The Ming Dynasty Baiyangcheng Great Wall, located in Liucun Town, Changping District, Beijing, is part of Beijing's inner Great Wall and is listed as a cultural relic protection unit of Beijing Municipality. With the vigorous development of folk tourism in recent years, however, man-made parking lots, illegally piled construction materials and the like have appeared beside Great Wall sites such as the Baiyangcheng Great Wall, threatening the safety of the Great Wall itself.

Since the beginning of this year, in accordance with the requirements of the "Great Wall Protection Public Interest Action" of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate, the Changping District People's Procuratorate of Beijing has stepped up its efforts in Great Wall protection within its jurisdiction, using "data screening plus manual survey" to identify clues of damage to the Great Wall's historical appearance, and urging relevant departments through procuratorial suggestions and other means to fully perform their Great Wall protection duties in accordance with the law.

Not long ago, under the supervision of a pre-litigation procuratorial suggestion from the Changping District Procuratorate, the illegally built parking lot adjacent to the Baiyangcheng Great Wall site was demolished, revealing more than 2,000 square meters of land in its original state. At the same time, several Great Wall protection markers were restored here, full-time personnel were assigned to patrol and maintain the site, and a plan to create an electronic map of the Great Wall was successfully approved.

　　Parking lot built without approval

Changping District is an area of Beijing relatively rich in Great Wall resources, with 8 points and sections of Great Wall from the Northern Qi and Ming dynasties totaling about 41 kilometers, accounting for 7.8 percent of Beijing's Great Wall resources. The walls of the Baiyangcheng site were built in the mid-Ming Dynasty and, together with the Juyongguan City, Changyu City, Hengling City and Zhenbian City in western Changping District, formed the military defense system northwest of the capital; it was an ancient military stronghold with rich historical and cultural landscapes. Baiyangcheng Village, adjacent to the wall site, has developed in recent years into a folk tourism village in Changping District.

In March this year, the Sixth Procuratorial Department of the Changping District Procuratorate found during a visit that in recent years, in the course of vigorously developing green tourism, Baiyangcheng Village had built a parking lot within the Great Wall protection area, piled bricks on the wall, and left construction waste scattered in the surrounding area with no one to clean it up for a long time, damaging the Great Wall's appearance and the safety of the wall itself. After an on-site investigation, the Changping District Procuratorate decided to initiate public interest litigation proceedings and opened a case for investigation.

During the investigation, the prosecutors handling the case went to the Changping District Cultural Relics Bureau and other places many times to obtain and review cultural relic archives, land planning nature and planning permit procedures and other documents, and to verify the land use situation of the parking lot at the foot of the Great Wall.

The investigation found that, in order to develop a culture of cycling across the pass, a parking lot was built in 2015 as a supporting station for Changping District's "Hundred-Li Ring Corridor" cycling route. However, this parking lot, covering about 2,000 square meters, was built without going through planning approval procedures, presenting problems such as construction before approval and occupation of naturally retained land; moreover, judging from the site conditions, the parking lot is located within the 500-meter protection range of the Great Wall itself, close to the wall, and lacks an effective buffer distance from passing vehicles and villagers' activities.

Having grasped the basic situation, the Changping District Procuratorate immediately coordinated with the cultural relic protection department and organized experts to consult and deliberate on the potential safety hazards and actual harm that the parking lot construction and cycling activities might bring to the Great Wall itself. The deliberation results showed that the construction of the parking lot affected the safety of the cultural relics at the Great Wall point and section, the historical appearance and the surrounding environment, harming national interests and the public interest.

　　Procuratorial suggestions urge performance of duties

On the basis of full investigation and communication in the earlier stage, on April 9 this year, the Changping District Procuratorate, in accordance with the Cultural Relics Protection Law of China, the Regulations on the Protection of the Great Wall and the Measures for the Protection and Management of the Great Wall of Beijing and other provisions, issued a procuratorial suggestion to the Changping District Culture and Tourism Bureau.

The reporter noted that in this procuratorial suggestion, the procuratorial organ suggested that the Changping District Culture and Tourism Bureau should strictly implement the policy of "protection first, rescue first, rational use and strengthened management" and fully perform its duties in accordance with the law. At the same time, it suggested that the bureau, together with the local government, properly handle the parking lot at the Baiyangcheng Great Wall point and section, promptly clean up the surrounding garbage and preserve the Great Wall's simple and ancient appearance; strictly implement regulatory responsibilities, strengthen daily patrols, inspections, maintenance and repair of cultural relics, and earnestly safeguard national cultural relics such as the Great Wall.

Shao Yanyan, director of the Sixth Procuratorial Department of the Changping District Procuratorate, told the reporter that after receiving the procuratorial suggestion, the Changping District Culture and Tourism Bureau immediately took action, cleaned up the garbage piled on and around the Great Wall wall, and joined with 9 villages in the jurisdiction to carry out a district-wide campaign to investigate and rectify hidden dangers to cultural relics. With regard to illegal construction around the Great Wall, the district culture and tourism bureau also specially invited cultural relic protection experts to assess the current status of protection, utilization and management of the Great Wall at this point and section, so as to scientifically guide the rational use of the Great Wall cultural heritage. For problems found in the investigation, the Changping District Culture and Tourism Bureau also organized the town government and village committee to jointly hold an on-site work meeting and issued orders for rectification to 3 towns.

On June 10, accompanied by the roar of bulldozers, the illegal construction adjacent to the wall was demolished. This demolition and land leveling covered 2,000 square meters and restored 4 protection markers; it also prompted Changping District to select a new site, plan and build a standardized supporting station for cycling facilities, and approve a project to create an electronic map of the Great Wall, with introductions to Great Wall culture and protection reminders at Great Wall locations.

　　Pooling efforts to protect the Great Wall

Promoting Great Wall protection through procuratorial power was not as easy as imagined, and one scene has always lingered in the mind of the prosecuting prosecutor. "When a villager in his seventies heard that the parking lot was to be demolished, he said excitedly that he had lived here for decades and simply did not feel that the parking lot had any impact on the Great Wall site," Shao Yanyan recalled.

In order to persuade the villagers to recognize the importance of Great Wall protection, the prosecutors ran to the village time and again, explaining the importance of Great Wall protection to village officials and villagers over and over, reasoning with them and moving them with emotion.

The smooth restoration of the Baiyangcheng Great Wall to its original state is only a microcosm of Great Wall protection work. The reporter learned that, in order to continue to pay attention to and strengthen the protection and management of the Great Wall, the Changping District Procuratorate and the Changping District Culture and Tourism Bureau signed the "Great Wall Protection Public Interest Collaboration Mechanism," set up a "public interest prosecutor plus Great Wall protector" patrol team, established collaboration mechanisms for clue transfer, information sharing, investigation and evidence collection, and joint supervision, and joined hands to carry out Great Wall protection work.

On June 5, the Changping District Procuratorate, together with the district culture and tourism bureau, the Liucun Town government, volunteers and Great Wall protectors, jointly conducted a "look back" at another Great Wall protection public interest litigation case previously handled—the case of man-made damage to the Gaolou Great Wall.

Several years ago, the Changping District Procuratorate issued a pre-litigation procuratorial suggestion to the district culture and tourism bureau over this case. In accordance with the procuratorial suggestion, the public security organ opened a criminal case for investigation, and the district culture and tourism bureau, after reporting to higher authorities for approval, promptly launched repair work on the damaged Great Wall. With the follow-up and supervision of the procuratorial organ, in October 2019 the damaged wall section involved in the case was urgently repaired and reinforced, and the damaged Great Wall was restored to its original state.

During this "look back," the procuratorial personnel found upon on-site re-inspection that, due to increased Great Wall protection publicity, Great Wall enthusiasts had spontaneously erected a stone monument at the Gaolou site commemorating the victory of the War of Resistance, which, while honoring the martyrs, also served a good educational and warning role. However, the procuratorial personnel also found that problems such as illegal climbing of unopened sections of the Great Wall still existed there, and immediately transferred the clues to the relevant units.

Taking this case as an opportunity, Changping District, relying on vice principals for rule of law, carried out themed rule-of-law classes on "promoting Great Wall culture and telling Great Wall stories well" to pass on Great Wall culture; recently it also joined procuratorial organs in Mentougou District, Yanqing District and Zhangjiakou City of Hebei Province to jointly sign the "Opinions on Establishing a Cross-Regional Great Wall Protection Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Work Mechanism in Northwest Beijing," which specifies that the procuratorial organs of the four places should follow the four principles of collaboration and cooperation, complementary advantages, information sharing and seeking practical results, establish and improve five major mechanisms of jurisdiction collaboration, clue transfer, joint case handling, consultation and liaison among the four places, deepen cross-regional Great Wall protection procuratorial public interest litigation collaboration, pool efforts, and jointly build a judicial barrier for cross-regional Great Wall protection in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.