A remote stretch of China's Great Wall near Beijing has suffered lasting damage after being used for almost 20 years as a dumping ground for coal-mining waste.
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According to a report by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, the wall's Guojiayao section, located in Shanxi province, first sustained damage in 2007 when an unlicensed mining operator, Ningwu Chaokai Coal Industry, cut a trench through the wall to discard excavation debris. In 2013, several mining teams merged to form Shenda Chaokai Coal Industry, which continued exploiting the breach to dump slag rather than transport it along longer mountain routes.
CCTV reported that local authorities failed to act on repeated warnings from whistleblowers dating back to 2015, allowing the damage to continue unchecked for nearly two decades and eventually leaving a six-metre gap in the historic structure.
Because of its isolated location, the lesser-known Guojiayao section was particularly exposed to neglect, even though China's 2006 Regulation on Protection of the Great Wall requires heritage authorities to take immediate action and alert higher-level officials whenever damage is reported. The law also mandates the placement of physical boundary markers, yet these were not installed along the Guojiayao stretch until 2025, CCTV said.
Local officials reportedly told the broadcaster that the damage had gone unaddressed for years owing to poor conservation practices and infrequent inspections.
As news agency PTI cited Hong Kong based SCMP, Provincial authorities only intervened this past March, when sustained public complaints and media coverage prompted Shanxi to set up a special task force to investigate the company's alleged illegal mining and heritage destruction.
The firm was subsequently fined a total of one million yuan (US$149,000) for unauthorised construction within a protected cultural relics zone and for severe damage to the site, and its former executive and controlling figure were detained in May.
CCTV noted that similar unmonitored mining has caused serious damage to other Great Wall sections in Ningwu.
On Tuesday, the Ningwu county government pledged a sweeping crackdown on heritage damage and illegal slag dumping, promising emergency repairs, structural reinforcement, ecological restoration, and disciplinary action against officials found to have neglected their duties.
