From voluntarily collecting historical materials related to the Great Wall in his Shanxi hometown in Province to becoming an official cultural heritage protector, Yuan Xuerui has spent over twenty years safeguarding the ancient wonder.
China's Great Wall is one of the great wonders of the world and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built from 3 BC to the 1800s on the north of the country, the Great Wall has a total length of more than 20,000 kilometers.
Yuan, 55, was born in Qingxibao at the foot of the ancient wall in Shanxi's Daixian county, which is part of the city of Xinzhou. His love for the ancient wall motivated (激励) him to protect it, and when not engaged (从事) in farm work, he spent most of his time walking along the wall to collect bricks that had fallen off due to the long time and prepare for repairs. "What others think as a difficult and dull task of cultural heritage protection often brings me unexpected discoveries," Yuan said.
He officially became a cultural heritage worker in 2018, and since then his duties have expanded from collecting bricks to organizing ancient documents related to the wall to better tell stories about it. As a heritage worker, Yuan has come to understand the meaning of the Great Wall. "Each brick has endured (忍受) the test of time over hundreds of years—in some cases more than a thousand—carrying rich historical memories," he said.
This summer, Yuan organized a campaign to call for people to collect bricks for the future repair of the wall. Many bricks were taken away from the Great Wall by local villagers to build their houses in the 1960s and 1970s. "As villagers' awareness of the need to protect the wall has grown, nowadays, when locals find fallen bricks along the Great Wall, they will pick them up," he said. "If they see garbage, they will also pick it up and throw it into bins."
a. He made speeches. b. He collect bricks. c. He engaged in farm work.
d. He organized ancient documents. e. He called for people to join in.
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