HISTORIANS have urged more efforts to protect the western sections of the Great Wall in the wake of an official survey of the historic structure.

In Weiyuan County, Gansu Province, some parts of the Great Wall built during the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.) have been merged with surrounding cropland, while another 200-km-long section built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Dingxi City has suffered weathering, erosion and biological damage over a long period.

Concerns of these damages were raised by experts in a survey which ended July 12 arranged by the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top political advisory body, to check up on the state of the wall in Gansu. The Great Wall in Gansu holds an estimated 3,600 km of its total 21,196 km.

The team visited 10 major sites in five cities, including Dingxi, Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiayuguan and Jiuquan. They were alarmed at the condition of the Wall, built during the Qin (221-206 B.C.), Han (202 B.C.-A.D. 220) and Ming dynasties.

Unlike eastern parts of the Great Wall in Beijing, Heibei and Liaoning, which were mostly constructed with stones and bricks, the sections in Gansu were built with tamped earth. After centuries of erosion from fierce wind and frequent sandstorms, they have become extremely fragile.

“The Great Wall in Gansu is facing both natural and human damage,” said Yang Huifu, head of the Gansu Bureau of Cultural Relics, adding that some walls have been swept away by torrential rain and heavy wind.

Yang said that in recent years, authorities have seen limited damage caused by human activity, but such problems remained in some areas.

The research group believe that, while western sections of the wall are less attractive to tourists, the structure and the cultural relics that continue to be unearthed alongside them must be preserved as crucial materials for China’s historical, geographical, political, martial and cultural research.

Besides the disadvantages of geography and weather, other problems the experts encountered with the preservation of the western wall include a shortage of research personnel and protective technology, according to Duan Qingbo, a senior researcher with Northwest University in Shaanxi Province.

Duan said that the dozen researchers from Dunhuang Academy tasked with taking care of the remaining sections scattered in the province are not enough.

Meanwhile, the experts suggested that awareness must be raised among local residents, as well as tourism operators, of the need to protect cultural relics.

(Xinhua)