A worker toils at the construction site at the foot of a part of Great Wall relic on Wednesday. [Lin Hui / Mirror Evening News]
A timber company that was building a tourism facility near the Great Wall was ordered to stop by Changping district cultural heritage administration on Wednesday.
A resident surnamed Ma filed a complaint to the municipal administration of cultural heritage, stating that construction was under way near the Badaling Great Wall and bulldozers were digging along the wall.
The authorities sent a team to investigate on Wednesday and told the construction company to stop work, Mirror Evening News reported on Thursday.
The administration said on Thursday that no damage had been done to any cultural relics in the area and that construction had been suspended until a proper application is filed.
An official with the cultural administration surnamed Zhang said the area, which was used for military camps in ancient times, is a protected cultural zone in the district.
The Badaling Great Wall is a UNESCO World Heritage site, but investigations showed the section where construction was taking place was not included.
However, Changping district government said the area was a district-level protection zone and no construction was allowed without permission.
Investigations discovered that the construction in question was between the Badaling and Juyongguan sections of the Great Wall and that a brick structure covering almost 1,000 sq m had already been erected. The construction was just two m from the wall.
Workers said the project belonged to Ming Tombs Timber Company and that it is intended to be a tourism facility that will include two buildings of more than 3,000 sq m.
An unnamed manager at the construction site informed Mirror Evening News that no damage had been done to the Great Wall during construction.
The neighboring Yanqing county said it spent more than 10 million yuan in recent years to improve the environment near the Great Wall. A new 3.4-km-long expressway will be finished before Oct 1 that it claims will reduce environmental damage to the wall.
The county government has signed agreements with towns and villages along the Great Wall for them to protect it.
