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Article: The rise and fall of China's Great Wall: the race to save a world treasure. (Special Report).
- Article from:
- Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- September 27, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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MADE OF BRICK, STONE, and dirt, the Great Wall twists and turns across China's landscape like a giant dragon. It seems to rise out of the sea at Bo Hal gulf, a place known to local people as Laolongtou, or "the old dragon's head." The wall then stretches across the plains, crawls along the sides of mountains and scales their peaks as it spans the Asian countryside.
This ancient wonder, built entirely by hand, often overwhelms visitors. On a trip to the wall in 1909, French scholar Auguste Gilbert de Voisins said, "Nothing stops it, nothing gets in its way; seeing it at this point, one might believe it to be eternal."
Today, however, neglect, misuse, and ...