I applaud to new technologies and discoveries, but how can you manage not to see 2000 kilometres of the Great Wall of China?
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China's detailed investigation of the Great Wall of China to date has shown that in the Ming Dynasty era, it stretched 8,851.8 km (for our American friends: 5,500 miles), further than the previous estimate of around 6,000 km (3,700 miles), writes China Daily.
According to the joint survey by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) and the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, the massive structure is comprised of 6,259.6 km of wall, 2,232.5 km of natural barriers such as rivers and mountains, as well as 359.7 km of trenches.
Chen Jun, president of the National Geomatics Center who helped map the wall in three-dimensions for the survey, said the findings were important to the future of the wall, one of China's most famous symbols. Chen and other researchers spent over two years surveying the wall, using GPS positioning systems, infrared technology and other mapping techniques, to create the most comprehensive picture to date.
It shows that the easternmost point of the wall in fact lies at Hushan in Liaoning province as opposed to Shanhaiguan in coastal Tianjin. The survey was part of a 10-year project to conserve the structure launched in 2005. The new, detailed maps should help protect sections threatened by range of factors, Chen said.
"We see that the entire length of the Ming Dynasty era Great Wall was 8,851.8 kilometres, but now perfectly restored parts only make up between 10 and 20 percent of that," Chen said. The wall now mostly lies in short stretches, with many areas either in ruins, blown away or dissected by roads and new developments.
Around 2,000 km, almost one third, of the original wall has vanished altogether, according to the SACH. Construction first started on the wall more than 2,000 years ago, but it was only in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that it was extended and sections were linked together into a continuous barrier against northern invaders. ■