Gold Miners critically damage 100 Meter section of the Great Wall of China

When it comes to China's cultural icons you don't get much bigger than the Great Wall. It has stood for over a thousand years, enduring attacks by nomadic tribes, the ravages of time and the elements, not to mention decades of neglect by under communism, and sporadic bouts of looting by locals looking for building material. However, it would seem that despite its age and its importance to the Chinese people, a section dating back to the Qin Dynasty was recently unable to endure the arrival of the industrial gold prospectors.

Damaged?

According to reports, Mainland authorities are investigating an incident in which workers for the Hohhot Kekao Mining Company heavily damaged a stretch of the Wall in Inner Mongolia while searching for gold deposits.

Reports indicate officials with the cultural relics bureau first discovered that cultural Hohhot Kekao's operations were damaging the Wall in September. A cease order was issued, but Hohhot Kekao continued working in the area. As were four subsequent notices.

Local security forces were forced to intervene to enforce the orders. However, by the time that they did a section of the Wall some 100 meters long had been badly damaged, including the formation of two sizable holes.

Ongoing Problem?

Despite the Wall's cultural and historic significance authorities face a continuing battle to preserve and protect it. Both from accidental damage and from deliberate destruction.

In some cases companies have accidentally damaged sections of the wall while working close by. In other cases they have deliberately destroyed sections of the wall because it was 'inconvenient', or for commercial reasons.

In one notorious case in February 2005  February construction workers in Ningxia, North China, bulldozed a 100 meter long section of Ming Dynasty wall near Zhongwei City, and used for stone for as foundation rubble for a road way. It was the second such theft of stone from that region in the space of a year. During a previous set of raids 400 meters of stone was taken from the wall. At the time the penalty for damaging the Wall was a fine that was lower than the cost of purchasing stone rubble on the open market. Penalties have since been increased. If found culpable Hohhot Kekao officials could face up to 10 years in jail.

It has not just been companies that have damaged the wall. In some cases city or municipal authorities have granted permits for sections of the wall to be demolished in order to build roadways or to allow businesses to expand. Particularly in areas where the commercial values of breaching the wall exceeded its tourism values. In Shaanxi province alone over 40 roads have been run through the wall.

In some cases local authorities or individual official have colluded with companies to breach the wall, or to permit sections to be cleared. Bribes may be paid in exchange for permission to demolish a section of the wall or to run a road through it, or leaders may grant permission for a section of the wall to be demolished in order to make way for a building scheme on which they are directly or indirectly involved.

The problem of damage to the Wall with by permit holding groups became so serious that in 2004 responsibility for maintaining the wall was taken away form local authorities and put under the jurisdiction of regional caretakers. This served to lessen the damamge butit has not been able to halt it entierly due to problems with enforcement outside of metropolitan areas.

Significant damage has also been done to some sections of the Wall as a result of uncontrolled tourism. With local authorities keen to get the maximum number of tourists to their secitons of the wall, bt failing to prevent damage caused by thousands of people passing over and around the stonework.

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