered bricks or stones. In many stretches, small trees and bushes have pushed through the wall's stone flooring. In another spot, the flooring has simply vanished: A rusted metal ladder, installed to help navigate one potentially fatal descent, hangs precariously in the air.
But the Great Wall is not just crumbling. It is disappearing. Roughly half of the estimated 4,000 miles of the wall built during the Ming Dynasty no longer exists, according to a recent report.
It is also regularly being abused. Recently, a company was fined about $50,000 for building a road through a section of the Ming-era wall in Inner Mongolia. Last year, the police broke up a huge dance party of Chinese ravers atop the wall a few hours' drive outside Beijing.
The Chinese government is now alarmed enough that the first national regulations to protect the wall went into effect on Friday. Anyone who defaces the wall with graffiti, removes bricks or organizes events atop sections not open to tourists will face stiff fines and possible criminal penalties.
The wall's most inescapable problem is the burden caused by its growing popularity. Nationally, an estimated 13 million tourists visited the wall last year, more than double the 6 million of a decade ago, according to the Great Wall Society, a group of wall enthusiasts.
The biggest attractions outside Beijing continue to be Badaling and Mutianyu, each with long sections of restored wall. Badaling, a favorite photo op for visiting presidents, had 4.5 million tourists last year. The views are dazzling and, other than traffic, the trip is easy enough that you can buy an "I Climbed the Great Wall" T-shirt and barely break a sweat.
But a growing number of Chinese tourists are looking for a different experience on the Wild Wall. The Great Wall, built to keep out Mughals and other marauders, is now under siege from yuppies.
Deterioration, to a degree, was inevitable, given that construction of the wall ended with the end of the Ming Dynasty in 1644. The Ming wall was the last of 16 built by different dynasties -- a reminder that there is no such thing as a single Great Wall, but rather a succession of walls. By one estimate, these walls collectively would stretch 31,000 miles were they all still standing.
In the first half of the 20th century, the wall suffered during a protracted war against Japan, as well as during the Chinese civil war. But the ascension to power of the Communist Party in 1949 marked a period of serious decline.
Mao regarded the wall and other historical relics as remnants of China's feudal past and saw little justification for preservation. Farmers were encouraged to use bricks to build homes. A reservoir outside Beijing was built from bricks and stones taken from the wall.
"The worst destruction came during the 1950s through the 1970s," said a Great Wall Society official. "There was absolutely no protection. (The government) thought the Great Wall was absolutely useless."
Today, the new national regulations are part of a government effort to improve protection. Officials concede they still do not truly know how much of the wall remains intact from its western origins in Gansu province to its eastern terminus at the city of Shanhaiguan.
*take stock of v. 估计, 观察
remnants of China's feudal past 封建残余
terminus n. 终点, [建]界标, 终点
remnants of China's feudal past 封建残余
terminus n. 终点, [建]界标, 终点
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