Saving the Great Wall from being loved to death

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 go into effect on Dec. 1. Anyone who defaces the wall with graffiti, removes bricks or organizes events atop sections not open to tourists would 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 six million of a decade ago, according to the Great Wall Society, a nonprofit group of wall enthusiasts.


Slideshow: Explore the Great Wall