Ancient Wonder, Modern Challenge(Great Wall Of China)<4>

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
ICON—WORLD MONUMENTS MAGAZINE
BY WILLIAM LINDESAY

The Great Wall is therefore a rich cultural tapestry that encompasses not only the varied architectural remains, but also the local people who have inherited tales and legends relating to the wall from older generations. So distinct and striking is this landscape that perhaps it deserves a name to reflect its significance. "Wallscape" would seem appropriate.

The concept of a wallscape can best be appreciated by viewing a section of the original Great Wall in comparison to a section whose space has been invaded by modern construction. From enjoying the former we realize that the majesty of the Great Wall has two components: the ancient building and the natural backdrop. Once the wall's surroundings are violated by modern intrusions, the majesty of the view is diminished. In addition to the degenerative problems of old age, the wall is under constant attack by man. Vast sections of the wild wall close to Beijing, that only a few years ago were out of reach, suddenly have become more accessible. Cars got cheaper, suburban roads improved, and local townships, eager to get a piece of Great Wall tourism for themselves, even erected road signs to point the way to drivers. This new popularity of the Great Wall prompted local farmers, township officials, and country entrepreneurs to jump on the bandwagon and try their hands at shadow-of-the-wall tourism. Exploiting the absence of a single specific law to protect the unique wall—as an all-encompassing cultural landscape—crass commercialism has sprung up beside, or even upon, the wall in many places. Picnic rubbish has been wantonly discarded, people have scrawled on the 500-year-old bricks, and encroaching development has resulted in a group of ugly, bright buildings that seem alien—modern intrusions on this ancient landscape.

In February 2002, when American president George W. Bush visited the Great Wall at Badaling , he said: "The wall's the same, the country's changed a lot." Bush had been to China when his father, the former president, was stationed in Beijing as U.S. ambassador in the 1980s. Had the president wanted to comment accurately on the state of the Great Wall, he would have been correct if he had said: "The wall's not the same, because the country has changed a lot." As China continues to record massive economic growth, which in turn is changing lifestyles, the Great Wall takes on added importance by offering preservationists a new horizon in their seemingly futile quest to tackle conservation of the world's largest cultural relic in the world's most populous country and most rapidly booming economy.

Until recently, plans to protect the wall had not matched these massive social changes. China has adhered to the maxim of the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping: "Love China, rebuild the Great Wall." uttered in the wake of Mao-sanctioned destruction of things historical, including the Great Wall. Nationwide, a dozen or so sections of wall have been patriotically reconstructed for mass tourism. For almost 20 years this approach has defined Great Wall conservation.

For the past three years, International Friends of the Great Wall, working in collaboration with the Beijing Bureau for Cultural Relics, UNESCO's Beijing Office, and the World Monuments Fund, has spearheaded a program to create awareness of the problems afflicting the wall via the domestic and international press and media, and piloted a stewardship field program. Inclusion of the Great Wall Cultural Landscape in the Beijing Region on WMF's 2002 list of the 100 Most Endangered Sites has highlighted the plight of the Great Wall so that its conservation might find a place on China's cultural relics protection agenda. Partly as a result of these efforts, Great Wall conservation moves into the modern era this Summer, as the Beijing Municipal Government introduces the first generic cultural relics protection laws aimed at combating the destruction—physical and spiritual—of the wall, albeit only in the Beijing area. The leasing of land to developers adjacent to the wall will be banned, people will be prohibited from accessing certain fragile sections, and buildings causing "visual pollution" will be razed to preserve China's Great Wallscape.

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