HUHHOT – Police in north China have arrested four people allegedly involved in an illegal mining operation that destroyed a section of the Great Wall.
The Xinhua news agency said the alleged ringleaders of the gang allegedly claimed that they destroyed part of the Great Wall with mining machines over a weeklong period in middle October.
An investigation by the local cultural relics bureau found a section of the Wall 10 metres high and 23 metres long had been destroyed at Luliang Mountain, Qingshuihe County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The section had totally collapsed and a 1,000-sqm protection area around the Wall has also been damaged, the bureau officials said.
This part of Great Wall, originally built in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.) and rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), is on the main trunk of the Wall, which runs from the Shanhaiguan Pass in north China’s Hebei Province westward to Gansu’s Jiayuguan Pass.
“This section of Great Wall was made of mud rather than brick and stone and is more prone to erosion or damage from human activities,” said Wang Dashan, a regional cultural protection expert.
“Only a small portion of the Great Wall is under protection, and about 90 percent of it, mostly in remote areas, lacks proper protection,” said Dong yaohui, deputy chairman of the China Great Wall Association.
