An influential Beijing historical preservation group is designing projects to prevent the Great Wall, a wonder of world architectural history, from vanishing.

Dong Yaohui, secretary of the Great Wall Society of China, said yesterday his organization wants to better protect the world's longest structure.

The society is to submit a proposal for several projects for government approval.

The Great Wall, a symbol of the Chinese nation and a tourist cash cow that generates millions of dollars a year, is disappearing in an accelerating way mainly due to lack of protection and dismantling by farmers, apparently ignorant of its significance.

Running some 6,300 kilometers roughly the distance from the US cities of Miami, Florida to Seattle, Washington less than 20 per cent of the wall built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) is still intact, said Dong.

He has personally surveyed huge sections of the structure originally built as a defensive barrier against marauding invaders.

"Establishing teams of investigators to curb destructive human behaviors is of great importance in rural areas where the remaining sections are often unwittingly dismantled by ignorant locals," Dong told China Daily in a telephone interview.

But before that, the society is considering conducting a general survey into the existing wall.

All the Great Wall-related materials, such as historical documents, pictures and even trademarks and art work, will be collected for a database open to the public and used for academic research on the Internet.

Dong predicts the whole program will be accomplished in three to five years once it is approved by authorities.

Dong said the undertaking will involve a large sum of money.

"We need tens of millions of US dollars for the survey work," Dong said, which the group hopes to raise.

He said the plan has attracted a number of powerful enterprises at home and abroad. Some promised to sponsor the public undertaking.

As rewards, Dong said, these companies' names will be put in records of the data base and carved in the milestones that are to be set up all the way along the walls.

(China Daily May 17, 2004)