The news hit international headlines on Tuesday: part of China’s Great Wall was damaged after construction workers used an excavator to dig through it.
The damaged area is located in Shuozhou’s Youyu county in Shanxi province and was built during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). It concerns the 32nd section of the Great Wall.
The topic of the Great Wall being damaged by construction workers first attracted online attention on September 3 after it was reported by a local Shanxi news site (Wenbo Shanxi Platform @文博山西平台).
Two construction workers from Inner Mongolia were working at a constriction site near the Great Wall when they decided to use their excavator to dig through the Great Wall in order to create a 5-meter wide shortcut and save some time on their construction work. In doing so, they caused irreversible damage to the cultural heritage site.
Wenbo Shanxi first reported that this piece of the wall was removed by the construction workers to “save time.”
When you think of the Great Wall, you might think of the impressive parts of the Wall that have been extensively renovated – those are the parts that are popular among tourists, such as the Badaling segment. Those are actually just portions of it, leaving many other locations where the Wall is left as it is.
Because these old parts of the Wall that have not been renovated or specifically demarcated, some people are not even aware that they live next to the Great Wall. As described by the China Heritage Quarterly, “the myth of the Great Wall reinforced by images from Badaling and other impressive examples of Ming architecture has played its part in perpetuating this ignorance.”
As news of two Chinese construction workers digging their way through a part of the Great Wall in Shuozhou traveled on Chinese social media, many people wondered if it was done out of ignorance or carelessness.
Some photos of the area that was damaged show that the walls on both side are quite low and perhaps not immediately recognizable as a portion of the Great Wall.
However, some netizens posted an aerial view of the Shuozhou area which showed just how long and high the segment is (see video).
Two construction workers dug a 5-mtr wide hole in a segment of the Great Wall in Shanxi's Youyu County to create an exacavator shortcut. Were they just ignorant? This aerial view shows how extensive the portion of the Wall in the area actually is. Read: https://t.co/QgNp2vhdxN pic.twitter.com/1xQXVy0mAN
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) September 5, 2023
The two workers responsible for the damage, a 38-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman, have now been detained. On Weibo, many commenters show no mercy for the two, suggesting that they deserve an ‘ancient punishment’ for ruining such ancient heritage.
By Manya Koetse
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