Welcome to International Friends of the Great Wall

In 1980, when visiting National Geographic headquarters in Washington D.C. , I purchased a globe and, as I had done as a child marveled thereupon at the appearance of a castellated symbol drawn to represent China 's Great Wall. Picturesque and vivid, it was this distant view that prompted me to travel to China to explore the Wall from end to end. On that journey I saw spectacular sections of Wall, but also I encountered many places where it was barely extant, and in others absent. In 2004, returning to Washington , I purchased a new globe: the world had changed a lot politically. But I was distressed to learn that the Great Wall had disappeared off the face of this new world, reflecting perhaps that it had become shorter in length and lower in height. At the same time, Chinese surveys reported that one third of the Wall's original 6,700 km had disappeared, while a further third was in a serious state of dereliction.

The Great Wall is the world's greatest building for its extent, scale, labour investment, materials consumption and centuries as a work in progress. It must be preserved not as a legend, but physically and in soul, a task that requires enormous efforts.

After more than 25 years of reform and opening to the world, many foreigners and foreign corporations are in China to live and work for the long term, thus interacting socially, culturally and intellectually with their Chinese hosts. International Friends of the Great Wall is a reflection of this situation in which foreign and Chinese friends are joining hands to protect an outstanding world heritage for present and future generations.

I am pleased to present here a brief introduction to International Friends of the Great Wall and review some of the highlights of our work to date, as a way of expressing my thanks to the experts, government departments, museums, international conservation organizations, sponsoring corporations, volunteers and officers which have come together to make and make possible the work of International Friends of the Great Wall.

William Lindesay O.B.E.
Founder & Director