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YOUYU, China – Genghis Khan and the Manchus have breached the Great Wall of China, and now, allegedly, two construction workers named Cheng and Wang want a shortcut.
Authorities in China have arrested two people for smashing a path through part of the ancient wall, a cultural icon and a heritage site protected by the United Nations.
The breach area was a section cut away from the restored parts that most Chinese and foreign tourists are familiar with.
The government of Youyou County, hundreds of miles west of Beijing, showed a dirt road cut into a section of wall against a rural landscape, along with the two suspects, a 38-year-old man surnamed Zheng and a 55-year-old surnamed Zheng. An old woman named Wang.
A government report said the couple wanted a shorter route for some construction work they were doing in nearby towns.
This section is located in Shanxi Province at the western end of the wall, parts of which were built 2,000 years ago. The local government said it was relatively well preserved and had “important conservation and research value.”
China greatly boasts a system of towers and connecting walls wide enough for carriages to pass a distance of nearly 5,500 miles, built mainly during the Ming Dynasty which lasted until 1644.
In that year, the Manchus from the north overcame China’s defenses and took over the empire as the Qing Dynasty.
The wall was then abandoned and plundered for bricks and stones by local villagers, only to be revived by the communist government as a symbol of patriotism, mass mobilization, and resistance to external pressures.
The Yoyo county government said the arrests were made after receiving a report of the abuse on August 24. It said the two suspects are in custody pending further legal action.
Citing the Great Wall, UNESCO described it as reflecting “the collision and exchanges between agricultural and nomadic civilizations in ancient China.”
The citation reads: “It provides important physical evidence of the far-sighted political strategic thinking and mighty military and national defense forces of the central empires in ancient China, and is an outstanding example of the splendid military architecture, technology and arts of ancient China.” .
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