The scenery of Badaling Great Wall in autumn. [Photo/Xinhua]

According to a report on China's Great Wall protection, recently released by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the sections of the Great Wall in China total a distance of 21,196.18 kilometers, distributed throughout 404 counties, cities or regions in 15 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities nationwide, such as Beijing, Hebei and Shanxi.

You may not realize what 21,196 km means. While the world's longest river Nile is around 6,670 km, the Great Wall is more than three times the river's length.

The length of the Great Wall means it's very difficult to protect and maintain. The state administration reveals that an overall plan for the protection of the Great Wall will be finished before the end of next year. Rescue and reinforcement projects will be implemented first on a batch of endangered wall sections, drones will be used to strengthen inspection and financial support for less developed regions along the Great Wall will be made a priority.

Drones will be used to patrol

The report says that as most parts of the Great Wall were built with local materials and concreted by rammed earth, after having gone through weathering, erosion and damage from human activities, many sections have collapsed or have been destroyed.

However, protection work was ignored by local governments and some parts of the Great Wall were left with no supervision.

Liu Yuzhu, head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said that a national-level monitoring and supervision system will be established, and by collaborating with mapping departments, drones will be used to strengthen patrol and regular maintenance.