Japan’s Mt Fuji to get World Heritage stamp: officials

Tokyo: Japan’s Mount Fuji will likely be added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites next month after an influential advisory panel to the UN cultural body made a recommendation, officials said Wednesday.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a consultative body to UNESCO, told the Japanese government that the almost perfectly conical Fuji is appropriate for registering as a World Heritage site, the agency for cultural affairs said in a statement.

Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776 metres (12,460 feet), is expected to be formally listed in June when the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO meets in Cambodia, said an official at the foreign ministry.

Following the recommendation, the mayor of Fujinomiya City, Hidetada Sudo expressed hope the expected listing would be a boost to tourism.
“I expect many people will visit us. This is a huge step for our city’s development,” he said.

In its request for registration, the agency for cultural affairs said Mt. Fuji covers roughly 70,000 hectares (172,900 acres) in Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, including five major lakes and the Shiraito Falls, as well as eight Shinto shrines.

It is being considered as a “cultural” heritage site, rather than a “natural” heritage site.

The mountain “has nurtured Japan’s unique art and culture” as it has been depicted in “ukiyoe” woodblock prints and represents the tradition of mountain worship in Japan, the agency said.

Fuji, a volcano that last erupted around 300 years ago, is one of Japan’s most instantly recognisable sights. Images of its snow-capped peak adorn tourism literature published at home and abroad.

UNESCO’s World Heritage programme is governed by an international treaty intended to “encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity,” its mission statement says.

Other World Heritage cultural sites include the Sydney Opera House, the temples at Angkor in Cambodia, The Great Wall of China and the pyramid fields in Egypt.

What’s the big deal about having a UNESCO World Heritage site?

Recent revelations that Hong Kong officials favored a rebuilt nunnery over the city’s famous Victoria Harbour for UNESCO World Heritage nomination have sparked indignation among heritage conservation experts.

The decision made Chi Lin nunnery the first and only site in Hong Kong to advance to China’s “tentative list.” An annual maximum of two sites on the list can be nominated for World Heritage certification. 

As Hong Kong is part of China’s national territory, the State Administration for Cultural Heritage reviews site applications. The group announced in November that the nunnery had been added to its tentative list and updated the version on its website.

However, the embattled property isn’t on China’s tentative list filed with UNESCO, which is dated January 29, 2010. UNESCO requires that tentative lists are revised at least once every 10 years. 

Countries are free to revise their lists more frequently — China has done so four times since 1996.

More on CNN: Xanadu added to UNESCO World Heritage lineup

What’s wrong with the nunnery?

The apparent short-listing of Chi Lin Nunnery and its accompanying garden has met with skepticism by heritage conservationists, who point out that the Buddhist complex wasn’t even built until 1998.

“It was built in the Tang Dynasty style but not during the Tang Dynasty,” says a veteran heritage professional in Asia who has worked with UNESCO.  (And who asked to remain anonymous out of professional concerns.)  ”It was built using wood, which is traditional, but the wood comes from Canada.” 

Should China choose to nominate the nunnery for World Heritage status, it would be difficult to argue for its authenticity during the technical evaluation, she added.

Get thee to a UNESCO-listed Hong Kong nunnery? Experts say Chi Lin is nice, but unlikely to meet the world body’s selection criteria. Other heritage experts doubted the nunnery would meet any of the selection criteria. 

“But it can still be done if Beijing is willing to support it and lobby ICOMOS (one of UNESCO’s advisory bodies),” says Lee Ho-Yin, director of the Architectural Conservation Program at the University of Hong Kong. 

He described the nomination process as highly political, with countries sometimes resorting to quid-pro-quo deal making when casting votes in the World Heritage Committee. 

The Advisory Antiquities Board, a government group established by a heritage protection ordinance, has been particularly vocal in its opposition. 

The nunnery “has nothing to do with the historical development of Hong Kong,” said member and historian Tim Ko, adding that the board wasn’t consulted in the matter.

More on CNN: Gallery: 9 new geoparks endorsed by UNESCO

Is Victoria Harbour worthy of World Heritage status?

Some heritage experts viewed Victoria Harbour, rumored to be a candidate, as more much deserving of the World Heritage accolade. 

The harbor is “more appropriate of what we think of Hong Kong — what it is and what it means. It’s the pivotal point for why we have Hong Kong today,” says the insider. 

“If you take Chi Lin, of course, it has meaning and importance for some people,” she adds. “But when you’re talking about world heritage, you’re talking about a place of universal importance that can speak on many levels to an incredible number of people.” 

All UNESCO World Heritage sites are deemed by the World Heritage Committee to have “outstanding universal value” by fulfilling at least one of 10 selection criteria.  These range from representing a “masterpiece of human creative genius,” containing “superlative natural phenomena” or being “directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions.” 

Currently, the list includes 962 cultural, natural or mixed cultural-natural sites across the world.

Lee believes the harbor fulfills several of the criteria, but suspected it didn’t pass muster due to government concerns of “spooking” harbor front property developers. 

“China would probably favor a place that can express the Chineseness of a place, whereas Victoria Harbour is a product of the British, so you would be celebrating the colonial period,” he says. 

Others argue that the historic harbor doesn’t merit World Heritage status in its current state.

“Ideologically it may meet many of the criteria … it was really the place where East meets West,” says Bob McKercher, a professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management. 

“(Now), there’s hardly any evidence of the go-downs and shipbuilding … it’s really not a cultural asset anymore.” 

China travel journalist Michael Meyer dismisses the fuss over the harbor. 

“It’s a living, working environment, and doesn’t need UNESCO warranting its worth any more than Meryl Streep needs an award to remind us that she’s an excellent actor.”

More on CNN: Gallery: UNESCO adds 12 sites to its World Heritage list

Why does Hong Kong want a UNESCO site?

Who needs UNESCO when you’ve got Bruce Lee? It’s unclear what sparked the seemingly sudden movement in Hong Kong to seek World Heritage status.

By 2010, tourism board officials had already begun discussions and the government enlisted four independent experts to provide general advice about the nomination process. The Development Bureau, which manages the application process, said Chi Lin Nunnery submitted its application the same year.

Heritage and tourism experts believe the quest for World Heritage accolades is at least partially informed by domestic politics.

“One of the carrots used to attract Macau to revert to China was the commitment that its historical center would be the number one priority for designation,” says McKercher. 

Lee says Macau’s site was bumped to the top of the list for nomination in order to boost the city’s status, demonstrating that the central government may use the World Heritage designation to exercise its political, rather than cultural, priorities.

The push for a heritage site in Hong Kong may also be an effort to be “fair and equitable so all sites don’t come from just one part of the country, but reflect the country’s diversity,” says the expert who worked with UNESCO.

“China came to World Heritage late, so they’re playing catch-up” she adds, pointing out that China has had 43 properties inscribed on the World Heritage List since joining the program in 1985. 

Is UNESCO designation a good thing?

While the World Heritage initiative was intended to protect unique examples of natural and cultural heritage, it’s widely acknowledged that participating countries often view the accolade as a means to draw visitors. 

However, a UNESCO stamp of approval may not necessarily lead to a boost in tourists, say tourism experts.

“The general rule of thumb is if the site was famous before it got World Heritage designation, it will become more famous,” says McKercher. ”If it was unknown, the designation is really not going to mean much in visitor numbers.” 

In some cases, visitor numbers have actually fallen after a site received designation, he says, particularly in remote natural zones that are subject to stringent visitor restrictions and lack the urban proliferation of tourist attractions.

Tourism not only depends on a site’s heritage value, says Sharif Shams Imon, an assistant professor of cultural heritage management at the Institute for Tourism Studies in Macau.

For example, a lack of tourist infrastructure in developing countries and perceived security risks discourage visitors.

While the impetus behind the World Heritage designation wasn’t to boost tourism, it often results in a tricky struggle between conservation and commercialization.

“By recognizing a site, there’s a risk that it will become overly popular and could be damaged by its very designation,” McKercher says, describing tourism as “one of UNESCO’s dilemmas.”

UNESCO requires reporting and monitoring of site management and can rescind the designation over non-compliance.  But experts say the organization lacks the teeth for enforcement.

Meyer, who helped train UNESCO site managers in China, says designations are “collected by China the way actors chase Oscars. They are a validation of possessing ‘culture’ and an economic boon via tourism.” 

He found that World Heritage status typically leads government officials to meddle with the site, such as restricting local access or unnecessarily building or tearing down infrastructure around it to boost GDP figures.

More on CNN: Insider Guide: Best of Hong Kong

Does Hong Kong need a World Heritage site?

UNESCO designation or not, Victoria Harbour needs little help reinforcing its place in Hong Kong, say heritage and tourism experts. 

Classic tourist activities, such as visiting the Peak observatory, riding the fabled Star Ferry, finding Jackie Chan’s handprints on the Avenue of Stars promenade and posing with the statue of Bruce Lee ensure broad views of the famous waters that made the city a success story.

“In the case of Hong Kong, which is already a major tourist destination, having a World Heritage site might attract more tourists or a different kind of tourist — more cultural tourists,”  Imon ventures.

Others say that aside from its obvious emblems, Hong Kong has plenty of heritage worth protecting.

“HK’s cultural authorities should place value on the dai pai dong, hawkers, newsstands and other contributors to the territory’s vibrant street culture that’s being exterminated by government policies,” says Meyer. 

“It would better off promoting its communities — the tightly-knit, functioning ecosystems of housing, commerce, schools, clinics and parks that make it one of the densest, and most unique, urban spaces in the world.”

What attraction would you nominate for UNESCO World Heritage status? Share you picks in the comments box below. 

China says Great Wall is longer than previously thought

HAIZIGOU, China — Zhang Lingmian was collecting walnuts in the countryside north of Beijing last autumn when a friend from a nearby village mentioned a mysterious structure in the mountains that had stumped locals.

The retired cultural heritage official and his friend scampered uphill for two hours, whacking their way through the brambles after the path ran out. At the top of a 2,700-foot-high ridge, they reached a long trail of haphazardly placed rocks.

Zhang says he immediately recognized what villagers called “the strange stones.”

“I knew right away it had to be part of the Great Wall of China,” Zhang recalled on a recent hike to show off his discovery, about 50 miles from central Beijing.

Although most of the rocks had tumbled down, a few piles reached up to Zhang’s chest. “The walls just had to be high enough to keep the barbarians from crossing with their horses,” explained Zhang, who says he has been studying the wall for 33 years.

The Great Wall of China may be one of the most recognizable structures on Earth, but it is still in the process of revealing new layers of itself – to cries of disbelief and fury in some quarters. At a time when Beijing is asserting its territorial borders in the South China Sea, the discoveries are not universally applauded.

In early June, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced it now believes the Great Wall is a stunning 13,171 miles long, if you put all of the discovered portions end to end. That’s more than half the circumference of the globe, four times the span of the United States coast to coast and nearly 21/2 times the estimated length in a preliminary report released in 2009, two years into a project that saw the Chinese measure it for the first time.

To the extent that the Great Wall is a symbol of China, a bigger wall means a bigger China – if only symbolically.

“I’m very suspicious. China wants to rewrite history to make sure history conforms with the borders of today’s China,” said Stephane Mot, a former French diplomat and a blogger based in Seoul, who has accused the Chinese archaeologists of obliterating Korean culture.

Traditionally, the Great Wall was thought to extend from Jiayuguan, a desert oasis 1,000 miles west of Beijing, to Shanhaiguan, 190 miles east of the capital, on the Bohai Sea. In 2001, Chinese archaeologists announced that the wall extended deep into Xinjiang, the northwestern region claimed by the minority Uighurs as their homeland; last month’s announcement brought the eastern bounds of the wall to the North Korean border.

That has outraged Koreans, who say the relics were built by ancient Koreans of the Koguryo kingdom, which occupied much of modern-day Manchuria from 37 BC to AD 688.

“This is a distortion. The Chinese are using the wall to wipe out the Korean legacy, the same as they are doing with the Uighurs and Tibetans,” said Seo Sang-mun, a military historian with Seoul-based Chung-Ang University.

Chinese defend the new measurements.

“I would say that these are not necessarily ‘new discoveries.’ Rather, we are looking more carefully at what is on the ground and trying to clarify whether it is the Great Wall or not,” Yan Jianmin, office director of the China Great Wall Society, a nongovernmental organization of scholars and wall enthusiasts.

The survey of the Great Wall’s length involved thousands of people, with 15 provinces and regions submitting the results of their research to Beijing. In all, the State Administration certified 43,721 known sites of Great Wall remains, up from 18,344 before the survey. (Portions of the list were published on the agency’s website, although it did not include the locations in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces that are contested by the Koreans. Maps will not be released because they are considered a state secret.)

The difficulty is in defining what is “the Great Wall” and what is merely, well, an old wall.

What most people recognize as the Great Wall is the crenelated brick wall with watch towers and archer slits, the symbol of China from countless postcards and tour guides. But there are many older walls dating from the seventh century that served the common purpose of defending China from invasion from the north.

The late Luo Zhewen, who was considered the top Chinese authority on the subject, once wrote that nothing should be considered the Great Wall unless it was at least 30 miles long, clearly defensive in nature and not circular – as opposed to a wall to keep your sheep from wandering.

Others have argued for more inclusive definitions.

“There is no consensus about what is Great Wall,” said David Spindler, an American who is considered a leading expert on the subject. He has found a number of previously unrecognized segments, in part by poring over Ming dynasty texts, and he believes that more will be discovered.

The profusion of walls, some overlapping or running parallel, reflects history’s changing boundaries and allegiances, although the constant in the geopolitical equation was the threat from Mongol invaders to the north.

“The term ‘Great Wall of China’ now has broader implications. Certainly over the years, people have realized it’s not just the tourist wall … there are many walls,” said William Lindesay, a British wall explorer who discovered a stretch in Mongolia last fall. “In ancient times, borders were not absolute. There were vast tracts of contested land, and the history of those ancient conflicts can still be found in the most remote places.”

Satellite imagery has made it easier to see previously unrecognized indentations and depressions in the earth that have turned out to be remains of the Great Wall. Shifting desert sands, falling water levels in lakes and reservoirs also have exposed once-concealed remains.

In Shaanxi province, less than 20 percent of the wall remains had been discovered before the recent survey, said Li Gong, who headed the effort for the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology in Xian, the provincial capital.

The Chinese government did not include in its list wall locations outside the current borders of China. There are believed to be remains near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, and Siberia, Russia. In February, Lindesay, the British researcher, released the results of an exploration last year in which he discovered a 62-mile-long stretch made of tamped earth and shrubbery in a closed military area north of the Chinese border in Mongolia.

Lindesay said he first learned about the section of the wall from a 12th century book about Genghis Khan’s military campaigns. It was marked as the “Genghis Khan Wall” on maps, a dark line slivering through the Gobi desert supposedly built by the great Mongol conqueror to fence in herds of gazelle. But Lindesay concluded it was probably built by the Western Xia, a dynasty that ruled parts of northwestern China for two centuries until its conquest by the Mongols in the 13th century.

Although the discovery was widely publicized elsewhere in the world, barely a word has appeared in Mongolia, where anti-Chinese sentiments are rife.

Jack Weatherford, a leading Mongolia expert, wrote in an email from that country’s capital, Ulan Bator: “There has been little reaction here in Mongolia to the ‘Great Wall’ other than to be slightly suspicious as to why people are discussing it and why they are calling it ‘the Great Wall.’ “

(Demick also reported from Beijing and Seoul. Jonathan Kaiman and Tommy Yang in the Los Angeles Times’ Beijing bureau contributed to this report.)

Is the Great Wall of China Longer Than Previously Thought?

Experts once believed that the Great Wall of China only stood 5,500 miles long, but a new archaeological survey done by China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage says the Great Wall is more than double than that length.

The report, released early June, estimates that the Great Wall extends 13,170 miles long and across 15 provinces. According to the Los Angeles Times:

That’s more than half the circumference of the globe, four times the span of the United States coast to coast and nearly 2 1/2 times the estimated length in a preliminary report released in 2009, two years into a project that saw the Chinese measure it for the first time.

(MORE: New Section of Great Wall Discovered in Mongolia)

Traditonally the Great Wall was thought to extend from Jiayuguan to Shanhaiguan, in the Bohai sea. That was amended in 2001 when Chinese archaeologists claimed it also extended to Xinjiang, where China’s Muslim Uighur people live. Now it’s been extended further east – practically to China’s very own border.

Unfortunately the new estimates are ruffling a few feathers, as it’s being seen China asserting its own grandeur. The announcement has upset neighboring Koreans, who contest that sections of the wall that Beijing is now laying claim were originally built by ancient Koreans from the Koguryo kingdom who occupied modern-day Manchuria. The new estimates bring the eastern end of wall straight to North Korea’s doorstep.

(MORE: Beijing: Side Trips)

The problem lies in the fact that there is no consensus about what the Great Wall is, according to David Spindler, a leading expert on the subject. Indeed, Yan Jianmin, the office director for the Great Wall Society, a specialist nongovernmental organization, admits these ambiguous definitions are reflected in the new estimates. “The previous estimation particularly refers to Great Walls built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), but this new measure includes Great Walls built in all dynasties,” says Yan.

That’s not to say that there aren’t valid new discoveries of the Wall. Just last year, British explorer William Lindesay stumbled across an unknown section sitting in Mongolia, where Genghis Khan often ran his military campaigns. A man named Zhang Lingmian, who resides north of Beijing, was collecting walnuts last fall when he discovered some strange stones that he thought must have been part of famous man-made structure.

But then again, it’s not as simple as it seems. The question remains, how do you distinguish the ruins of the Great Wall of China from what’s merely an old wall?

Erica Ho is a contributor at TIME and the editor of Map Happy. Find her on Twitter at @ericamho and Google+. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

Great Wall of China Longer Than Previously Reported

                                                                                                (Ed Jones/AFP/GettyImages)

The Great Wall of China is already the longest man-made structure in the world but we may have to start calling it the Greater Wall of China.

A five-year archaeological survey done by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) found that the total length of the Great Wall was 13,170 miles long and reached across 15 provinces.

This is more than twice the length previously thought. In 2009, SACH reported that the wall was 5,500 miles and stretched across 10 provinces.

“The previous estimation particularly refers to Great Walls built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), but this new measure includes Great Walls built in all dynasties,” Yan Jianmin, the office director of the China Great Wall Society, told the China Daily.

Archaeologists and mapping experts conducted field surveys in 15 provinces and found 43,721 sites related to the Great Wall, according to the report.

“As thousands years pass, some ground structures disappear, and we do not know where the walls used to be. When some local governments or companies develop the land, like coal mining or building new roads, they destroy the remaining parts under the ground,” Jianmin told the China Daily.

The survey, which began in 2007, is part of the Great Wall protection project, which aims to preserve and protect the wall.

“Now we are clear about the location of the Great Wall, so the government can take steps to protect the walls, and local governments are clear about their responsibility to protect the walls,” Jianmin told the China Daily.

Construction of the Great Wall began more than 2,000 years ago to ward off invasions, but only 8 percent of the wall is still standing today.

The Great Wall is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and was declared a UNESCO World heritage site in 1987.

China says Great Wall is longer than previously thought

HAIZIGOU, China — Zhang Lingmian was collecting walnuts in the countryside north of Beijing last autumn when a friend from a nearby village mentioned a mysterious structure in the mountains that had stumped locals.

The retired cultural heritage official and his friend scampered uphill for two hours, whacking their way through the brambles after the path ran out. At the top of a 2,700-foot-high ridge, they reached a long trail of haphazardly placed rocks.

Zhang says he immediately recognized what villagers called “the strange stones.”

“I knew right away it had to be part of the Great Wall of China,” Zhang recalled on a recent hike to show off his discovery, about 50 miles from central Beijing.

PHOTOS: Great Wall of China

Although most of the rocks had tumbled down, a few piles reached up to Zhang’s chest. “The walls just had to be high enough to keep the barbarians from crossing with their horses,” explained Zhang, who says he has been studying the wall for 33 years.

The Great Wall of China may be one of the most recognizable structures on Earth, but it is still in the process of revealing new layers of itself — to cries of disbelief and fury in some quarters. At a time when Beijing is asserting its territorial borders in the South China Sea, the discoveries are not universally applauded.

In early June, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced that it now believes the Great Wall is a stunning 13,171 miles long, if you put all of the discovered portions end to end. That’s more than half the circumference of the globe, four times the span of the United States coast to coast and nearly 2 1/2 times the estimated length in a preliminary report released in 2009, two years into a project that saw the Chinese measure it for the first time.

To the extent that the Great Wall is a symbol of China, a bigger wall means, well, a bigger China, if only symbolically.

“I’m very suspicious. China wants to rewrite history to make sure history conforms with the borders of today’s China,” said Stephane Mot, a former French diplomat and a blogger based in Seoul, who has accused the Chinese archaeologists of obliterating Korean culture.

Traditionally, the Great Wall was thought to extend from Jiayuguan, a desert oasis 1,000 miles west of Beijing, to Shanhaiguan, 190 miles east of the capital, on the Bohai Sea. In 2001, Chinese archaeologists announced that the wall extended deep into Xinjiang, the northwestern region claimed by the minority Uighurs as their homeland. Last month’s announcement brought the eastern bounds of the wall to the North Korean border.

That has outraged Koreans, who say the relics were built by ancient Koreans of the Koguryo kingdom, which occupied much of modern-day Manchuria from 37 BC to AD 688.

“This is a distortion. The Chinese are using the wall to wipe out the Korean legacy, the same as they are doing with the Uighurs and Tibetans,” said Seo Sang-mun, a military historian with Seoul-based Chung-Ang University.

Chinese defend the new measurements.

“I would say that these are not necessarily ‘new discoveries.’ Rather, we are looking more carefully at what is on the ground and trying to clarify whether it is the Great Wall or not,” Yan Jianmin, office director of the China Great Wall Society, a nongovernmental organization of scholars and wall enthusiasts.

The survey of the Great Wall’s length involved thousands of people, with 15 provinces and regions submitting the results of their research to Beijing. In all, the State Administration certified 43,721 known sites of Great Wall remains, up from 18,344 before the survey. (Portions of the list were published on the agency’s website, although it did not include the locations in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces that are contested by the Koreans. Maps will not be released because they are considered a state secret.)

The difficulty is in defining what is “the Great Wall” and what is merely, well, an old wall.

What most people recognize as the Great Wall is the crenelated brick wall with watch towers and archer slits, the symbol of China from countless postcards and guide books. But there are many older walls dating from the 7th century that served the common purpose of defending China from invasion from the north.

The late Luo Zhewen, who was considered the top Chinese authority on the subject, once wrote that nothing should be considered the Great Wall unless it was at least 30 miles long, clearly defensive in nature and not circular, as opposed to a wall to keep your sheep from wandering.

Getting the Great Wall to Talk

By Debra Bruno

Bob Davis/The Wall Street Journal
A view of the Great Wall one of William Lindesay’s hikes.

Meet the people shaping life and culture in Asia today. More from The Moment

The Great Wall has fascinated William Lindesay since he first saw it on a map. In 1987, the Liverpool native made his first trek along 2,470 kilometers of the landmark, and he has called China home ever since.

He now spends his days hiking, researching, photographing and talking about the Great Wall, as the founder of a conservation group called International Friends of the Great Wall.

Mr. Lindesay, 55 years old, also leads weekend treks of unrestored portions from his guesthouse near Mutianyu, about 60 miles from Beijing, often rousing hikers at 3 a.m. so they’re far enough up the mountain to see the wall as the first rays of dawn turn it golden.

He recently sat down with The Wall Street Journal in his map-lined Beijing study, to talk about skirting death in the Gobi, trying to measure the wall’s length and his new book, “The Great Wall Explained.” Below are edited excerpts from the interview.

Bob Davis/The Wall Street Journal
William Lindesay gives short lectures during his hikes on the Great Wall in June 2012.

The Wall Street Journal: We’ll start with some of the usual questions.

Mr. Lindesay: I hope the first one has nothing to do with the length of the Great Wall. That’s the biggest headache.

OK, how long is it?

There are many Great Walls in China. A few years ago, the state announced that they had surveyed the Ming wall, which is the wall most tourists see a segment of on their trips to China. And the figure announced was 8,851 kilometers. That announcement was made in April 2009, and then at the same time the State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced that they were asking archeological teams in each provincial region containing wall to go out and measure it.

In June, the survey was complete, and the figure was 21,196 kilometers…I called some of my wall-researching colleagues. They also felt a little bit confused, so we kind of put our heads together. The 21,196 is a measurement of all the visible Great Walls on the land of China as they stand now. That takes into account scant remains, which would be ankle-high, to grand things that you do want to take a photograph of and explore. And then if we subtract 8,851, the length of Ming wall, we get 12,345 as the length of the pre-Ming walls.

Is that the final answer?

Well, it’s actually created more confusion around the world and soured some international relations, because despite talking to several journalists and giving them the insights, most of the headlines in the following week were along the lines of “Great Wall Found to Be Twice the Length Originally Thought,” which is not at all the case.

It’s simply that the state looked at the Ming wall first, they looked at the pre-Ming wall second, and the two added together gives you the total length of all visible remains of the Great Wall in China today.

The Korean news services seized upon this news and accused China of stretching the length of the Great Wall like a rubber band.

How would you answer it?

I think it’s best left at rest. The best way to appreciate the Great Wall of China is: wan li chang cheng. These are four Chinese characters. “Wan,” if you look it up in the dictionary, means 10,000. “Li” is a Chinese unit of distance equivalent to about 500 meters. “Chang” is long; “cheng” is wall. So the direct translation of wan li chang cheng is the “10,000-li long wall.” But if you ask someone who’s literate to translate “wan” in that context they would say, it actually doesn’t mean 10,000, it means endless, immeasurable. So the erudite translation of wan li chang cheng is “the endless wall,” and in fact that is one of the opening discussions in my book.

Why did you write this book?

After I made my initial Great Wall adventure in 1987, exactly 25 years ago, I saw a lot of the wall. I saw probably more of the Great Wall of China than another foreigner had for well over half a century, nearly a century. I really wanted to capitalize on that achievement and that knowledge. I wanted to introduce the magnificence and the wonder and the mystery of the Great Wall to people around the world as I discovered it.

I was telling people the Great Wall story, and they were asking me questions. After a while I began to think, the typical curious, thinking person, they may arrive in China and not know the difference between Mao and Ming. Anyway, I felt that most people’s knowledge about the Great Wall was actually very superficial, and a lot of it was completely incorrect.

So I began to think, how can I really deliver a good engaging Great Wall story to the people I talk to? I wanted them to feel the thrill I felt without getting too bogged down and confused by the difficult-to-pronounce Chinese names and the masses of dates, and the confusion of it all.

There are reports that you found portions of the Great Wall outside China.

To explain my findings of 2011, I coined a new term: “Great Wall outside China.” Which is a compromise. It’s a recognition that the structure being seen is a great wall—it’s a fortification built during the conflict between the nomadic people of the north and the sedentary crop-growing people of the south. But it’s outside today’s China.

How can they still be finding parts of the Great Wall today?

I would rephrase it. Last year I never claimed to have discovered a section of the Great Wall. I evidenced the existence of a section of Great Wall built by a dynasty not previously known to have built a Great Wall.

How did you do that?

Thumbing through an atlas of Mongolia, I saw a symbol for what looked like the wall, but when I checked it out in the legend, it was not the Great Wall of China. Of course, how could it be—it was in Mongolia. It was the wall of Genghis Khan. And then eventually I looked on Google Earth and found this faint line crossing the south Gobi. So first of all, it’s on the map, so obviously I didn’t discover it. But I’m the first researcher that went there, and going there is not easy. It’s the heart of the Gobi.

Didn’t you risk your life in one expedition?

It turned out that way. Just a year before, I had made a documentary, and I wanted to take viewers of the documentary to one of the rarest parts of the wall, dating from 110 B.C.

We couldn’t get there with vehicles, because there were dried-up watercourses, wadis, very deep, preventing vehicle access. I was going in with a crew of filmmakers carrying equipment, and some of the members of the crew ignored my caution to take 10 bottles. It transpired halfway through this filming sequence that many people only set off with two or three bottles of water, so those with the water had to share it out, and that meant everyone was short of water on the return trek. People started suffering from cramps, collapsing with the heat, and eventually we decided on a rescue plan: Me, my assistant and the cameraman would continue on trying to get to the road and organizing a rescue, while the others waited.

The temperature reached 46 degrees Celsius in the late afternoon. I don’t want to come that close to death anymore.

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Great(er) Wall of China preps for more tourists – e

President Obama tours the Great Wall (Image Xinhua)

Part of the “Underwater Great Wall” at Panjiakou Reservoir (Hebei Province), which surfaced after water levels receded (Image Xinhua)

Ever-increasing visitor numbers have prompted authorities in Beijing to ready more sections of the Great Wall of China for tourists.

The capital plans to add the Huanghuacheng and Hefangkou sections of the Wall to the existing four parts of the fortification open to the public following necessary repairs and renovations.

Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau (BCRB) chief Kong Fanzhi said the already opened Mutianyu and Badaling sections of the Great Wall would also be extended to cater for burgeoning visitor numbers, China Daily reported.

Mr Kong said the initiatives aimed to “better protect” the Great Wall by “diverting visitors and reducing the load” on the parts of the fortification currently open to tourists.

According to the bureau chief, Beijing has invested millions of yuan into the repair of the Wall, which he says is buckling under the weight of mass domestic and international tourism, particularly on weekends and during holidays.

Making matters worse, a rising number of tourists are climbing parts of the Great Wall closed off to the public, causing further damage to the Chinese icon.

Despite this burden, BCRB Department of Preservation director Wang Yuwei said most of the 60 kilometers of the Great Wall in the capital had been kept in “good condition”.

No date has been set for the opening of the new sections, the bureau said.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the Great Wall of China is nearly two and a half times the length it was widely believed to have been.

According to local media, in its recent survey report, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage deemed the wall to be 21,296 kilometres (13,233 miles) – much longer than the previously estimated 8,852 kilometres (5,500 miles).

Yan Jianmin, office director of the China Great Wall Society, said the sizable discrepancy had arisen as previous estimations had only referred to Great Walls built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

“But this new measure includes Great Walls built in all dynasties,” he said.

In related news, archaeologists working on the latest dig at the site of the
Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an have said the project has unearthed more than 300 important artefacts including tools, weapons, parts of chariots, twelve pottery horses and most notably, around 120 more warriors.

The third dig to take place in the museum’s number one pit in Xi’an, capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, began in 2009.

Great(er) Wall of China preps for more tourists – eTravelBlackboard

President Obama tours the Great Wall (Image Xinhua)

Part of the “Underwater Great Wall” at Panjiakou Reservoir (Hebei Province), which surfaced after water levels receded (Image Xinhua)

Ever-increasing visitor numbers have prompted authorities in Beijing to ready more sections of the Great Wall of China for tourists.

The capital plans to add the Huanghuacheng and Hefangkou sections of the Wall to the existing four parts of the fortification open to the public following necessary repairs and renovations.

Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau (BCRB) chief Kong Fanzhi said the already opened Mutianyu and Badaling sections of the Great Wall would also be extended to cater for burgeoning visitor numbers, China Daily reported.

Mr Kong said the initiatives aimed to “better protect” the Great Wall by “diverting visitors and reducing the load” on the parts of the fortification currently open to tourists.

According to the bureau chief, Beijing has invested millions of yuan into the repair of the Wall, which he says is buckling under the weight of mass domestic and international tourism, particularly on weekends and during holidays.

Making matters worse, a rising number of tourists are climbing parts of the Great Wall closed off to the public, causing further damage to the Chinese icon.

Despite this burden, BCRB Department of Preservation director Wang Yuwei said most of the 60 kilometers of the Great Wall in the capital had been kept in “good condition”.

No date has been set for the opening of the new sections, the bureau said.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the Great Wall of China is nearly two and a half times the length it was widely believed to have been.

According to local media, in its recent survey report, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage deemed the wall to be 21,296 kilometres (13,233 miles) – much longer than the previously estimated 8,852 kilometres (5,500 miles).

Yan Jianmin, office director of the China Great Wall Society, said the sizable discrepancy had arisen as previous estimations had only referred to Great Walls built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

“But this new measure includes Great Walls built in all dynasties,” he said.

In related news, archaeologists working on the latest dig at the site of the
Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an have said the project has unearthed more than 300 important artefacts including tools, weapons, parts of chariots, twelve pottery horses and most notably, around 120 more warriors.

The third dig to take place in the museum’s number one pit in Xi’an, capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, began in 2009.

Great(er) Wall of China preps for more tourists

President Obama tours the Great Wall (Image Xinhua)

Part of the “Underwater Great Wall” at Panjiakou Reservoir (Hebei Province), which surfaced after water levels receded (Image Xinhua)

Ever-increasing visitor numbers have prompted authorities in Beijing to ready more sections of the Great Wall of China for tourists.

The capital plans to add the Huanghuacheng and Hefangkou sections of the Wall to the existing four parts of the fortification open to the public following necessary repairs and renovations.

Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau (BCRB) chief Kong Fanzhi said the already opened Mutianyu and Badaling sections of the Great Wall would also be extended to cater for burgeoning visitor numbers, China Daily reported.

Mr Kong said the initiatives aimed to “better protect” the Great Wall by “diverting visitors and reducing the load” on the parts of the fortification currently open to tourists.

According to the bureau chief, Beijing has invested millions of yuan into the repair of the Wall, which he says is buckling under the weight of mass domestic and international tourism, particularly on weekends and during holidays.  

Making matters worse, a rising number of tourists are climbing parts of the Great Wall closed off to the public, causing further damage to the Chinese icon.

Despite this burden, BCRB Department of Preservation director Wang Yuwei said most of the 60 kilometers of the Great Wall in the capital had been kept in “good condition”.

No date has been set for the opening of the new sections, the bureau said.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the Great Wall of China is nearly two and a half times the length it was widely believed to have been.

According to local media, in its recent survey report, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage deemed the wall to be 21,296 kilometres (13,233 miles) – much longer than the previously estimated 8,852 kilometres (5,500 miles).

Yan Jianmin, office director of the China Great Wall Society, said the sizable discrepancy had arisen as previous estimations had only referred to Great Walls built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

“But this new measure includes Great Walls built in all dynasties,” he said.

In related news, archaeologists working on the latest dig at the site of the
Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an have said the project has unearthed more than 300 important artefacts including tools, weapons, parts of chariots, twelve pottery horses and most notably, around 120 more warriors.

The third dig to take place in the museum’s number one pit in Xi’an, capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, began in 2009.