A worker inspecting at a restored part of the Great Wall in Xiangshuihu in Huairou District, on the outskirts of Beijing. Workers painstakingly reinstall large stones that had fallen off the Great Wall as mules bring them sacks of building material up a steep mountainside on the outskirts of China's capital. Photo: AFP
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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