The Simatai section of the Great Wall, some 120 kilometers northeast of Beijing, is considered one of the most spectacular stretches of China's No. 1 tourist draw. While this area is relatively well-protected, other less-acclaimed stretches have been subject to the unchecked ravages of time and the damaging impact of people. View Slideshow 
BEIJING -- The Great Wall of China is the symbol of a nation, a wonder of the world and a tourist cash cow that generates millions of dollars a year. It's also vanishing.
That's hard to believe for the majority of visitors to China, for whom a trip to the Great Wall involves a short bus ride to the tacky tourist resort of Badaling, which lies 50 miles northwest of the capital, Beijing.
For a structure whose origins pre-date Christ -- the 4,500-mile wall was built in stages over 10 dynasties, starting in 221 B.C. -- the Badaling stretch perhaps lacks the authentic charm of older sections. It was restored in 1957 and has been exploited with a massive parking area, fairground rides and souvenir stalls, not to mention a talking panda and a cuckoo clock that plays "The East Is Red."
Looking at the hoards of camera-toting tourists jostling for the best backdrop for their shots there, it's hard to take seriously claims that a structure that would stretch from Miami to Seattle could one day disappear.
Dong Yaohui, secretary-general of the Great Wall Society of China, delivers the wake-up call. "Believe it or not, the Great Wall is crumbling, unable to withstand natural deterioration and calamities caused by people."
Dong, who has personally surveyed huge sections of the structure originally built as a defensive barrier against marauding invaders, says he believes that of the portion built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), less than 20 percent is still intact.
A probe of 100 sections drew the alarming conclusion that a third of the structure has already vanished, subject to the natural ravages of the weather and the encroaching Gobi Desert, as well as the attention of peasants and farmers living in its shadow.
Of the country's 1.3 billion people, 900 million live far from China's rapidly developing cities in the country's vast, poor hinterlands. This is where most of the wall is also found, well outside the comfort zone of most tourists and the eyes of image-conscious government officials.
What Dong's survey team found shocked them: They encountered local farmers living along the Great Wall simply unaware of what it is. They witnessed bricks being carted away by people to build houses, sheep corrals and pigsties. One 1,000-meter section in Hebei Province, which neighbors Beijing, vanished in the space of a year after locals took stones and foundation materials for repairs.
While seldom-visited sections are at the mercy of natural deterioration and plundering locals, some semi-developed portions fall prey to souvenir hunters. Bricks carved with people's names and sold for around $3 each are a particular favorite. Litter and millions of footprints add to the deterioration.
Still, the wall has some passionate backers determined to stop the rot. Englishman William Lindesay, founder and director-general of International Friends of the Great Wall, has dubbed it the world's largest open-air museum. Unfortunately, he says, the "museum" has no curator.
Lindesay, who has walked more than 1,000 miles of its length, decries the free-for-all that is exacerbating the decline. "There has been no checking, reprimanding, let alone prosecuting of those who have damaged the nation's and the world's heritage," Lindesay said.
He organized the first public cleanup of the wall four years ago. Now he is calling for the drafting of dedicated Great Wall legislation and an immediate reassessment of the cultural designation currently given different sections.
The "cultural landscape" encompassed by about 400 miles of the wall near Beijing has been included in the U.S.-based World Monuments Fund for the world's 100 most endangered sites. Lindesay believes many other less-lauded stretches of what he calls the "wild wall" are grossly under-protected.
In a country currently pumping millions of unbudgeted dollars into the fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome, many still regard protection of large areas of an old (and in some eyes useless) wall as a luxury.
Even so, a new Great Wall Law has just been instigated with stiff penalties for offenders. Those who litter, deface or build within a certain distance of the Great Wall will be subject to prison sentences of up to seven years.
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