Twenty years a Great Wall guardian (9)

Aerial photo taken on Aug. 13, 2021 shows a section of the Great Wall in Yinchuan City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Li Shixiang, 45, lives in Haiyuan County in Ningxia and has been engaged in the research and protection of the Great Wall for over 15 years. When Li was a middle school student, he lived near an ancient town. The ancient walls and scattered ancient coins interested him and he visited the town with his friends every weekend. When he grew up, Li jointly ran a printing business, which gave him chance to visit different rural areas and discover some sections of Great Wall that were forgotten or lost in history. The experiences revived Li's old memories and interest. Since 2006, he started to systematically seek and study the undiscovered Great Wall sections in a hope that the remaining Great Wall will be known by people and put under protection. Starting from scratch in archaeology, Li Shixiang combined ancient records and documents with navigation system, driving or walking miles to find a possible spot. Over the past 15 years, Li has traversed many provinces and regions in north and northwest China such as Ningxia, Gansu and Hebei, written over 300 pieces of notes and taken over 100,000 pictures. In spite of the time and cost in search of undiscovered Great Wall sections, Li considers it worthwhile. Sometimes, he sleeps in his car next to the Great Wall. The starry sky, gusts of wind and bugs' singing by the ancient wall render inner peace and fulfillment to him. "I'm doing my best to protect the Great Wall, and I feel being blessed and connected with it," Li said. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)