No more than 2,500 kilometers remain of China's 6,300-km-long Great Wall built or reinforced in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), which has been dubbed as the world's largest cultural relic, according to a newly released investigation report from the Chinese Academy of the Great Wall.

Dong Yaohui, secretary-general of the academy, criticized shortsighted residents who damaged some segments of the wall to acquire earth and bricks cheaply. In addition, some local governments tore down the wall, paving way for their new construction projects and some businessmen restored the wall for tourism use without authorization and not in accordance with its original design.

All their behaviors have severely damaged the wall and made the Great Wall protection an urgent task, said Dong.

"Only a few people who damaged the Great Wall were given criminal sentences. Most Great Wall destroyers were only fined or given administrative punishment. The too mild punishment does not signal any alarm to those destroyers at all," said Dong.

He said that as early as in 1961, the State Council had promulgated a regulation on cultural relic protection, requiring to map out protection zones for the Great Wall, designate special organization to take charge of the Great Wall protection and to build up records and files for the Great Wall.

But decades passed and there are still no protection zones for most segments of the Great Wall, making commercial influence accessible to the ancient relics.

Recently, a real estate developer built 11 villas near the Badaling Great Wall in suburban Beijing, damaging the ancient outlook of this segment of the Great Wall.

In some places, the Great Wall records were merely two or three sheets of papers. No detailed and original data at all. "Once the Wall is destroyed for natural or human reasons, it is impossible to restore the original look of the Wall with such slack records," Dong added.

Therefore, Dong appealed to the central government to make a thorough survey on the whole Great Wall and write detailed records as reference for future wall restoration.

He also suggested enacting an exclusive regulation on the Great Wall protection, which should define detailed punishment measures on wall destruction and clearly regulate the rights and duties of the Great Wall protection organizations.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2004)