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June 2009
Even more Great Wall to visit! In April 2009, China's State Bureau for Mapping and Surveying revealed that the Great Wall of China is in fact over 1,500km longer than originally thought. This does not mean an addition of 1,500km at either end of the Great Wall, but the discovery of 'missing' pieces of wall and the extension of sub-branches. A project together with China's State Administration for Cultural Heritage (SACH) has been surveying the Great Wall using Chinese global positioning satellites over the past two years. Much of the 'newly' discovered Wall has been buried in sand, mud and silt over the past several decades or even centuries, and shows that the Wall was much more linked up than can be seen by the naked eye. Many people believe that the Wall was contiguous, by linking manmade wall with trenches and natural barriers. Obvious gaps in the wall have cast doubt on this belief, but now missing parts of the wall might soon be revealed. Due to end next year, the project will probably precede an effort to mark and expose the missing parts of the Great Wall in an effort by China to fully understand one of its greatest pieces of cultural and architectural heritage. For further information in English see news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8008108.stm. For the State Bureau of Mapping and Surveying press release in Chinese see sbsm.gov.cn/article/ztzl/mcccdsjfbzt/mtbd/200904/20090400051436.shtml
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