Protecting the Great Wall and continuing the Chinese cultural heritage

Workers are repairing the Jinshanling Great Wall in Chengde City, Hebei Province. Photo by Wang Liqun

In Bayannur City, Inner Mongolia, staff used drones to conduct oblique photography 3D modeling of the Great Wall ruins. Photo by Wang Zehao

The snowy peaks of Qilian Mountains and Jiayuguan Pass complement each other. Photo courtesy of Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau

"The Great Wall is a representative symbol of the Chinese nation and an important symbol of Chinese civilization. It embodies the Chinese nation's spirit of continuous struggle for self-improvement and its patriotic sentiments of unity and perseverance." On May 14, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave a speech to Stone in Badaling Town, Yanqing District, Beijing. The folks in Xiancun wrote back, profoundly explaining the unique value of the Great Wall and the significance of protecting the Great Wall, and encouraged everyone to "pass on this precious wealth left by our ancestors from generation to generation."

The Great Wall is the largest existing cultural heritage in my country and is distributed in 15 provinces. In recent years, various regions have vigorously promoted the protection, inheritance and research of the Great Wall, carefully guarding this unique and precious treasure, and allowing the historical and cultural heritage of the Great Wall to shine in a new era.

All sectors of society participate in donations to help restore the Great Wall

In early summer, the Badaling Great Wall in Beijing is crowded with tourists. Su Wenyang, 67 years old, stood on the winding Great Wall and looked into the distance. He said with emotion: "The appearance of the Badaling Great Wall has been greatly improved, which was unimaginable in the past."

In the early 1980s, Su Wenyang was a reporter in the news department of the Beijing Evening News and visited the Badaling Great Wall many times for interviews. At that time, only four enemy towers in the north and south of the Badaling Great Wall were open to tourists, and many other points were in disrepair for a long time. Su Wenyang believes that it is urgent to protect the Great Wall. He hopes to launch a social donation campaign through the media, "not only to repair the Great Wall, but also to inspire people's patriotic enthusiasm."

On July 5 and 6, 1984, "Beijing Evening News" and "Beijing Daily" respectively published news that in order to protect historical relics and speed up the restoration of key sections of the Great Wall, the "Love China, Repair the Great Wall" social sponsorship event was held. After the news was released, it immediately attracted the attention of central leaders and relevant departments. Deng Xiaoping, Xi Zhongxun and other leading comrades wrote inscriptions for the "Love China and Build the Great Wall" campaign launched by some units in the capital, inspiring the enthusiasm of Chinese people at home and abroad to protect the Great Wall.

After the news was published, people came to donate in an endless stream. Thousands of calligraphers, painters, singers, and doctors from all over the country have held charity paintings, charity performances, and free clinics to contribute to the restoration of the Great Wall. The event was also reported by dozens of foreign newspapers and television stations, inspiring the enthusiasm of Chinese people at home and abroad to protect the Great Wall. International friends from more than 30 countries and regions participated in donations.

On July 28, 1984, the community-sponsored restoration project of the Badaling Great Wall started. After the project is completed on September 17, visitors can climb to the highest point of Badaling and overlook the beautiful scenery of the Great Wall.

The "Love My China, Build My Great Wall" social sponsorship activity was launched in Beijing and has spread throughout the country. According to incomplete statistics, Tianjin, Jinzhou, Xi'an, Qinhuangdao and other places have also successively established the "Love My China, Repair My Great Wall" social sponsorship activity organization to repair the Great Wall in their local areas and achieved positive results.

By 1994, the country had received a total of more than 60 million yuan in sponsorship funds from home and abroad for the restoration of the Great Wall. Relevant departments used the sponsorship funds to repair the North 8th to North 10th City Towers of the Badaling Great Wall, the three watchtowers of the Mutianyu Great Wall, the Simatai Great Wall, and the Riverside Wall. 14 key locations including the Great Wall.

Generations of Great Wall protectors have been guarding the Great Wall in relays, gathering solid strength

Holding a trekking pole in hand and carrying a backpack, Li Haiquan, head of the Great Wall Cultural Relics Management Section of the Badaling Great Wall Management Office, strode up the mountain, occasionally stopping to check whether there were cracks, flashes or other problems on the wall. Li Haiquan is a native of Dongguan Village, Yanqing District, Beijing. He has walked this mountain road patrolling the Great Wall for more than 30 years.

Protecting and inheriting historical and cultural heritage well cannot be separated from the power of people. In recent years, the power of protection and research on the Great Wall has grown day by day. Generations of Great Wall conservators have continued to watch and actively innovated, gathering a solid force to protect the Great Wall and inherit culture.

Early in the morning on May 13, Zhang Peng, leader of the Shanhaiguan Great Wall Protection Volunteer Service Team in Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, opened the weather forecast software, checked the wind direction and wind strength, and confirmed that the weather was conducive for the drone to take off, and began the Great Wall protection inspection.

The Shanhaiguan Great Wall Protection Volunteer Service Team consists of 10 members, including village cadres, Great Wall researchers, etc. They all grew up at the foot of the Great Wall and have strong feelings for the Great Wall. As a new generation of Great Wall protectors, they use technological means such as drones, big data, and professional software to protect the ancient Great Wall, becoming a new landscape for Great Wall patrols.

"We adhere to the principle of adapting measures to local conditions and classifying protection, fully understand the structural characteristics and value connotation of the Great Wall, pay attention to the value relationship between local points and the Great Wall as a whole, and carry out the research on the value of the Great Wall throughout the Great Wall protection project." Luo Xiangjun, director of the Hebei Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, said that as of By the end of 2023, there were 1,142 Great Wall conservators in the province, all equipped with inspection equipment, further improving inspection capabilities.

At the Qin and Han Great Wall ruins located in Xiaoshetai Town, Wulateqian Banner, Bayannur City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 61-year-old Great Wall conservator Han Genzhu is conducting daily patrol work. Bayannur City is an area with relatively rich existing types of Great Walls in Inner Mongolia. There are 4 types of Great Walls including the Zhaobei Great Wall in the Warring States Period, the Qin-Han Great Wall, and the Hanwai Great Wall, totaling 1,007 kilometers. 30 cultural relics protection workers and 50 volunteer Great Wall conservators guard the Great Wall ruins in this area.

As the construction of the Great Wall National Cultural Park advances, various places continue to innovate ways to protect the Great Wall, and the protection status of the Great Wall continues to improve. In 2019, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Construction Plan for the Great Wall, Grand Canal, and Long March National Cultural Park." In 2021, the "Great Wall National Cultural Park Construction and Protection Plan" issued by the National Cultural Park Construction Leading Group proposed that efforts should be made to build the Great Wall National Cultural Park into an important symbol that promotes the national spirit and inherits Chinese civilization.

At the foothills of Jiaoshan Mountain in Shanhaiguan District, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, the Shanhaiguan Great Wall Museum of China is elegant and grand. This museum is the "No. 1 Project" in the Hebei section of the Great Wall National Cultural Park. "Shanhaiguan China Great Wall Museum is a landmark project in the construction of the Great Wall National Cultural Park. We are currently stepping up exhibition work and recruiting small guides and volunteers. After opening, we will better serve tourists." Deputy Director of Shanhaiguan China Great Wall Museum Curator Guo Ying said.

On April 26, the Jiumenmenkou Great Wall Museum, located at the foot of the Jiumenmenkou Great Wall of the Great Water Wall in Suizhong County, Huludao City, Liaoning Province, opened to the public. The museum covers many sections such as the history of the Great Wall and the restoration of the excavation site landscape. Its completion marks significant progress in the construction of the Great Wall National Cultural Park. Liaoning continues to strengthen the publicity and display of the Great Wall culture and actively promotes the integration of culture and tourism, allowing more people to approach, understand and understand the Great Wall.

Empowered by digital technology, the Great Wall can be "travelled" and experienced

In the Urban Big Data Application Research Center of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, two computers display real-time weather and vibration information at eight Great Wall points including Juyongguan and Huanghuacheng.

"Monitoring the deformation and damage of the Great Wall can promptly detect and assess the degree of damage to the wall, providing strong support for protection work." Liu Fei, associate professor at the Urban Big Data Application Research Center of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, said that monitoring data can also be used to formulate preventive measures. sexual measures.

Over thousands of years, due to multiple factors such as natural erosion and weathering, human production and life, and historical environmental changes, many points of the Great Wall have been damaged, some are on the verge of collapse, and some ground parts have completely disappeared.

To cure a "disease", first find the "cause". In the past four years, Liu Fei has led a team to carry out the Great Wall Environmental Vibration Disaster Monitoring Project in Huairou District and Changping District, Beijing, and to carry out a wall research repair project - a digital information collection project - on the Dazhuangke Great Wall in Yanqing. When installing Beidou monitoring equipment on the Juyongguan Great Wall, the height difference of nearly 20 meters made the installation work extremely difficult. The staff carried heavy equipment and moved it to the installation position bit by bit. Installing equipment, debugging parameters... After several hours of intense work, Liu Fei and his colleagues breathed a long sigh of relief when they saw the normal operation curve in the background.

In addition, the team used drone oblique photography technology to obtain 3-5 cm resolution images of 352 kilometers of the Great Wall in Beijing, produced detailed orthophotos and real-life three-dimensional models, and built a database of damage to about 100 kilometers of the Great Wall. Using deep learning algorithms, an intelligent damage recognition model was developed, and the independent recognition accuracy rate reached more than 80%.

"The application of more and more scientific and technological means has enabled the Great Wall to 'extend its life.'" Liu Fei said that the team is improving the database. It is expected that within this year, all masonry Great Walls in Beijing will complete aerial photography monitoring and digital three-dimensional modeling.

The full use of digital technology has empowered the protection of the Great Wall, transforming the protection of the Great Wall from "passive rescue protection" to "active preventive protection", and also created more possibilities for tourists to "travel" the Great Wall.

The Jinshanling Great Wall, located in Luanping County, Chengde City, Hebei Province, is a pilot unit for the construction of the Great Wall National Cultural Park. "Starting from 2020, Jinshanling Great Wall Scenic Area will 'move' the Apricot Blossom Festival from offline to online, presenting the beautiful scenery of 'Apricot blossoms moistening the Great Wall with spring rain' to netizens. For four consecutive years, the reading volume of the topic 'Traveling to Jinshanling' has been More than 130 million visitors," said Guo Zhongxing, director of the Jinshanling Great Wall Cultural Relics Protection Center.

Relying on the "National Engineering Technology Research Center for the Protection of Ancient Murals and Earthen Relics" established by the Dunhuang Academy and others, Gansu has made breakthroughs and mastered a series of key technologies for the protection of the earthen Great Wall, including anchor grouting reinforcement technology and support roof reinforcement technology, forming a A complete set of mature protection theories and process technology specifications has become an important technical support for the protection of the Great Wall. Since 2015, there have been a total of 12 related scientific research projects at or above the provincial level in Gansu that are under research or newly established.

In 2018, Zhang Yukun, a professor at the School of Architecture at Tianjin University, and his team carried out the "Real 3D Image Collection Project for the Whole Line of the Great Wall". It took 4 years to conduct 3D measurements of the entire length of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty, collected more than 2 million real-life images, and established a real-life 3D image of the entire Great Wall. database.

At the beginning of 2022, the team will organize the three-dimensional aerial survey results into an exhibition and display it at the Tianjin Museum. “Digitalization has enabled the full-length real-life, immersive public display of the Great Wall.” Li Zhe, a distinguished researcher at the School of Architecture of Tianjin University, said that the various resources, characteristic relics, and scenery along the Tianjin Great Wall can be surrounded by dynamic images through the 5-screen cockpit. and professional explanations and displays, allowing the public to feel as if they are "flying over" the Great Wall themselves.