Letter of Introduction from The Society’s Founder and Director-General, William Lindesay

 Welcome to International Friends of the Great Wall!

 My “feet on” relationship with the Great Wall was at least 11 years old before I realized that some serious conservation issues were arising.

 I was shocked in 1997 to discover that garbage was becoming a problem on sections of Wall I’d enjoyed as pristine some ten years earlier.

 I positively channeled that initial anger to action in organizing the first-ever public cleanup on the Great Wall of China (in April 1998).

 Before long however, I realized that shocking enough the cosmetic problems – of garbage and graffiti – were, much more serious conservation problems were looming.

 With no specifically-promulgated laws to protect it (the Ming Great Wall alone is the world’s largest single cultural relic) , which I had dubbed “an outdoor museum without a curator”, I foresaw that developers from the city of Beijing, as well as local farmers and local officials, were poised to embark on a free-for-all by exploiting the hitherto inaccessible and unknown sections of the ancient defences (which have been brought within the recent reach of millions by the rise in private-car ownership in Beijing).

The scenario I foresaw is already proving to be correct. The free-for-all has begun and its pace is accelerating because there has been no checking, reprimanding, let alone prosecuting of those who have damaged the nation’s – and the world’s -- cultural heritage.

 For example, many valleys which provide access to sections of wilderness Wall (largely designated as being of county-level importance decades ago when the nation categorized its cultural relics) have been leased with county-level authority to developers, local entrepreneurs and businesses planning to diversify into tourism.  

My belief that further damage is imminent is born from my education as a geographer and the way in which I regard the Great Wall. In the last 15 years I have left my footprints atop and beside some 2,500km of this structure. En route it has dawned upon me that the majesty of the Great Wall is not only contained in its stones, but also contributed by its natural setting. In other words the backdrop of the Wall is as important as the building itself. The Great Wall is not only a unique building, it is a landscape

 Already, the natural setting of the Wall in the Beijing Region has been scathed by inappropriately-located constructions – in violation of a supposed 200-metre buffer regulation of the Beijing Municipality. 

This is just one of the reasons why the World Monuments Fund has included “The Cultural Landscape of the Great Wall, Beijing Region” on its “2002 List of the World’s Most 100 Endangered Sites” (see http://www.wmf.org)

A sad case in point concerns the section of Wall at Huanghuacheng, which I visited just two days before writing this letter. Garbage and graffiti at levels reminiscent of the worst inner-city squalor, are just ‘tips of the iceberg’ at this site. Wall-side constructions well within the 200-metre buffer increase by the week, and look set to do so, if the stacks of red bricks beside the main road are an indication of what’s in store. Another major problem is the belief of local farmers who have leased land beside the Wall assume that they also own the Wall itself. And unbelievably a mobile phone signal aerial has been put up on the Wall itself.

 To say that a crisis has arrived is an understatement. A disaster has struck this section, and others. At Huanghuacheng especially, the soul of the Great Wall has been destroyed.

 All this explains why The Society has been established. It can make a difference. The Society will monitor, record and report. Working with the Beijing Administrative Bureau for Cultural Relics and UNESCO Beijing Office,  The Society will spearhead protection of the authenticity of the Great Wall, especially by promoting the urgent need to defend the landscape of the Great Wall. Please refer to The Society’s draft work plan to learn more about our planned programs, research and education.

 In the 1960s-70s the city of Beijing lost its enclosing city wall. From the mid 1990s it began to lose its traditional low-rise residential fabric known as “hutongs” and “quadrangular residences”. Unless there is a successful check on the current damaging onslaught, and the introduction and implementation of special laws, changes to state land administration, and introduction of world-class and mature methods of historical landscape conservation, the loss of Great Wall landcapes is set to become the “third great lament” of lovers of China’s history.

 International Friends of the Great Wall needs help. It needs more passionate advocates. It needs researchers to carry out much-needed studies. It needs legal expertise, good interpreters and translators. And most of all The Society needs funding.

 In return for sponsorship The Society will promote your corporation’s name in association with its mission to save something completely worthwhile – the world’s greatest-ever construction project in terms of the time it took to build, the numbers of people it took to build, and the material it consumed.   

If you have any suggestions, or if you can offer concrete help, please e-mail The Society.

 Sincerely,

 William Lindesay

 Founder / Director General, International Friends of the Great Wall