What does it mean to warn that the Great Wall of Wan Li is less than 2,500 miles? Improvise the topic. This is urgent.

2006 is an extremely important year in the process of Great Wall protection-the Regulations on the Protection of the Great Wall, which lasted for many years and was formulated by the State Council, was finally promulgated and implemented at the end of the year. At the same time, the Ministry of Culture promulgated and implemented the Measures for the Protection and Management of World Cultural Heritage. Together with the existing Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics in People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Regulations on the Implementation of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics in People's Republic of China (PRC), this ancient Great Wall began to be guaranteed by another modern legal system-the protection of the Great Wall has since entered the track of legalization!

I was born as a journalist, and began to pay attention to the Great Wall in 1978. When I first reported on the Great Wall in 79, I thought it was very simple-there was only one Vandory, and it would take one to two years to walk from Shanhaiguan to Jiayuguan, so I could complete the task-but I didn't think I had completed this task since I retired. Why? Because at first I thought that the Great Wall was a wall made of bricks and stones. From Shanhaiguan to Jiayuguan, as long as you have good physical strength, you can take pictures. But when I arrived at Shanhaiguan, experts from Shanhaiguan told me that the Great Wall was by no means Wan Li, and he couldn't tell how long it was. The Great Wall was not only built by Qin Shihuang, but also built before Qin Shihuang. There will be several Great Walls in the future. I hurried back to Beijing and asked Lao Luo. Mr. Luo said that there are no ready-made books on the Great Wall. He gave me a script he wrote for Shanghai Science and Education Film Studio, which was the first material I got. So later, I adopted the methods of studying, reading and taking photos, which completely changed the interview method determined before. /kloc-published the first Great Wall album in China in 0/980, and published many Great Wall albums and books in the United States, Hongkong and Taiwan Province Province in 1980s. After that, I basically stopped writing books. Why? Because I found that I know too little about the Great Wall, and the real Great Wall is so profound, I can only study it from scratch and gradually grow from a photojournalist to an academic researcher on the Great Wall, and I am still doing this work until now. This is a personal transformation process.

I will never forget 1984. In September, Comrade Xiaoping sent an initiative and handwritten inscription "Love my China and build my Great Wall" to the whole country. Since then, people's awareness of protecting the Great Wall has never been higher, and tens of millions of people have actively participated in sponsorship activities. During this period, many mass Great Wall research societies and conservation organizations were established. In 1980s, National Cultural Heritage Administration took the lead in the Great Wall census, which produced a batch of achievements and talents. Badaling, Mutianyu, Huangyaguan, Shanhaiguan, Jiayuguan and other sections of the Great Wall have been restored, which is the largest protective maintenance project of the Great Wall since the Ming Dynasty. 1June, 987, the Great Wall Society of China was established. In February 1987, the Great Wall was listed as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO.

However, since the mid-1990s, the state has paid much less attention to the protection and research of the Great Wall, and the provinces have paid no attention to the investigation of the Great Wall, and the funding has gradually decreased or even stopped. Cultural relics units at all levels no longer regard the protection, investigation and research of the Great Wall as an important task. Archaeologists who participated in the Great Wall research were assigned to other jobs, and some mass academic groups gradually stopped their academic activities.

The historical background of this period is that governments at all levels take economy as the center, but many departments unilaterally interpret' development is the last word' as' economic growth is the last word'. In order to pursue rapid economic growth, everything else has to be compromised and sacrificed-the Great Wall bears the brunt! Driven by interests, the essence of the Great Wall is regarded as a "cash cow" and a "good concept" by local governments, and illegal tourism development and reconstruction abound. Unreasonable utilization has seriously damaged the Great Wall. In other places, the Great Wall is regarded as an obstacle by some infrastructure and economic development departments and interested governments, and illegal destruction and demolition are repeatedly prohibited. Legal person's breaking the law, disobeying the law and knowing the law are new forms and new problems that cause the destruction of the Great Wall. The "legal person breaking the law", especially the government legal person breaking the law, is extremely destructive-under the action of administrative instructions and economic interests, the Great Wall will often be destroyed, forming a bad social impact.

From the perspective of functions and interests, the protection and management of the Great Wall involves tourism, environmental protection, urban construction, land and resources, finance and other departments of governments at all levels. Without the intervention and support of any department, the work of the cultural relics department is so helpless and powerless. Therefore, the core of solving the protection problem of the Great Wall lies in the overall coordination and behavior norms of the government, especially the actions of the central government to provincial governments and functional departments. It is far from enough to rely solely on the actions of the cultural relics authorities. All this needs to be more clear and definite.

Strengthening the protection of the Great Wall has gradually been put on the agenda of the government. In 2004, National Cultural Heritage Administration completed the basic research project "Investigation and Countermeasure Research on Protection, Management and Research of the Great Wall", which provided basic information for legislation, planning and protection projects. In the same year, the State Council approved the General Work Plan of the Great Wall Protection Project (2005-20 14) formulated by National Cultural Heritage Administration, and the general protection plan of the Great Wall is expected to be completed in 2009. In February 2006, the Great Wall Protection Project was officially launched.

The promulgation of the Regulations on the Protection of the Great Wall and the start of the Great Wall Protection Project are "milestones" and "turning points" in the protection of the Great Wall. But while we are happy, years of practice tell us that the protection of the Great Wall is a huge systematic project, which cannot be solved overnight. Now, our protection workstation is at a new starting line, but in the future, we still face many problems and challenges, and we still have a long way to go.

A difficult problem is in front of us, which is ridiculous. What is the Great Wall? What exactly are we trying to protect? In 2003, when I presided over the report of Investigation and Countermeasure Research on the Protection, Management and Research of the Great Wall, I pointed out that our current understanding of the Great Wall was in a state of "unclear family background and unclear concept". For example, when the Great Wall of Beijing was surveyed by remote sensing at 1985, it was found that the total length of the Great Wall of Beijing was 629 kilometers, which was 446 kilometers more than the conclusion that the total length measured by 1980 was 183 kilometers. Recently, the media reported that the survey results of the Great Wall in Changping District of Beijing in 2006 were several kilometers more than the last survey. Beijing is still like this, and the whole country can imagine it.

In fact, after 1987 was listed as a world cultural heritage, 19 years later, we are still wondering "What is the Great Wall?" "What is the Great Wall?" Arguing endlessly. As a military project with the largest volume and the longest continuous construction history in the world, the Great Wall has formed a specific form and connotation in the history of China, which has been inherited and recognized by many ethnic groups and political entities in China. Its construction is unique in the architectural history of the world, almost accompanying the whole development process of China feudal society, and having an important impact on the historical process of China. Its architectural form, function and culture are not only inherited, but also developed from generation to generation to perfection and eventually lost its function, showing the differences and diversity of times, regions and nationalities. The current definition cannot describe the historical development process of the Great Wall, nor can it include all the features of the Great Wall. Therefore, in the process of formulating the Regulations on the Protection of the Great Wall, although it has been discussed and argued for a long time, there is no final conclusion, so we have to adopt the "appraisal" system. The determination of the system is not the solution of the problem. In the process of "identification", the debate will be more intense and in-depth.

"Family" and "definition" are interdependent. If one problem is not solved, it will be difficult to completely solve another problem. If these problems are not solved, it will directly affect the implementation of the Great Wall Protection Ordinance, the implementation of the Great Wall Protection Project and the compilation of the Great Wall Protection Master Plan.

Therefore, the first step of the Great Wall protection project is to arrange an investigation on the resources and present situation of the Great Wall in order to find out the family background. First of all, Hebei and Gansu provinces were arranged to carry out pilot investigations, and other provinces carried out pilot projects according to actual conditions. After nearly a year's work, National Cultural Heritage Administration is working out the norms and standards of the Great Wall resources investigation according to the practical experience of field investigation in various places. The standard will include the requirements of archaeological investigation of the Great Wall resources, modern surveying and mapping technology, establishment of cultural relics archives and establishment of the Great Wall resources database. After the work norms and standards are officially promulgated, the Great Wall resources survey will be fully launched in 2007.

The problems of "family background" and "definition" also reflect the problems of talents and participation mechanism in the study of the Great Wall.

At present, there is no special national Great Wall research institution in China, and there is no special Great Wall research department in professional cultural relics and archaeology research institutions at all levels. Nor has it trained professionals to study, protect and manage the Great Wall. At present, the research on the Great Wall is carried out by some organizations and individuals piecemeal, lacking systematic leadership, organization and input. Although many good papers have been published, they are scattered and there is no systematic research on the Great Wall.

However, the 2000-year-old construction history of the Great Wall, as a land cultural relic stretching for tens of thousands of miles, spans multiple administrative regions and belongs to multiple management levels, involving archaeology, politics, military affairs, economy, history, geography, culture, environment and other fields. It is still not enough to rely solely on the "national team" hired by the state, cultural relics protection institutions at all levels and grassroots "protectors". Non-governmental organizations for the protection and research of the Great Wall, also known as "grassroots teams" and "volunteer teams", are a powerful force that cannot be ignored without the huge investment of the state. This force showed its strength and function in the1980s. Today, the main research results have appeared at that time, and the talents trained at that time are still the main force.

However, some existing laws and regulations can not meet this demand and can not stimulate and promote citizens' enthusiasm for participation. Instead, they set a high threshold to keep most citizens out of the door and make them "bystanders" of "heroes are useless." Although Article 7 of the Cultural Relics Protection Law stipulates that "all organs, organizations and individuals have the obligation to protect cultural relics according to law", Article 7 of the Regulations on the Protection of the Great Wall stipulates that "citizens, legal persons and other organizations have the obligation to protect the Great Wall according to law. The state encourages citizens, legal persons and other organizations to participate in the protection of the Great Wall, but these thresholds remain unchanged. These regulations to encourage citizen participation can only be implemented on paper and shouted out.

We call on the government and relevant legislative units to revise the relevant laws and regulations that are not suitable for the new situation and new tasks in accordance with the spirit of the Central Committee's Decision on Several Major Issues in Building a Harmonious Socialist Society, that is, "integrating social management resources, improving the level of social management, and improving the social management pattern of party committee leadership, government responsibility, social coordination and public participation". Under the unified leadership of the government, we will create a Great Wall research and research that combines professionals with mass organizations and attracts multidisciplinary, multi-level and extensive public participation.

Looking forward to the future, the protection of the Great Wall has a long way to go!