Beijing Times reported yesterday that a music valley called "Tangowood" would be built along the Great Wall in Yanqing County, covering an area of over 9,000 mu (about 1,483 acres). Yanqing has opened more than 30 scenic spots to the public, including historical sites, natural landscapes, wetland gardens, and rivers. In an interview, Hou Junshu, Yanqing Party Committee secretary, asserted that Yanqing would upgrade their tourist reception services in all aspects.  (Discuss the topic in China.org.cn's forum) 
 
Hou said, "We'll make a series of improvements to the Badaling Highway this year and next year. In order to relieve the traffic jams, we'll build a large transportation hub on the Badaling Highway and dig a 100-meter tunnel through Guntiangou to divert the traffic. Later the vehicles may drive to Badaling by the original route but drive back through the Guntiangou Tunnel.     
 
He disclosed that Yanqing was now planning to build the "Tangowood" Music Valley. Lying in a mountain gully, the music valley is about 3,200 meters away from the Great Wall. Grand theme performances and open-air concerts will be held there before the 2008 Olympic Games, and it will eventually be developed into a large real-scenery performance site with the Great Wall as its background.     
 
Yanqing will invest 120 million yuan (US$15.98 million) to transform the Longqingxia scenic area. They will start with the traffic and build a new bridge at the entrance to Longqingxia. Moreover, they will build a large parking lot around Longqingxia to solve the parking problems.   

Hou said, "We'll build a horse path on the Kangxi grassland, close the entire scenic area and welcome the Olympic Games with a new face." 

When asked about the transformation of the scenic area, Hou Junshu answered, "Our aim is to turn Yangqing into a tourism and recreation garden. We are going to build 4 ecological sightseeing belts: Weihe ecological recreation corridor, which will provide a recreational place for people to go closer to nature; Guanting Reservoir ecological belt; Beishan ecological and sightseeing belt; and, the forest corridor at the lower reaches of Lingqinxia.    
 
Hou believes that Yanqing's construction is very special. Yanqing buildings are about 18 meters high or the height of 6 storey buildings. There is not and will not be high buildings in Yanqing. This enables the public to see the mountains at any place in Yanqing.  
 
Yanqing once mimicked the classical European architectural style. But now they have shifted their emphasis to absorbing the essence of the exotic features from simple imitation. Hu said, "For example, we built a cluster of public buildings, comprised of a museum, library, cultural center, archives, Xinhua Book Store, and open-air theater with huge screens."   
 

Hou Junshu

Earlier this March Yanqing published its plan to build the "Tangowood" Music Valley. The music valley is designated to be built at the juncture between Badaling county, Dayushu county, and Jingzuang county. In addition to world music festivals, Peking Operas, dramas, cross talks, and comic skits, some high quality music training can also be held there. This music valley will be completely finished by 2010.    
 
However, Article 12 of the Regulation on the Protection of Great Wall rules that "no unit or individual is allowed to conduct project constructions within the protection range where the Great Wall protection overall plan prohibits project constructions."    
 
Cheng Dalin, head of the Great Wall Research Commission of the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics, commented years ago that the damage to the Great Wall by the public, like tearing down the Great Wall to build or repair buildings or pigsties, had been greatly reduced. The biggest threat to the Great Wall was the excessive tourism development.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, October 23, 2007)