The Great Wall of China was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. It is one of the greatest wonders of the world. However, some of the Great Wall sections are now in ruins or have disappeared.
After photos of purported "ugly" repairs to the Great Wall were posted to Weibo, one of the biggest social media platforms of China, thousands of users criticized the renovation work and were outraged.
According to BBC, the restoration of the section of Great Wall left part of the structure to be covered with cement, smoothed and turned into a flat-topped concrete path.
A five-mile (8km) stretch of the Great Wall was repaired to protect it from exposure to the elements. However, the ancient stone wall was repaired with materials which were described to include sand and concrete. The work was labelled "basic and crude" by Dong Yaohui, Great Wall Studies Society vice-chairman.
Moreover, according to the head of the Liaoning Provincial Antiquities Bureau, Mr. Ding Hui, the repairs to the 635-year-old structure took place in 2014. The repairs filled broken gaps, and added an additional protective layer on the top surface 'like a hat', but admitted the surface does not look ideal," he added.
An official survey said the stretch of wall was in danger of falling apart and being washed away by the rain. The affected section of the Great Wall lies in Suizhong county, along the border with Hebei province.
The Chinese government has precise regulations on the conservation of the Great Wall. Some stretches have been damaged or demolished over the years. The law for damaging a cultural relic is strict, they can be subject to 10-year imprisonment if found guilty.
Under Chinese regulations people who take bricks from the Great Wall can be fined up to 5,000 yuan ($750), according to the Global Times, but plant growth on the wall continues to accelerate decay, and tourism, especially to undeveloped sections, continues to severely damage the world's longest human construction.
State media reports said that around 30 percent of China's Ming-era Great Wall has disappeared over time as adverse natural conditions and reckless human activities erode the UNESCO World Heritage site.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
