--- title: Chinese Government Allows Tourists to Graffiti the Great Wall of China description: You won't even get in trouble for it! canonical: https://time.com/12303/now-you-can-graffiti-the-great-wall-of-china/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-04T16:45:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:26.997Z og:title: Chinese Government Allows Tourists to Graffiti the Great Wall of China og:description: You won't even get in trouble for it! og:url: https://time.com/12303/now-you-can-graffiti-the-great-wall-of-china/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12738b76b554da0a/698683ddd0b6f222bf303125/mutianyu.png?branch=production&width=780&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 780 og:image:height: 439 og:image:alt: mutianyu og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chinese Government Allows Tourists to Graffiti the Great Wall of China twitter:description: You won't even get in trouble for it! twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12738b76b554da0a/698683ddd0b6f222bf303125/mutianyu.png?branch=production&width=780&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Now You Can Graffiti the Great Wall of China > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ad75767c-fa4e-41a2-8a00-1893d9bbcad4&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Mar 4, 2014 4:45 PM UTC  The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall Fabio Achilli—Flickr by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Mar 4, 2014 4:45 PM UTC Graffiti is an ancient practice—just check out all the scandalous wall scratches in [Pompeii](http://www.pompeiana.org/resources/ancient/graffiti%20from%20pompeii.htm). But adding new graffiti to ancient objects is generally frowned upon, at least until now. The Chinese government is turning a section of the [Great Wall of China](http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-tips/the-great-wall-of-china) into a [graffiti playground](http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/mar/04/great-wall-of-china-graffiti-area?CMP=fb%5Fgu), allowing visitors to leave their marks in the millennia-old structure. The graffiti section will organized at [Mutianyu](http://www.mutianyugreatwall.net/), a relatively uncrowded section of the Great Wall outside of central Beijing. Archaeologists who are suddenly terrified at the prospect of thousands of tourists carving up a world heritage site, worry not—much of Mutianyu is actually a reconstructed version of the Great Wall rather than the real thing. Where ancient sections of the wall are sand-colored and worn, Mutianyu is dark grey, clean-cut, and solid. It’s also far easier to walk on. Though the sprawling construction is still impressive, it’s definitely not authentic, and it might even be improved by a little touch of humanity. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/12303/now-you-can-graffiti-the-great-wall-of-china/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/12303/now-you-can-graffiti-the-great-wall-of-china/"},"headline":"Now You Can Graffiti the Great Wall of China","datePublished":"2014-03-04T16:45:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:26.997Z","description":"You won't even get in trouble for it!","url":"https://time.com/12303/now-you-can-graffiti-the-great-wall-of-china/","keywords":["Newsfeed","China","Travel","Graffiti"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12738b76b554da0a/698683ddd0b6f222bf303125/mutianyu.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Chayka","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12738b76b554da0a/698683ddd0b6f222bf303125/mutianyu.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"mutianyu","caption":"The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall","creditText":"Fabio Achilli—Flickr","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/12303/now-you-can-graffiti-the-great-wall-of-china/","name":"Now You Can Graffiti the Great Wall of China"}}]}] ```