According to the Xinhua News Agency, the first detailed survey of the Great Wall of China has begun. Its exact length has not been known until now. One of the names of this grand structure is “The Wall of Ten Thousand Li.” Given that the Chinese measure of length equals 576 meters, the total length of the wall should be 5,760 km. However, chronicles from the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th centuries) mention a length of approximately 6,300 km.
Incidentally, the study of the wall has started (and will be completed by April) precisely with that section built by the Ming emperors. It is the best preserved. Over the next two years, archaeologists together with surveyors will examine fragments of the wall from earlier construction, and then the whole world will know, down to the centimeter, the length of the most majestic fortification in the world.
Despite the fact that exactly 20 years ago the Great Wall of China was included by UNESCO in the catalog of world cultural heritage, its fate is increasingly worrying the Chinese authorities. It is not only a matter of the effects of time and climate. Last year, the government introduced fines for damaging the wonder of the world, reaching up to $60,000, as a measure to prevent unauthorized construction of restaurants, cafes, and kiosks on the land adjacent to the wall, holding discos on the wall, and destroying its individual sections. No Western tourist can resist the temptation to break off a piece of the wall as a souvenir of the Celestial Empire. Souvenir vendors take advantage of this: huge gaps gape in certain sections of the structure, and restorers cannot keep up with patching these holes. Moreover, the wall is heavily covered in graffiti. The Chinese tried to fight this scourge, but unsuccessfully. Then they resorted to this trick: they set aside special places where tourists can sign for just $120. Later it turned out that these fragments are not a historic part of the wall. They were added during its last restoration.
By order of the authorities, in 2005 patrol teams were created to protect the most visited sections of the Great Wall of China. Residents of rural areas through which it passes were recruited into these teams. Individual sections of the wall were declared off-limits to visitors, but enterprising locals acting as guides lay “poacher trails”: they drive iron spikes into the wall, on which they hang ladders to help tourists climb where no man has set foot. Naturally, the guests descend to the ground literally with stones in their pockets.
However, Chinese scientists say that even if the wall can be protected from vandal tourists, that will not solve the problem of its preservation. In the future, it is proposed to preserve the wall and even place individual sections of the ancient monument under glass domes, turning it into the world's largest open-air museum.