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Workers fix Wall brick by brick
2010-08-30 15:47:54 / English.news.cn
BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Like their ancestors before them, workers had to carry three bricks on their back each journey up the hill.
After four years' hard manual labor, 3,700 meters of Great Wall at Badaling in Yanqing county has at last been completed, Badaling authorities announced Friday.
The project required pure manual work as the renovated section was located in a steep mountainous area where construction machines and modern transportation vehicles were too difficult to deploy.
Construction workers mend the Badaling Great Wall. (Source: Global Times/Lu Jun)
The mountains have a gradient of over 70 degrees in some parts, according to a press release issued by the Badaling Special Zone Administration Office.
Even donkeys couldn't climb up those kinds of mountains, said a Badaling Special Zone Administration Office official who declined to be named.
Over the last four years, the team has hefted uphill:
600 cubic meters of stone slabs;
2,900 cubic meters of assorted stone;
3,000 tons of lime;
6,000 tons of water; and,
130,000 bricks.
These materials were used to fix up nine beacon towers, seven beacon stations, 17 side doors and 3,700 meters of sidewall, the press release stated.
When this Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) stretch of wall was constructed, bricks and earth were carried uphill by hand, donkey or goat, according to New7wonders.com, organizers of the world online election of the new seven wonders on the world.
The renovation preserved as many historical details of the cultural relics as possible.
Original bricks were used as much as possible and newer stone and bricks were all manufactured using original methods.
The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics Protection and the Badaling Special Administration Zone Office started work June 10, 2006 on two phases: a 1,245 meter-long south sidewall and a 2,455 meter-long north sidewall.
The mended Great Wall will not be accessible to tourists, as it is designated part of the unexploited "Wild Wall" and a major focus of preservation.
At the tourist section of the Badaling Great Wall, the Cultural Committee of Changping district intervened on May 12 to halt illegal construction.
Two meters from the Shangguancheng section of Great Wall between Juyongguan and Badaling, the Ming Tombs Tree Farm was expanding and renovating a 1,000 -square-meter building for over a month.
The project included a 3,000-square-meter tourism plot reserved for two buildings, according to the Legal Mirror.
The fixed wall will preserve valuable historical information and is also an indispensable move to build a "humanistic city and world city," according to the press release.
(Source: Global Times)
(Written by Xu Tianran)
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