Guo Zhongxing (first from the right) and the construction party discuss the repair plan of the Great Wall on the spot
Guo Zhongxing (2016 National Tourism System Advanced Worker, Director of jinshanling Great Wall Cultural Relics Management Office, Luanping County, Chengde, Hebei)
In 1998, I went to work on the Jinshanling Great Wall in Chengde, Hebei Province, and worked for 24 years. As a guardian of the Great Wall, I have witnessed the changes of the Jinshanling Great Wall in recent years, especially in the past 10 years, with the country's greater attention to and support for the protection of the Great Wall, the Jinshanling Great Wall has made great breakthroughs in civil air defense, technical defense, etc., many new technologies and new equipment have also been comprehensively applied to daily protection, and the 4000-meter essence section of the Jinshanling Great Wall has been completely repaired. Today, the construction of the Great Wall National Cultural Park makes me feel very excited and excited, and the Great Wall will usher in a new journey.
Inspecting the Great Wall every day is the work of our guardians of the Great Wall, there are not many vigorous things, and the protection of the Great Wall is in the daily bits and pieces. Previously, there has been debate in all walks of life about the treatment of the vegetation growing on the Great Wall. In order to explore effective protection methods, we pay attention to observation during inspections, especially on rainy days, we will monitor the rainwater of the original section of the Great Wall Road, which requires standing in the rain for several hours in a raincoat. In this way, the accumulated experience of the months allows us to find that the shrubs with a diameter of more than 2 centimeters have potential harm to the city wall and need to be treated in time, ordinary shrubs and wild grasses have formed a whole with the Great Wall, and pulling it out will make the soil layer washed by rain and aggravate the infringement on the Great Wall itself.
The snow scenery of the Jinshanling Great Wall is particularly beautiful. Because of the snow scene, many tourists who come here to take pictures have had some small conflicts with us. After the snowfall, it is necessary to sweep away the snow on the essence section of the Great Wall of Jinshanling in time, otherwise the Great Wall Horse Road bricks will freeze and thaw, repeatedly "melting snow, freezing, re-snowing, and re-freezing", in this process, the Horse Road bricks will be "skinned" layer by layer, becoming more and more unstable, and then affecting the safety of the wall. I also love photography myself, and I can especially understand the mood of tourists who don't want to see us clear the snow, but if the Great Wall itself has been damaged, can such a beautiful view still exist?
In order to better protect the Jinshanling Great Wall, in 2016, we implemented the Great Wall Security Protection Grid Management System, which details and systematizes the daily work of each Great Wall protector. Comprehensively carry out the monitoring work of the Jinshanling Great Wall, and successively formulate and improve the monitoring mechanism of the "ontology monitoring" of the Great Wall, the "environmental monitoring" of scenic spots, the "management monitoring" of institutions, and the "market monitoring" of tourism, so that the "Great Wall Protector" will become the "Great Wall Monitor". At the same time, from 2014 to 2022, I presided over the completion of more than 2,000 meters of walls and 16 enemy towers along the East Five-Eye Tower to the Six-Eye Tower of the Jinshanling Great Wall, as well as the key projects of jinshanling Great Wall National Cultural Park "Jinshanling Great Wall Protection and Display Project" and "Waterlogged Five Beams Great Wall Rescue and Reinforcement Project".
Walking on the Great Wall every day, the most common tourists are seen. Over the years, the overall quality of tourists has become higher and higher, and although the act of engraving the Great Wall is much less than before, it sometimes happens. In 2020, a young couple carved their names on the wall of the General Building, and the Great Wall protectors immediately reported it after discovering it, but the person concerned had already left the Great Wall. After we called the police, the public security organs immediately launched an investigation, and finally the parties were subjected to administrative detention for 10 days and a fine of 500 yuan, and exposed in the media. This incident made tourists understand the attitude of the Jinshanling Great Wall to zero tolerance for vandalism, and also urged us to do a good job in publicizing the protection of the Great Wall and enhance the public's awareness of protecting the Great Wall. In 2022, I registered the Douyin live broadcast number "Great Wall Laoguo", and in my spare time, I led the majority of netizens online to deeply understand the history and culture of the Great Wall, popularize the knowledge of the Great Wall, disseminate the concept of Great Wall protection, and publicize the laws and regulations on the protection of the Great Wall.
In August 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Chengde and fully affirmed the protection of cultural relics in Chengde and placed great expectations on it. "The Great Wall of Jinshan, the Unique Beauty of Jinshanling", the Jinshanling Great Wall is the essence of the Great Wall, and it is also one of the best protected sections of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty. I am proud to be the guardian of the Great Wall, and I will guard the Jinshanling Great Wall as I love my own life. It is hoped that the Jinshanling Great Wall will be better integrated into the lives of the people and become a carrier for enhancing the people's spiritual strength.
I was deeply touched by the Great Wall Protector
Ms. Zhang (Beijing tourist, online name Mao Mao)
I am a photography enthusiast and a Great Wall fan. For more than ten years, I have traveled almost all over the surrounding Great Wall, but what makes me most fond of it is the Jinshanling Great Wall in Chengde, Hebei Province. In 2009, the Beijing-Chengde Expressway was not opened to traffic, in order to shoot the magnificence of the Jinshanling Great Wall, I had to drive for four or five hours, the traffic was very inconvenient, but for photographers, all the hard work was worth it.
The beauty of the Jinshanling Great Wall is difficult to describe in words, it is really "easy to move", and the scenery of the four seasons is picturesque. Jinshanling Great Wall is a place where photographers are made, where tourists can take large pictures with their mobile phones, which is worthy of being a paradise for hiking enthusiasts and a paradise for photographers.
Compared with the Great Wall in other places, the Jinshanling Great Wall is too unique, especially the dense enemy towers. Here you can see 67 enemy towers of different shapes, including square buildings, circular buildings, flat buildings, and corner towers; There are flat-roofed, canopy-roofed, domed, four-corner drilled sky and octagonal algae well roof; There are brick and wood structures, masonry structures; There are single-layer and double-layered. How many times I have been to the Jinshanling Great Wall over the years, I can't remember for sure. I found that after several repairs, the Jinshanling Great Wall retains the sense of historical vicissitudes and thickness, the Great Wall's cultural relics and cultural heritage and the surrounding natural ecology are also better and better protected, and a new visitor center and an electronic navigation system have been launched... In short, cultural relics are safer and more convenient for tourists. A few years ago, the bus from Beijing to Jinshanling was opened, which is very friendly to Beijing tourists.
In the Jinshanling Great Wall, in addition to tourists, I have seen the most is the Great Wall protector, the number of times to go, and many protectors are also familiar with, sometimes will be specially photographed them. I was impressed by a conservator in his 50s whose face was like an oil painting due to a long period of field work. One winter, it snowed heavily in Chengde, Hebei Province, because of the obsession with the Great Wall in the snow, they bravely climbed up in the snow and wind, only to see the Great Wall protectors wrapped in artificial leather on their legs and wearing cotton clothes, patrolling and removing snow on the Great Wall. In winter, the wind on the Great Wall is very strong, and the temperature during the day is also more than ten degrees Celsius below zero, and there is almost no shelter from the wind. At noon, they find a relatively sheltered corner and eat the lunch they brought in the morning - a special insulated box lunch specially equipped for them in the scenic spot. Although their work is very hard, their feelings for the Great Wall are the most simple, which deeply touched me.
There are many foreigners visiting the Jinshanling Great Wall, and captain Lin, the protector of the Great Wall I know, can also communicate in simple English. In the face of the different needs of tourists, the Great Wall protectors will give help within their capabilities. I once walked on the Great Wall for more than ten hours, and borrowed water from the Great Wall protectors to drink. Because I like the Jinshanling Great Wall, I reluctantly leave every time when the scenic spot is close to closing. At that time, it was common to see the Great Wall protectors carrying down the mountain the garbage collected during the inspection of the Great Wall, which was a very hard job, and they were great.
Every year, the Jinshanling Great Wall holds a variety of activities with rich contents. Over the years, I have participated in activities such as the Jinshanling Great Wall Apricot Blossom Festival, the Jinshanling Great Wall Marathon, and the "Cultural and Natural Heritage Day", which not only showed the charm of the Great Wall, but also made the excellent traditional Chinese culture "fire". I hope that in the future, more colorful cultural tourism activities will be held to promote the tourism of the Great Wall, but also to let more people understand the culture of the Great Wall and join the team of protecting the Great Wall.
(Reporter: Fan Haigang Interview: Li Qiuyun)
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