The Great Wall of China is slowly disappearing due to natural, weather-related causes, as well as people stealing the brick to build houses, state media reported this week.
"Even though some of the walls are built of bricks and stones, they cannot withstand the perennial exposure to wind and rain," said Dong Yaohui, a vice president of the Great Wall of China Society,
according to Discovery News.
"Many towers are becoming increasingly shaky and may collapse in a single rain storm in summer."
In total, roughly 30 percent of the man-built sections of the wall are missing (much of the wall consists of natural barriers).
The wall was built in the third century BC, and roughly 4,000 miles of it were built during the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644. That means 1,200 miles of wall has been dilapidated and/or carted away by locals.
Stealing piece of the wall comes with a 5,000 yuan ($800) fine, but enforcement has been an extremely low priority for both local and national enforcement bodies.
"There is no specific organization to enforce the rules. Damage could only be reported to higher authorities and it is hard to solve when it happened on the border of two provinces," said Jia Hailin, a cultural relics protection official in Hebei.
While urban myth has it that the wall is visible from space, astronauts have confirmed that it is unfortunately not. It's certainly long enough, but not quite wide enough.
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