BEIJING, Aug 24 (AFP) - China's Great Wall is under such serious threat from human development that the central government has taken the drastic step of seizing control of the landmark from local governments, an expert said Tuesday.
Dong Yaohui, secretary-general of the Chinese Great Wall Society (CGWS), said the Chinese government would soon pass regulations to protect the structure.
"The State Council (China's cabinet) is expected to issue a set of regulations specifically banning destruction of the Great Wall by the end of this year," Dong, whose group serves as an advisory body to the government, told AFP.
"There is a draft law in place. We're just working out the details, such as how to punish violators."
The regulations will put the Great Wall under the direct protection of the state and will mark the first regulations targetting protection of the landmark.
Currently, the responsibility of protecting the wall, which stretches across several provinces and municipalities, is down to different local governments.
But this has proven ineffective, Dong said.
Less than 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) remain of the 6,300 kilometer long wall that was first built in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC).
It was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to keep out northern tribes threatening the Chinese heartland.
Much of the wall's degradation happened before 1949, but "destructive human behavior" driven by economic development in the past two decades seriously threaten what remains, Dong said.
Local governments have torn down the wall for new construction projects such as highways and businessmen have renovated it for tourism purposes without authorization and in violation of its original design, he said.
Near the Badaling section of the Great Wall in suburban Beijing, a real estate developer recently built 11 villas, damaging the monument's ancient look.
"There's a lack of awarness about the need to protect the Great Wall. No one has been punished for the destruction," Dong told AFP.
To promote protection, Dong said the CGWS plans to recruit volunteers to monitor sections of the wall they live near for an allowance greater than what they earn from farming.
A committee was also established last year to raise funds in China and abroad to protect the wall and CGWS will soon organize overseas exhibitions.
Parts of the Great Wall were listed as a UN World Heritage site in 1987 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Its deterioration is now so bad that the "Cultural Landscape of the Great Wall, Beijing region," was listed as one of the world's 100 most endangered cultural sites by the World Monument Funds in 2002.