Company fined for building highway through Great Wall of China

China Travel Services

The Great Wall of China: Only one-third of its original structure remains

Beijing, Dec 04: A Chinese company that had sought to build a highway through the Great Wall paid a fine for damaging the structure, days after new penalties were enacted to protect China's most famous tourist attraction, state media reported.

Hongji Landbridge Investment Development Inc paid 500,000 yuan in penalties for deliberately damaging a section of the Great Wall in inner Mongolia as part of an unauthorised road project, the official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

The company ignored warnings from officials and suggestions on how it could complete the project without damaging the wall, including digging tunnels and building overpasses, Xinhua cited unnamed cultural heritage officials as saying.

Instead, it demolished large sections of the Great Wall along with three ancient villages that were under government protection, it cited Wang Dafang, an official with the regional cultural heritage bureau, as saying.

The fine was issued in October in line with laws on the protection of cultural heritage, Wang said.

A regulation specifically protecting the Great Wall went into effect on Friday, allowing for fines of up to 500,000 yuan for those who take soil or bricks from it.

The Great Wall, which snakes its way across more than 6,400 km receives an estimated 10 million visitors a year, mostly to the mere 10 km opened to tourists at Badaling, the nearest stretch to Beijing.

The Wall, which the United Nations listed as a world heritage site in 1987, has been rebuilt many times through the centuries, and many sections of it have suffered serious damage from weather erosion and human destruction.