File photo of a section of The Great Wall in Zhongwei city, which was destroyed by construction workers.

Zhou Xinghua, Ningxia Museum's former director, drew an illustration of the vegetation planted around the part of the wall they destroyed, September 16, 2006.   Sept. 20 - A section of The Great Wall from the Qin Dynasty (BC221-BC206) in Zhongwei city in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was destroyed by a construction unit.

 

Construction workers from the 18th Bureau Group of the China Railway Co. Ltd. excavated a ditch for cars to cross under the wall, destroying almost 100 meters of the ancient wall in the process.

 

After local residents discovered the damage, the construction workers compounded the damage they inflicted on the wall by building a counterfeit wall and planting vegetation on either side to hide the destruction.

 

They also built a temporary office just 3 meters away from the wall and allowed their waste water to drain onto The Great Wall.

 

Ningxia Museum's former director, Zhou Xinghua, said their actions - destroying The Great Wall and casually rebuilding a fake section - should be punished.

 

Zhou Xinghua said the few remaining sections of The Great Wall on Black Hill Gorge in Zhongwei city are valuable historic artifacts, as few Qin dynasty walls remain in China. The most precious and rare sections of The Great Wall today are the loess sections on the Yellow River gorges.

 

As the ancient city wall is world cultural heritage, Zhou added that the workers should have sought approval from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage before they acted.