Cement paved to make it easier for tourists to walk on: gov't employee
The Chinese people were appalled at the restoration work on a seven-century-old section of the Great Wall in Northeast China's Liaoning Province after photos surfaced on social media showing the Great Wall paved with cement.
Pictures circulating online showed that miles of the Xiaohekou section of the Great Wall in Liaoning covered with smooth cement, with angry netizens calling it a "sacrilege" of the iconic historic heritage rather than protection.
"They filled the crenelations and paved the walkways with cement. It does not look like the Great Wall I had in mind at all," a tourist surnamed Ye, who went to see the Xiaohekou Great Wall earlier this year, told the Global Times.
This specific section of the Great Wall is a national historical and cultural site, and was built in 1381 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Moreover, it is known as the "most beautiful section of the Great Wall" among tourists for its serene environment.
Besides the aesthetic damage, Ye also said the repaired Great Wall is now not only smooth but also slippery. "It looks like they have done more damage than restoration," Ye said with great disappointment.
The restoration work on the Xiaohekou Great Wall started in 2014.
"The initial intention was to make it more suitable for tourists to walk on," an employee from the administration of cultural heritage in Suizhong, which has jurisdiction over Xiaohekou, told the Global Times on Thursday. He added that officials in charge of the restoration went to inspect the Xiaohekou Great Wall after online criticism.
Ding Hui, deputy director of the administration of cultural heritage in Liaoning Province, told The Beijing News that although the restored Great Wall is "not good looking," the restoration work was in accordance with the plan, which was prepared by experts and approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2014.
Ding said that before the restoration, certain sections of the Xiaohekou Great Wall were badly damaged, and the bricks on the walkways were broken.
"If we didn't repair it, it would be dangerous to walk on and the remaining architecture would collapse completely," Ding explained.
But the State Administration of Cultural Heritage is unlikely to accept the explanation. The administration said on Thursday that they had already sent inspectors to Liaoning to evaluate the restoration work and if damage is confirmed, punishments will be handed to responsible parties, the People's Daily reported.
According to a document related to the renovation of the Xiaohekou Great Wall released by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage on July 26, preserving the original look of the Great Wall was a priority of the restoration work.
Conservation consciousness
"Only the original materials should be used for restoring the Great Wall. Paving the brick-built Great Wall with cement or anything else does more damage than protection," He Xinyu, a researcher specializing in the protection of the Great Wall at the Ningxia Museum, told the Global Times on Thursday.
He noted that the convenience of tourists should not be a factor in the restoration work.
However, it is no news that some places demolish and rebuild the Great Wall into a different style to attract tourists, the Xinhua News Agency reported in 2015.
It is urgent to set up some administration of cultural heritage units at the local level and raise people's awareness about the protection of cultural relics, Wang Guixiang, a professor of ancient architecture at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Thursday. "The damage would be irreversible."
Besides the government organizations, some construction teams also lack knowledge about protecting cultural relics, said Wang.
Some 300 meters of the Baiyangyu section of the Great Wall at Qianan, Hebei Province was painted white by the construction team who lacked basic skills in restoring cultural heritage, Xinhua reported in 2004.
The Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage has invested 367 million yuan since 2000 to restore the Great Wall. But the restoration work on only 45 kilometers of the Great Wall has been completed, the China Central Television reported.
