Beijing to renovate wild Great Wall section

BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Beijing will continue to finance the renovation of a section of the Great Wall with original wall bricks.

The Jiankou Great Wall in Beijing's Huairou district is one of the most dangerous and wild parts of the wall in the city.

Guo Dapeng with the Huairou Cultural Commission said the renovation will start in May. A 1,000-meter section has already been renovated. The commission plans to finish renovating the 7.7 km section with 51 watchtowers by 2022 at a cost of of 155 million yuan (24 million U.S.dollars).

Cheng Yongmao, a contractor on the renovation program, said it is a very difficult project as most of the work has to be done manually, with workers climbing the mountain slopes carrying the bricks by hand.

Cheng's firm, Huairou Construction Group, has 14 years of experience of the Great Wall renovation.

He said that in the restoration last year, the largest stone weighed 500 kg. Aided by climbing machines, workers pulled it up 200 meters of hillside.

According to Beijing's Great Wall survey in 2006, the remaining Great Wall sections in the city are 573 km long, of which 526 km is from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Enditem