BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Vendors who crowd out the crowds on the top of the Great Wall hawking cheap souvenirs, selling snakes or taking photos for a price have been told they'll have to set up shop off the wall.

    For more than 30 years, vendors have worked the Great Wall competing for space with tens of thousands of daily visitors who walk the steep and at times precarious parapets.

    The more than 30 vending stands and booths on the wall are causing damage and many visitors find the boisterous peddlers create a carnival atmosphere that distracts from the experience.

    By the end of the year, Yanqing County, where the Great Wall is located, will move all the stands on the most-visited, 7.6 kilometer-long Badaling section of the Great Wall to nearby tourist shopping mall, said Sheng Guirong, an official with the county government.

    Sixty-one vending stands beside the Great Wall are also to be moved and the 10,000 square meters they now take up will be turned into a public display showing the history of the 500-year-old wall.

    Built during the Ming Dynasty, the Badaling section, 70 km northwest of Beijing, attracts over 130 million visitors a year.