Great Wall restoration to be monitored

The Jiankou section of the Great Wall is under renovation in Beijing in late October. The section, which is located in the city's Huairou district, was built during the Tang (618-907) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties.Guo Qian / For China Daily

"A nation-level supervision platform to oversee and manage protection of the Great Wall is being constructed," Liu Yuzhu, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said on Wednesday.

"A detailed plan to coordinate efforts in different provinces nationwide will be released by the end of next year," Liu said, adding that drones will be used to enhance daily supervision of the Great Wall.

Liu made the remarks during an event at the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall in Chengde, Hebei province, to mark the 10th anniversary of a national rule to protect the Great Wall.

The administration also released the country's first white paper on protection of the Great Wall on Wednesday.

According to the paper, there are 21,196 kilometers of the Great Wall remaining in 15 provincial-level administrative regions across North China, among which 8,851 km were built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), while 2,211 military passes, gates and castles remain intact.

By November, about 87 percent of Great Wall sections had been listed as protected national or provincial key cultural relics.

The paper also states that "many sites have collapsed over time, and their visible parts above the ground have disappeared".

"There are two basic principles for restoration of the Great Wall," he said. "One is to not change the original design of the site, and the other is to minimize the impact on cultural relics," Liu said.

In September, netizens criticized restoration of a section of the Great Wall in Liaoning province after pictures were posted online showing historical relics had been cemented over.

"The case showed there is inadequate management of restoration projects on the Great Wall, and a lack of communication between professionals and the public," Liu said.

"Social networks will be used more to promote education on the protection of the Great Wall and make relevant information available to the public," he added.

The nation's database, including photos, videotapes and measurement recordings, has been built through large-scale field research on the sites. A website on the database was launched on Wednesday to make the information available to the public.

wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn