For about US$120, visitors to China's Great Wall can now leave
their mark on a fake wall built recently in the name of preventing
graffiti on the genuine structure.
The management office of the Juyongguan section of the Great
Wall in Beijing built the fake wall and will charge 999 yuan
(US$124) for carvings on each brick, daily newspaper The First
reported.
With 9,999 bricks available, the marble structure could help
management rake in 9.9 million yuan (US$1.2 million).
Juyongguan's management said they were hoping to satisfy
visitors' desire to leave something behind -- usually their name or
words of love -- while discouraging them from carving graffiti on
China's best-known cultural relic.
The Great Wall, which receives four million visitors a year, has
suffered greatly from graffiti.
But the project has come under some criticism with The First
newspaper citing one expert as saying many schemes to "protect" the
wall are actually aimed at reaping profits from the cultural
treasure.
The fake wall is located near the most-visited section of the
real wall in Badaling and visitors usually travel to Juyongguan on
their way to Badaling.
Less than 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) remain of the original
6,300-kilometer structure first built in the Qin Dynasty (221-206
BC).
It was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to keep out
northern tribes threatening the Chinese heartland.
(Chinanews.cn February 9, 2006)
