The first indicator of potential change at Badaling came in 2002, when China revised its Law on Protection of Cultural Relics. Then in 2003, Beijing introduced the Administrative Regulations on Protection of the Great Wall.

    The 2002 State Law rules that the right and responsibility of caring for the country's cultural relics rests with governmental cultural relics regulatory institutions. But in reality, government organs like gardening, tourism and state-owned companies often share the rights, if not the responsibility.

    For a cultural relic, the Great Wall is unique in its size and complexity. Walls meander thousands of miles, passing through a handful of provinces and more than 200 counties of North China. A large portion of the Great Wall is located in poor, remote areas where few people reside. Just how long is the wall? Nobody knows for sure. The traditional estimate is 50,000 li, or 25,000 kilometers. The main leftovers of the Great Wall were rebuilt in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Together, they measure about 6,700 kilometers. Until now, no official survey has been conducted to find out the exact length. The government plans to use remote sensors and other sophisticated technologies to measure the length in the near future, said He Shuzhong, deputy head of the Policy and Regulation Division at the State Cultural Relics Bureau in the Ministry of Culture.

    "The great value of the Great Wall is its great size of 10-thousand plus li," said Dong Yaohui. Dong ought to know: He walked the entire length of the Wall, west-east, between 1984 and 1985. He's probably the first known Great Wall-walker since the founding of modern China. From his own experience, Dong said about one third of the Wall remained in reasonable shape, another third was in ruins, and the rest was gone forever.

    The conditions of the different sections of the Great Wall vary as does the standard for its conservation, said He Shuzhong. He argues that the unique complexity of the Wall merits a special law dedicated to its preservation. Local regulations are of limited effectiveness. National regulations were submitted at the end of 2004 for approval by the State Council, which promised to deal with the issue as a priority for this year. The regulations are likely to be released this coming summer, He believed.

    "The law alone is certainly not enough," he said. "but (when problems arise in the future) at least you will have a law to turn to."

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