Visitors scream in panic, witnesses say, as a new 3,500 ft high walkway in China cracks
Visitors at the Yuntai Mountain Geological Park in China's Henan province had quite a scare Monday, when a glass bridge 3,500 feet in the air cracked under their feet.
A member of the moutain resort's staff told China's People Daily the crack was caused by a stainless steel mug being dropped on the walkway, and the bridge is temporarily closed. The skyway opened on Sept. 20, and is made of three layers of glass; the resort said just one layer cracked. Catherine Garcia
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Discovery. #illustration #silhouette #dragon #greatwall #tangyauhoong #throwback
Visitors to the Great Wall of China just north of Beijing. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Around 30 percent of China's Ming-era Great Wall has disappeared over time as adverse natural conditions and reckless human activities -- including stealing the bricks to build houses -- erode the UNESCO World Heritage site, state media reported.
The Great Wall is not a single unbroken structure but stretches for thousands of kilometres in sections, from Shanhaiguan on the east coast to Jiayuguan in the windswept sands on the edge of the Gobi desert.
In places it is so dilapidated that estimates of its total length vary from 9,000 to 21,000 kilometres (5,600 to 13,000 miles), depending on whether missing sections are included. Despite its length it is not, as is sometimes claimed, visible from space.
Construction first begun in the third century BC, but nearly 6,300 kilometres were built in the Ming Dynasty of 1368-1644, including the much-visited sectors north of the capital Beijing.
Of that, 1,962 kilometres has melted away over the centuries, the Beijing Times reported.
Some of the construction weathered away, while plants growing in the walls have accelerated the decay, said the report Sunday, citing a survey last year by the Great Wall of China Society.
"Even though some of the walls are built of bricks and stones, they cannot withstand the perennial exposure to wind and rain," the paper quoted Dong Yaohui, a vice president of the society, as saying.
"Many towers are becoming increasingly shaky and may collapse in a single rain storm in summer."
Tourism and local residents' activities are also damaging the longest human construction in the world, the paper added.
Poor villagers in Lulong county in the northern province of Hebei used to knock thick grey bricks from a section of wall in their village to build homes, and slabs engraved with Chinese characters were sold for 30 yuan ($4.80) each by local residents, it said.
Under Chinese regulations people who take bricks from the Great Wall can be fined up to 5,000 yuan, the state-run Global Times said Monday.
"But there is no specific organisation to enforce the rules. Damage could only be reported to higher authorities and it is hard to solve when it happened on the border of two provinces," said Jia Hailin, a cultural relics protection official in Hebei, according to the report.
The Great Wall of China was built to protect the Chinese empires and states in 206 BC. Although the people of China believe that the Wall was built by the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang, it has also been reported that before Qin's wall, the six ducal states had already built their own walls to prevent attacks from each other. It took about nine years to complete the Wall.
However, China's Ming-era wall, which has stood for more than 2,700 years, has started disappearing due to the adverse natural conditions. According to the State media report, around 30 percent of the wall has disappeared over the years. The report says that the climate, stealing of bricks from the wall by the locals and reckless activities by the human beings are few of the reasons behind the disappearance of the wall.
The Great Wall of China
Here are few facts on the changes in the Great Wall of China:
The wall stretches about thousands of miles in sections. Out of the overall length, which is estimated to be 21,196.18 Kilometres, some 1,962 Kilometres has melted away over the centuries according to the Beijing Times
The plants that are growing on the wall have accelerated the decay of the Great Wall
The report says that even though some of the walls are built of bricks and stones, they cannot withstand the constant exposure to wind and rain
One of the reasons for the 30 percent disappearance of the Wall is that the poor villagers in Lulong county, in the northern province of Hebei, knock bricks from the wall in their village to build homes
It has also been reported that those villagers sell the slabs engraved with Chinese characters for 30 Yuan
Explorations of undeveloped parts of the Great Wall had brought those sections more tourists than they could bear which as a result has damaged the Wall severely.
Although the people who take bricks from the wall can be fined up to 5,000 Yuan, there is no specific organisation to enforce the rule.
Here are some changes and few facts on the Wall that have been reported over the years:
During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), many bricks of the Great Wall were taken away to use in building homes, farms or reservoirs
It is believed that the north-western sections in Gansu and Ningxia provinces of the Great Wall are likely to disappear in 20 years, due to demolishment by nature and human beings
In 2011, it experienced the collapse of two chunks of its structure: one due to climate changes causing erosion of the land surrounding the wall and the other caused by mining taking place in nearby areas
Another section of the wall, which was considered the "crust of the cream" of the Ming dynasty, has suffered a 700-meter loss because of a network of underground mines in a secluded area of the Hebei province
Graffiti and Vandalism has also affected the sections of the Wall over the centuries
The World Monument Fund based in New York announced in 2003 that the Great Wall was among the 100 most endangered historic sites
Even in the dry seasons, because of lack of protection, the Great Wall has experienced erosion by mountain springs and even plants
Over the years, many towers have become increasingly shaky. It is reported that they may collapse in a single rain storm in summer.
70,000 tourists make a '#Greatwall of people' on China's National Day Holiday
China’s longest glass bridge now crammed with people.
The new and rather scary glass bridge that recently opened in central China’s Hunan Province offers thrill-seekers a breathtaking bird's-eye view of the scenery below.
And while many tourists initially seemed too afraid to cross the bridge, it now seems that people just can’t get enough of it.
The number of visitors to the 300-meter bridge at Shiniuzhai National Geological Park reached a new high on Sunday, the fourth day of China’s week-long National Day holiday.
Take a look at the crowd that’s been gathering to walk on the bridge, which is 180 meters above the ground.
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