Highway still being built despite Great Wall damage

A provincial highway in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province is still under construction, despite suspicions that it has damaged three sections of the Great Wall, media reported Thursday.

A 94- kilometer highway linking the cities of Yulin and Jingbian in northern Shaanxi crossed parts of the Qin Dynasty ( 221 BC- 206 BC) and Ming Dynasty ( 1368- 1644) Great Wall under State- level protection, news site thepaper. cn reported.

The Yulin Bureau of Cultural Heritage urged authorities to halt the project, which involved six Great Wall relics sites and 48 prehistoric sites, according to a document issued by the bureau in July.

Parts of the road had already been paved without approval from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said an employee of the bureau.

Construction was still ongoing in late August, and at least three historic sites have been damaged, thepaper. cn reported.

“We are improving the plan to protect the relics … The builders will cooperate with the bureau to investigate the [ damaged sites],” a staffer on the project said Tuesday.

The remnants of the Great Wall face threats from both nature and humans across the country. About 30 percent of a 6,200 kilometer section of the wall built in the Ming Dynasty has disappeared, the Xinhua News Agency reported in July.