BEIJING, May 23, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- In his response to a recent letter from residents
living in Shixia village, Badaling township in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping called
for efforts to get more people to learn about the Great Wall and
engage more people in its protection in order to pass on this
precious heritage to future generations.
The Great Wall is the largest cultural heritage site in
China. President Xi has paid great
attention to efforts to tap into its cultural value and the
inheritance and protection of cultural relics along the Great Wall,
issuing multiple instructions on advancing the building of a Great
Wall national cultural park.
The Global Times went to Shixia village and talked to experts to
learn how local residents have protected the Great Wall and the
significance of carrying forward the Great Wall culture.
On May 17, the residents in a
suburban village in Beijing's
Yanqing district said that they were overjoyed to receive a reply
letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledging their
efforts to protect the Great Wall and encouraging them to pass on
this precious heritage to future generations.
President Xi said he was pleased to learn that the villagers had
taken the initiative over the years to protect the Great Wall,
inherit the Great Wall culture, and rely on its resources on their
way to prosperity.
The Great Wall is a representative symbol of the Chinese nation
and important symbol of Chinese civilization, Xi wrote in the
letter.
"It is our common responsibility to protect and pass on this
historical and cultural heritage."
Xi said he hopes that the villagers will continue to protect the
Great Wall as they protect their homes, carry forward the Great
Wall culture and tell stories about the Great Wall well.
Li Qinghua, Party secretary of Badaling township, told the
Global Times that he felt honored to receive the letter from
President Xi and was greatly encouraged by his words.
"We also feel a strong sense of responsibility and political
mission. As the protection and inheritance of the Great Wall is a
tradition of our Chinese nation. For those of us who were born and
grew up at the foot of the Great Wall, it is also our undeniable
responsibility to carry on this tradition," said Li.
"We will remain committed to our efforts to protect the Great
Wall and pass on this time-honored asset to future generations
while helping more people understand the culture of the Great
Wall," Li Handong, Party secretary of Shixia village, told the
Global Times.
Largest cultural heritage site
From the Spring and Autumn Period (770BC-476BC) and the Warring
States Period (475BC-221BC) to the Ming and Qing dynasties
(1368-1911), the construction of the Great Wall spanned a period of
more than 2,000 years. It is the largest and most expansive
historical and cultural heritage site in China.
"The Great Wall not only served a military defensive role in
history but also played a part in ethnic integration and cultural
exchanges," Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher at the Central
Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration, told the Global
Times on Wednesday.
"It can be said that the Great Wall is both a cultural symbol of
the Chinese nation and concrete manifestation of thousands of years
of traditional Chinese culture. So no effort in its protection or
promotion is too much," Sun said.
Protecting, inheriting and managing cultural relics and
heritage, and ensuring the continuity of Chinese culture and the
everlasting vitality of the Chinese nation are significant
components of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture.
In April, an article by Xi on preserving and passing on cultural
heritage and carrying forward fine traditional Chinese culture was
published in the Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the
Communist Party of China Central Committee.
The article lauds Chinese civilization for its long and
continuous history that stretches back to antiquity, saying that it
has shaped the great Chinese nation.
Cultural relics and cultural heritage, in particular, carry
inherent features of the nation, says the article, which calls them
China's "nonrenewable and
irreplaceable" cultural resources.
The article says that it is imperative to comprehensively
improve the protection and utilization of cultural relics and
better preserve and carry forward cultural heritage.
The construction of the Great Wall national cultural park and
exploring effective mechanisms for the protection and inheritance
of the Great Wall not only effectively develops cultural relics and
resources but also helps strengthen the bonds of the Chinese
national community consciousness, Sun noted.
In 2021, a dedicated plan outlining the construction of a Great
Wall national cultural park was announced, with the building of the
relevant parks and infrastructure to be completed by 2035 alongside
a comprehensive system for their preservation and use.
New benchmark
On the 30th anniversary of an initiative to protect China's largest cultural heritage site, the
villagers' letter was a renewed effort in carrying on their
commitment to protecting the Great Wall, which also set the
villagers on the path to prosperity through years of tourism
development.
Possessing a length of the wall stretching over a distance of
179.2 kilometers, the Yanqing district boasts the longest section
of the Great Wall with the most magnificent view in Beijing, according to the district government
of Yanqing. It includes a world-renowned tourist attraction and
UNESCO World Heritage site, the Badaling section of the Great
Wall, and many untapped stone and brick sections that continue to
thrive thanks to constant maintenance and preservation.
By the end of 2023, Yanqing had carried out more than 50 Great
Wall emergency protection projects, repairing 19 castles, 22,247.96
meters of wall, 106 platforms, and 10 beacon towers. The emergency
repair rate of the brick and stone sections of the Great Wall has
reached 88 percent. The plan for the next three years is to repair
3,700 meters of key sections of the Great Wall and five platforms,
to ensure that the entire brick and stone sections of the Great
Wall are free of danger and achieve a 100 percent rate for handling
other dangers to the Great Wall, according to local
authorities.
Liu Manli, a vice director of the Yanqing District Cultural
Heritage Bureau, told the Global Times that protection of the Great
Wall is the cornerstone of the inheritance and promotion of the
Great Wall culture.
"Currently, in the Yanqing district, emergency repairs and
maintenance have restored more than 20 kilometers of the Great Wall
with a total investment of 360 million
yuan [$50.77 million]," Liu
said.
"By utilizing multiple cutting-edge technologies, we are
systematically advancing the protection of the Great Wall, setting
a new benchmark for the conservation of Great Wall heritage. In
terms of digital technology applications, we have completed a
three-dimensional model of the entire Great Wall in the region,
achieving a precision of up to two centimeters," Liu noted.
"We have implemented regular unmanned aerial drone patrols and
online diagnoses and treatment of dangers to the Great Wall, and
pioneering digital protection of the Great Wall in China," Liu added.
Bi Jianyu, director of cultural heritage protection department
of Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau, told the Global
Times that they have established a team of nearly 500 Great Wall
protectors, ensuring that there is dedicated personnel for
patrolling and guarding every kilometer of the Great Wall.
"We also prioritize the use of high-tech methods for Great Wall
conservation, such as applying micro-trace extraction techniques.
Next step, we plan to utilize remote sensing technology for
disaster monitoring and early warning along the Great Wall next
year, further enhancing the Great Wall protection," Bi said.
A Great Wall protection team was established in 2019. Currently,
a total of 20 team members in Badaling township take turns to
patrol the unopened sections of the man-made defensive structure
built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
"Our daily patrols involve monitoring potential risks, cleaning
garbage, recording 'ailments' along the wall and advising tourists
against actions that may pose a risk to the Great Wall," Mei
Lanfen, one member of the team, told the Global Times after
navigating a dirt path littered with thorny bushes to the top of a
tower in Shixia village.
During Xi's visit to Jiayu Pass,
a famed part of the Great Wall in Northwest China's Gansu Province in 2019, he stressed that the
Great Wall, as well as the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers, are all
important symbols of the Chinese nation and the spirit of the
nation.
"We must attach importance to the efforts in keeping our history
and culture alive and strong to preserve our roots for the survival
and thriving of the Chinese ethos," Xi said.
For generations, local villagers in Shixia have voluntarily
engaged in the protection of the Great Wall.
"I've developed a profound affection for the Great Wall since
childhood. It has become a habit for our villagers to clean up
trash and persuade tourists not to climb the unopened sections,"
71-year-old villager Gu Tongfu told the Global Times.
A better life
The villagers have also reaped rewards for their efforts as the
development of the Great Wall tourism industry, represented by
branded homestays, has driven local economic growth, leading to a
significant increase in villager income.
In the past, villagers could only rely on selling corn and local
specialties to earn a meager income. Now, with tourism, homestays,
and catering, the village hosts over 40,000 tourists each year. The
cultural resources at the Great Wall have paved the way for local
villagers to lead a better life, according to Li Handong.
Li Qinghua said that the next step is to transform the resources
of the Great Wall into concrete measures for rural
revitalization.
"We plan to create a sweeping Great Wall scenic area that
combines the Badaling section with the neighboring sections,
improve transportation facilities and establish new climbing and
riding trails," said Li Qinghua.
Hou Lin, a deputy director of the
Yanqing District Bureau of Culture and Tourism, told the Global
Times that Yanqing will continuously explore the cultural resources
of the Great Wall, promote and inherit the culture of the Great
Wall and create unique cultural and tourism products, burnishing
the reputation of the Badaling Great Wall as a world-class
icon.
"We will continue to hold cultural events themed around the
Great Wall, such as the ongoing Beijing Great Wall Concert and
Great Wall Cultural Festival, to promote the profound history and
cultural heritage of the Great Wall," said Hou.
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SOURCE Global Times