Watch: Mules, Tools and Old Bricks: Rebuilding China’s Great Wall

April 30, 2026 at 12:20 PM
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Beijing, China: Nature, time, neglect and millions of footsteps have taken their toll on the Great Wall of China leaving much of it crumbling, but repairing it can be painstaking — and controversial — work. After public outcry when a 700-year-old section of the monument was ‘fixed’ by covering it with cement — authorities insisted on more authentic restoration using traditional methods: so now labourers, aided by mules, use reclaimed stones and mortar.

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