Another Brick In the Wall

Armed with selfie-sticks and mobile cameras the tourists invade the Great Wall of China, lured by beautiful postcards. Most of them are Chinese and they take great pride in being able to say that they have walked on The Wall.

However, you don’t need to travel far to realise that the restored sections outside Beijing are merely fragments and the results of 65 years of restoration work. Most of the 8,800 kilometres long wall consists of cracked clay, piles of dirt and sometimes only as small elevations in the landscape. In 2005 the Chinese government started a project for restoration and protecting the Wall. 

The Great Wall was supposed to provide protection from neighbouring kingdoms and has an important place in Chinese history. In 2007 it was voted as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. Although it no longer serves as a defence, China has today found new ways to protect itself from the outside world. «The Great Green Wall» is intended to keep the desert at bay through active tree planting, while the online world is kept at a distance by «the Great Firewall of China».

Photostory published in Dagbladet Magasinet.