For almost 20 years, coal-mining waste was reportedly dumped through a man-made opening in a remote Ming-era stretch of China's Great Wall, effectively repurposing a major cultural landmark as a route for industrial slag.
Attention on the case centers not just on the wall's destruction, but on whistleblower claims that officials ignored repeated warnings for years.
According to the South China Morning Post, the trouble began in 2007 when the unlicensed miner Ningwu Chaokai Coal Industry cut through the Guojiayao section to simplify disposal of excavation waste. The company continued using that opening after Shenda Chaokai Coal Industry was formed through a 2013 merger of mining teams.
Whistleblower reports began in 2015, yet local authorities failed to stop the dumping, and the wall was left with a gap about 19 feet (six meters) wide.
The Great Wall took shape over many centuries and was further expanded during the Ming dynasty, from 1368 to 1644. Running more than 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometers) across northern China, it is widely seen as both a symbol of Chinese civilization and a major World Cultural Heritage site.
Under China's Regulation on Protection of the Great Wall, authorities are supposed to move quickly after damage is reported, but the Guojiayao section did not receive physical boundary markers until 2025.
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