 Campers on the Great Wall. (Global Times Photo)
Camping overnight on the Great Wall does not harm preservation of the wall and is not illegal, according to a managing official of the Jinshanling Great Wall in Luanping county, Hebei Province, who was responding to public criticism of domestic and foreign visitors sleeping on the country’s cultural icon.
“Camping was allowed on the Jinshanling Great Wall because our company hired cleaners to maintain the camping area and security guards to watch over travelers’ safety,” a Beijing News report quoted the deputy director, surnamed Gao, as saying.
“No regulations clearly ban camping on the Great Wall,” Gao added.
However, Gao said that his company has stopped the cleaning and security service after pictures of visitors camping on the Great Wall circulated on the Internet last week. The online tip-off, posted on tianya.cn Wednesday, attracted some 70,000 clicks and more than 400 replies as of yesterday.
“As least 73 foreigners spent a night in sleeping bags and left litter here last Monday,” photographer Zhou Wanping told the Global Times yesterday. Zhou owns a souvenir store at the foot of the wall and has advocated against camping on it.
“It not only poses danger to travelers’ personal safety, but also brings pollution to the Great Wall,” Zhou said.
Zhou proposed to the local police in early July that they prohibit camping on the Great Wall after a couple was killed by a lightning strike at an unrestored section of the Jiankou Great Wall on June 13. Overnight camping was halted for three days before travelers resumed the practice.
Local villagers confirmed that night lodgers were still seen on the Great Wall, with most renting sleeping bags from vendors, according to the Beijing News report. Sleeping bags are stacked to the roof in small shops positioned at the main entrance to the wall at Jinshanling.
Foreign backpackers pay more than 100 yuan ($14.70) for each sleeping bag while Chinese pay half, according to a 60-year-old shop owner.
“In peak season, I could rent more than 100 sleeping bags per day,” he said. China enacted its law on the protection of cultural relics in 1982 and the Regulation on the Protection of the Great Wall in 2006.
However, Zhou Xueying, a history professor at Nanjing University, told the Global Times that there’s no legal basis to ban camping on the Great Wall.
“It would be beneficial to the local economy if campers were regulated and had to clean up their living waste and not damage the Great Wall,” Zhou said.
The Jinshanling Great Wall in Luanping county, Hebei Province is a favorite of those looking for an overnight stay at the wall. The management company of the Jinshanling Great Wall, which is located next to Beijing’s suburban Miyun county, held dance parties on the wall in 2005, which were later banned.
Qin Danfeng contributed to this story
Source: Global Times
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