The blog have been updated to WordPress 2.8 so the old design was no longer working. I will continue to adjust the design in the future. Any suggesting would be highly appriciated.

It seems another section of Badaling is being restored to its former glory:

Cultural heritage authorities have commissioned a team of seven mules to transport bricks and lime to rebuild the Badaling section of the Great Wall, northwest of Beijing.

Chen Zhimin, a farmer of Yezhao village in Chengde city, north Hebei Province, told Xinhua Tuesday that his mule team would carry 420 tonnes of materials in the next 60 days to rebuild a 10-kilometer section of the 600-year-old Great Wall.

News from Xinhua News Agency (link).

 The SACH ordered complete restoration to its original appearance.

According to news released today by People’s Daily Online the result of a survey that started in 2006 has reviled the total length of the Ming dynasty Great Wall to be 8851.8 km, which is 2551.8 km more then previous estimates.

The length of the Great Wall include:

6259.6 kilometres artificial wall

359.7 kilometres trenches

2232.5 kilometres of natural defensive barriers (mountains, rivers etc.)

The survey will now focus on the Qin and Han dynasty wall including wall from other dynasties.

For information in Chinese please visit these links:

State Administration of Cultural Heritage

State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping 

For more background information please visit these links:

Heritage guardians to start high-tech survey on Great Wall

Length of the Great Wall to be announced in 2008

China’s first regulation protecting the Great Wall goes into effect

China to measure length of Great Wall

Less than 30 percent of Ming Dynasty Great Wall still standing

One-fifth of Ming Dynasty Great Wall in Inner Mongolia has disappeared

Ancient Great Wall sites found in N.W. China

Robert Loken will begin his year long walk along the Ming dynasty today starting in Jiayuguan. Surely Robert can be an inspiration to many – living his dream.

Follow Robert’s walk on his website The Great Wall’ker.

I wish  him all the best on his great adventure.

China.org.cn reported on May 11 that an ambitious three years preservation project for the Great Wall has been launched by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

A survey of Ming dynasty (1368-1662 AD) Great Wall is in full swing, and repair has started for Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) Great Wall.[...] The major work this year is to finish repairs on the Qin-era sections of the Wall and investigate what needs to be done on the Han Dynasty sections.

About 5 million yuan has already been invested, and a total of 100 million yuan is believed to be necessary to complete the work.

The Great Wall, mainly located in the central and western parts of the region, features architecture from several eras, ranging from the Warring States Period (403-221 BC) to the Ming Dynasty. Some sections, built in the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD) and the Ming Dynasty, are listed as national cultural relics.

People’s Daily Online reported on April 22, that several new sections of the Great Wall have been discovered in Gansu Province after a survey of the Gansu Great Wall began in 2007. The Great Wall in these newly discovered sections were built during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC), Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.) and Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D. – 1644 A.D.).

In 2007, a team surveyed nearly 1,000 kilometers of Gansu Province; and discovered three segments of wall and moats, and six barriers and four beacon towers in Tianzhu County, Liangzhou District and Jinta County. These sites, found in the wild and previously not documented, were named after their locations.

Gansu Province’s Great Wall sites include the work of five dynasties, with a total length of 4,000 kilometers of wall. Moreover, heads of the Great Wall, built during the Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, are located in Gansu .

Inspired by my recent trip to the Banchangyu Great Wall I designed a Save the Great Wall logo as can be seen in the sidebar. I’m not quite sure how to use it yet, and maybe it will just stay at my own blog as a quiet protest.

A bigger version of the logo can be found here.

Last year the Beijing Forestry Bureau suggested that the daily maximum number of visitors at some tourist attractions in northwestern Beijing should be restricted to 53,300. Annually the figure should be kept within 16 million. This area include the Badaling section of the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. The plan, even after central government approval, will only serve as a long-term objective rather than a binding document.

I don’t think Badaling or the Ming Tombs would be forced to limit the daily number of visitors anytime soon, but we do hope more tourists could be diverted to less-crowded destinations to better protect the ancient structures and ensure tourist safety. (Xinhua)

Badaling alone received an average of 62,000 visitors daily during this lart year’s May “golden week”, according to figures provided by the Badaling management office shortly after the holiday.

The World Bank have approved a loan of $38.4 million to a sustainable tourism project in the Gansu province.

The loan to the People’s Republic of China will be used to generate benefits for local communities through the development of a sustainable cultural tourism sector in Gansu Province in north-western China. Home to 26 million people, the province is regarded as one of the poorest in the country, measured by per capita GDP. With such cultural and natural heritage assets as the Silk Road, the Great Wall and the Yellow River, the Gansu Provincial Government regards the development of a sustainable tourism industry as key to its future. Currently, the sector contributes only 3 percent of the province’s GDP.

The project will focus on the conservation of cultural and natural assets and the development of priority infrastructure at nine key sites within the province. These include a portion of the Great Wall, courtyard houses in Qingcheng (thought to be the oldest town on the Yellow River), striking geological parks, and the vast complex of grottoes, temples, murals and statues of Maijishan, in the eastern part of Gansu along the Silk Road. (The World Bank)

According to People’s Daily Online part of the Shanhaiguan Pass in the eastern part of Hebei will restored before the Olympic later this year.

Authentic scenes from the Ming and Qing Dynasties will be restored before the Olympic Games. A commercial street, built in the style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with a main building modeled after a Si He Yuan (a quadrangular courtyard), will be a reproduction of Ming and Qing humanity and commercial civilization.

The route of the Olympic torch on August 2 of this year into Qinhuangdao has been officially confirmed. The torch will enter the city at Laolongtou – the eastern starting point of the Great Wall – and the torch will pass through Shanhai Pass district, the harbour district and then arrive at the Olympic Avenue Park located in Beidaihe district. (People’s Daily Online)

Qinhuangdao will host some of the preliminary football matches.

One can only hope that Shanhaiguan will be restored according to the original design avoiding some of the errors seen elsewhere.