The Great Wall, spanning two thousand years and spanning forty thousand miles, is like a giant dragon, spanning the vast land of northern China and is one of the important symbols of the Chinese nation.
Over the past 15 years since the implementation of the “Regulations on the Protection of the Great Wall”, over 6000 protectors have become the main force at the forefront of the protection of the Great Wall. 15 provinces, districts, and cities along the route have deeply explored the cultural connotations of the Great Wall, promoted the construction of the Great Wall National Cultural Park, and technology has empowered the protection of the Great Wall. In the process of “revitalization” and inheritance, ancient villages at the foot of the Great Wall bid farewell to poverty, and the ancient Great Wall has also given new vitality.
In July 2021, at the 44th UNESCO World Heritage Conference, the Great Wall was recognized by the World Heritage Committee as a demonstration case for world heritage protection and management.
Strengthen the New “Guard Team” of the Great Wall
In early winter, after a snowfall, the inside and outside of the Great Wall in Chengziyu, Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province were covered in silver. As usual, 66 year old Zhang Heshan was patrolling the Great Wall here.
Zhang Heshan lives in Chengziyu Village, Haigang District, Qinhuangdao City. In 1978, at the age of 23, Zhang Heshan embarked on the road of guarding the Great Wall, with a large sickle and a snake skin bag as his “standard” equipment for patrolling the Great Wall.
For 43 years, he has walked 40 miles of mountain roads on the Great Wall almost every day, urging him to pass by the shepherd, “scared” the brick thief, and recorded over 200000 words of notes on the Great Wall
“After the snowfall, the Great Wall needs to be patrolled in time. Snow melt water has done great harm to the ancient Great Wall towers.” Zhang Heshan said that in order to protect the Great Wall and promote the Great Wall culture, he learned to broadcast Tiktok live, and now he has 370000 fans.
The Great Wall, which has been continuously built for over two thousand years, covers 12 historical periods such as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qin, Han, Tang, and Ming, with a total length of over 2.10000 kilometers.
Protecting the Great Wall is not an easy task.
This giant dragon winds its way through countless mountains, blending with the sea at Shanhaiguan, shaking hands with the Yellow River at Pianguan, and lingering with the mountains all the way down to the desert and Gobi.
This is a race between cultural relics and time.
The first priority of protecting the Great Wall is the rule of law. In 2006, the State Council issued the “Regulations on the Protection of the Great Wall”, which clearly proposed the establishment of a system of Great Wall protectors.
Over the past 15 years, this team has been growing day by day. Currently, there are over 6000 protectors along the Great Wall, who, like Zhang Heshan, have become the main force at the forefront of Great Wall protection.
In the Gobi Desert, 90 kilometers northwest of Dunhuang, Gansu, the Hecang City site stands quietly. This ancient city site on the banks of the Shule River is a warehouse for storing grain and hay during the Han Dynasty, and is an important component of the World Cultural Heritage Site of Yumenguan.
58 year old Zhang Jianjun and 55 year old wife Chen Wanying set up camp here as grassroots cultural security workers in 2012. The couple are like border guards from over two thousand years ago, patrolling the ruins of Hecang City every day for two hours.
At first, there was only one cave, one bed, and one well here. A few years later, the cultural relics department of Dunhuang City helped them build new houses, gradually connecting them with water, electricity, internet, and installing monitoring equipment. We are now very fond of the Desert Gobi and want to leave a precious mark on the Great Wall of Han for future generations, “said Chen Wanying.
More and more people are consciously guarding the Great Wall, and various regions have established Great Wall Societies or Great Wall Protection Associations, which is a microcosm of China’s efforts to promote the protection of the Great Wall. Dong Yaohui, Vice President of the China Great Wall Society, said that the strength of the cultural relics department is limited, and only through the joint efforts of all sectors of society can the Great Wall be passed down for a longer time.
Creating an important symbol of Chinese culture
Watching the Winter Olympics at the foot of the Great Wall and the Winter Olympics arena at the Great Wall “is a major highlight of the Zhangjiakou competition area of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. As a key construction area of the Great Wall National Cultural Park, Hebei prioritizes four sections of the Great Wall, including Qinhuangdao Shanhaiguan, Chengde Jinshanling, Zhangjiakou Dajingmen, and Chongli.
The core area of Zhangjiakou Chongli Winter Olympics, the National Ski Jumping Center “Xueruyi”, is located at the foot of the ancient Great Wall in the eastern section of Hualin.
In order to allow the audience to better appreciate the Great Wall, Chongli is currently implementing a display and lighting project for the Hualin East section of the Great Wall. On the effect display, the Great Wall, illuminated by lights in the night, stretches out
The mountains of Chongli have become a striking backdrop for the Winter Olympics. At that time, athletes from all over the world will experience the charm of the Great Wall of China..Protect inheritance and protect the roots of the Chinese national spirit
If culture thrives, the country will prosper, and if culture is strong, the nation will be strong. In October 2020, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee made a strategic deployment for cultural construction during the “14th Five Year Plan” period, clearly proposing to “build the Great Wall, Grand Canal, the Long March, the Yellow River and other national cultural parks”.
The National Cultural Park is an important symbol to showcase the confidence of Chinese culture. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has taken the lead in formulating the Implementation Plan for the Construction of the Great Wall National Cultural Park. Under the overall guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 15 provinces, districts, and cities along the Great Wall have established and improved leadership institutions, formulated provincial plans tailored to local conditions, and refined implementation plans.
The planning of Beijing clearly defines the spatial layout of the Great Wall National Cultural Park as “one line, five districts, and multiple points”; Hebei Province optimizes the project layout around the four main functional areas and five major engineering construction projects of the Great Wall National Cultural Park; Gansu Province has established the “Gansu Great Wall Long March National Cultural Park Construction and Development Research Center”
Transportation is the fundamental support for the Great Wall National Cultural Park. The reporter learned from the Shanxi Provincial Department of Transportation that the planned construction of the Great Wall No.1 Tourist Highway in Shanxi Province runs through the inner and outer Great Wall routes of Datong, Shuozhou, and Xinzhou, connecting numerous scenic spots such as Pianguan, Yanmen Pass, and Pingxingguan.
Pianguan County in Shanxi Province is known as the “First County of the Great Wall Ancient Castle in China”. The Laoniuwan Pingxingguan Great Wall Scenic Road project has been included in the key project of the Great Wall National Cultural Park. At present, the Phase I project of the Great Wall No.1 Tourist Highway, located over 80 kilometers within Pianguan County, has been fully connected. Along this scenic avenue, a total of 20 parking areas, observation platforms, and post stations have been built, all of which are cultural experience destinations for the Great Wall.
The Great Wall No.1 Tourist Highway is not only a thoroughfare, but also a cultural road that showcases historical connotations, “said Wang Yuan, Secretary of the County Committee of Pianguan County. In this Great Wall National Cultural Park, we can deeply realize that the Great Wall is a spiritual symbol of the Chinese nation.
Promote the spirit of the Great Wall in the new era
“Get up! People who don’t want to be slaves! Build our new Great Wall with our flesh and blood…” The national anthem of the People’s Republic of China, “March of the Volunteers”, was born when the Chinese people resisted Japanese imperialist aggression and the Chinese nation was in a critical moment of life and death, condensing the perseverance of the Chinese people led by the CPC to strive for national independence, people’s liberation, and achieve national prosperity and rejuvenation The spirit of heroic struggle.
The Great Wall has witnessed bloody battles and rallied the strength of the entire nation.
Xifengkou is one of the main battlefields of the Great Wall Anti Japanese War. In 1933, the 29th Army of the National Revolutionary Army once blocked the Japanese army along the Great Wall in Xifengkou and Panjiakou. The Great Wall Anti Japanese War was an important component of the early anti Japanese struggle of the Chinese people..Qianyuan, forming a unique “underwater Great Wall” landscape, has now become a “internet celebrity” check-in spot.
Ma Zhen, director of the Party History Research Office in Qianxi County, Hebei Province, said that the Great Wall Anti Japanese War ignited the patriotic spirit of the Chinese nation’s unity and unity. The victory of the Chinese army and people in the Xifengkou Anti Japanese War was also the first great victory after the September 18th Movement, and the whole country was jubilant.
Niangzi Pass has been a military stronghold since ancient times. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Battle of Niangziguan and the Battle of Mohetan in the Hundred Regiments War composed magnificent poems of Chinese military and civilian bravery in resisting Japan.
Dong Yaohui grew up at the foot of the Great Wall in Shanhaiguan, Qinhuangdao. He said that the towering Great Wall, which witnessed countless bloody storms, is a symbol of the indomitable spirit of the Chinese nation.
Nowadays, the spirit of the Great Wall has deeply integrated into the bloodline of the Chinese nation, becoming a powerful spiritual force for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Promoting the spirit of the Great Wall also brings vitality to impoverished villages along the route.
Many villages at the foot of the Great Wall are located in a corner, with many mountains and few land, and were once deeply impoverished. Nowadays, villagers rely on the Great Wall to eat tourism meals, and each well-off village that has lifted themselves out of poverty and become rich has become a “pearl chain” along the Great Wall.
In the 1990s, Niangziguan began to explore tourism resources characterized by “Xiongguan” and “Xiushui”, and the villagers of Niangziguan bid farewell to the history of not having enough to eat. In 2013, Niangziguan Village was included in the list of traditional Chinese villages. Starting from 2019, 60% of the annual tourism income belongs to the village collective, and villagers invest in the land. Currently, each person can receive an annual dividend of 1500 yuan.
In addition to calling for the “Red Great Wall”, we will further explore and develop the red cultural tourism resources along the Xifengkou Great Wall in the War of Resistance against Japan, the Huangtuling Campaign, the Shanhaiguan Defense War and other red cultural tourism resources. Hebei has also implemented comprehensive environmental improvement and overall landscape restoration along the Great Wall, built a scenic composite corridor along the Great Wall, and created a national model of ecological and cultural tourism along the Great Wall.
Xifengkou West Panjiakou section of the “underwater Great Wall” is also ushering in a new life. The fluctuation of reservoir water level intensifies the impact of weathering on the wall. Since September 2016, the China Heritage Protection Foundation and Tencent Charity Foundation have cooperated to raise funds from the public to repair the two sections of the Great Wall in Jiankou and Xifengkou.
We adhere to the principle of ‘minimal intervention’ and properly protect the authenticity, integrity, and ancient historical style of the Great Wall, “said Zhang Yong, a senior engineer at the Hebei Institute of Ancient Architecture Protection.
In response to the difficulty of protecting the soil Great Wall, in recent years, Gansu Province has broken through and mastered a series of key technologies for protecting the soil Great Wall, such as anchoring grouting reinforcement, roof support reinforcement, and surface weathering prevention, relying on the “National Research Center for Ancient Mural and Soil Site Protection Engineering Technology” established by the Dunhuang Research Institute, forming a complete set of mature protection theories and process technical specifications..Since 2018, they have left digital archives for the 5500 kilometer Ming Great Wall wall.
Many important checkpoints and walls of the Great Wall are closely connected to local production and living areas, and protecting the Great Wall is always on the way.
Li Zhe, a researcher at the School of Architecture at Tianjin University, said, “The Great Wall belongs to both China and the world. We need to use technology to empower the protection of the Great Wall, promote the ‘activation’ and inheritance, and spread the culture and spirit of the Great Wall to various parts of the world
(Xinhua News Agency, Shijiazhuang, November 29) Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Fengshuang Cao Guochang Gao Bo participated in the reporters: Du Yifang, Wang Xuetao, He Wen, and Lang Bingbing