Tourists visit a defensive tower along the Great Wall in Beijing's Huairou district. Photo: IC

 The 2022 Beijing Great Wall Cultural Festival Photo: Lin Xiaoyi/GT

The opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Great Wall Cultural Festival kicked off at Gubei Water Town in Beijing on Saturday, revealing an exciting 400-kilometer-long "Great Wall scenic route" that includes the town's key scenic spot the Simatai Great Wall - one of the best preserved Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) sections of the Great Wall. 

The newly introduced scenic route is called the "Jingji Great Wall." "Jingji" refers to Beijing and its environs. The project aims to bind the various national-level Great Wall sections spreading across Beijing's six districts, such as the Miyun, Yanqing and Huairou, linking together along one route.  

The Jingji Great Wall site will also become a Great Wall-themed cultural tourist hub packed with 39 3A-level (or above) tourist attractions, five national-level tourism demonstration zones and two touristic consumption agglomeration zones as well as 19 national-level rural tourist spots. 

Liu Bin, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau, noted at the opening ceremony that the project is a symbolic part of the establishment of the Great Wall National Cultural Park, a national-level park set to be completed in 2035 to promote China's Great Wall culture. 

The proposition of the construction of 400-kilometer-long "Great Wall scenic route"means that in the future, we will not only protect the cultural heritage itself, but also pay attention to the overall landscape elements around the Great Wall, which will further expand the subjects of the Great Wall's conservation and make the scope of the research work more comprehensive. Shang Heng, a researcher at the Beijing Archaeological Research Institute,told the Global Times.

Bi Jianyu, director of the Heritage Division of the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau, told the Global Times that besides the Jingji Great Wall plan, the 2022 festival especially opened up a section for the public to see the results of the country's cultural relic conservation efforts.

Ever since 2018, the pilot work of introducing archaeological excavation methods to the protection and repair of the Great Wall has been carried out through projects such as renovation and research projects along the Dazhuangke section and the Jiankou sections of the Great Wall in Yanqing and Huairou districts. Additionally, there are currently 17 Great Wall protection projects under way in Beijing. 

"This reflects the fact that we are currently making protection of the Great Wall a top priority," Bi noted. 

Interdisciplinary research and digital innovation are two other creative facets fueling China's efforts to conserve and promote Great Wall culture. 

Chen Mingjie, director of the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau, told media that through close cooperation in fields such as materials science, structural mechanics and botany, they are promoting a new mode of conservation and repair of the Great Wall. 

China's leading digital giant Tencent has also been contributing to these efforts through the online project "Cloud Visits to the Great Wall," which enable users to "cross" the Great Wall on their mobile devices. 

The projects mark the first time that an immersive and interactive digital restoration of the Great Wall has been presented through cloud technology.  

Other digital conservation efforts also include collaborative research with China's Tianjin University to establish a three-dimensional database. Additionally, the Great Wall Environmental Vibration Disaster Cloud Monitoring Technology Library was co-launched with the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. 

"Such digital conservation efforts are important for promoting the culture overseas without being limited by geography or cultural differences. Also, they are important scientific attempts to preserve ancient Chinese culture for our future generations." Xu Suming, an cultural relics expert, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

The festival will include visits to the Great Wall as well as Great Wall-themed photo exhibitions, an antique market, the Gubei Great Wall temple fair and photography exhibitions and other cultural activities.  

"To guide the public from 'looking at attractions' to 'personally experiencing culture,' the festival has become an important means of enhancing people's sense of happiness and fulfilment," Bi noted.

"The Great Wall is a magnificent architectural wonder and an unparalleled cultural landscape in human history," Shang noted.