The Great Wall Severed at the Waist "Beyond Repair"... "To Create a Shortcut for the Construction Site"

Two Chinese Nationals Arrested for Destroying the Great Wall with an Excavator

Two Chinese individuals were arrested by authorities for damaging the Great Wall of China with an excavator to create a shortcut.

According to CNN and other sources on the 4th (local time), the Public Security Bureau of Youyu County, Shanxi Province, China, received a report on the 24th of last month that a part of the 32 Great Wall had been destroyed. The 32 Great Wall is a section of the Great Wall built during the Ming Dynasty, featuring 32 beacon towers and classified as a provincial-level cultural heritage site.

A shortcut created by destroying the Great Wall.
Photo by You Weehyun, Public Security Bureau

Authorities confirmed that the wall was destroyed due to large-scale excavation work and arrested a man and a woman known as Mr. Jeong (38) and Mr. Wang (55). Investigations revealed that the two, who were contracted to work at a nearby construction site, used an excavator to damage the Great Wall in order to shorten their travel distance. Both individuals are currently detained, and further investigations are underway.

Chinese media reported that the wall was damaged beyond repair. The Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau stated that the damage caused to the integrity and safety of the wall was "irreversible."

Selling Great Wall bricks as souvenirs for "5,000 won" each

Once you step just a little outside the main tourist areas, the Great Wall looks like it has lost its teeth, with missing bricks and many sections of the wall collapsed.
[Photo by AFP·Yonhap News]

The hardships faced by the Great Wall are not new. If you move just a little away from the tourist areas mainly visited by tourists, the Great Wall is full of places where bricks are missing like teeth, and the fortress walls have collapsed. This is because local residents nearby secretly remove bricks to use as building materials for houses or tombstones.

In addition, not only tourists who secretly take bricks as souvenirs but also merchants who remove them to sell as souvenirs are not uncommon. In fact, a single brick from the Great Wall is being sold for about 5,000 Korean won.

Given this situation, less than 10% of the entire Great Wall section is properly preserved. Although a fine of about 900,000 won is imposed for intentional damage or theft of bricks, including brick thieves, damage to the Great Wall still has not been eradicated.

The Great Wall, a representative symbol of China, was designated as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1987. Known as "the greatest civil engineering project in human history," the Great Wall is a defensive wall built by successive dynasties to prevent invasions by northern tribes. Its length on the map is 2,700 km, and including the branches that split off in the middle, the total length reaches approximately 5,000 to 6,000 km. It stretches long from Shanhaiguan in the east to Jiayuguan in the west.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.