--- description: Reviving cultural greatness title: China Daily - TIME - Partner Content - Reviving cultural greatness image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb605f19a098a3721/6a27c5465fbf3761040d8f73/5._Reviving_cultural_greatness.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Reviving cultural greatness  _For centuries, the Great Wall has stood atop the mountain ranges as a historical monument and cultural icon. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY_ By YANG FEIYUE From digital avatars to forest trails and hands-on brickmaking, different sections of the Great Wall are drawing new audiences and redefining what heritage protection can mean. At Banchangyu Great Wall park in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, visitors can walk the same ground where Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) soldiers once stood, touch bricks fired nearly 500 years ago, and try their hand at making a Great Wall brick. On weekends, schoolchildren crowd the brick-making workshop, mixing clay and carving their names into fresh blanks, while hikers follow trails through the area’s thick forests. And each morning, one man broadcasts it all to the world. At 7 o’clock sharp, Xu Guohua, without fail, turns on his phone and begins his livestream. The 73-year-old wears a plain dark blue cotton jacket. His weathered face, tanned by years of outdoor work, catches the light. In his hand, he holds a small wine cup, no wider than two fingers. “Look at this artifact from the Ming Dynasty — we dug it up in our village,” he says to the camera. Xu usually gets 1,000-2,000 views a day as he talks about artifacts, brick kilns and folk stories from beneath the Banchangyu Great Wall centuries ago. He takes pride in promoting the history and culture of the Great Wall in his birthplace. The centerpiece of the Banchangyu site is a vast collection of brick kilns. In the early 2000s, excavation revealed brick kilns that had been buried for nearly 500 years. Archaeologists have since uncovered more than 200 kilns, turning the area into one of the country’s most important Great Wall industrial heritage sites. “This was where they made the bones of the wall,” Xu notes. Running several coal mines in the 1980s, Xu rose from rags to riches. The kiln discovery, along with tightening restrictions on small coal mines, eventually prompted him to shift his focus to heritage preservation. He then leased more than 7,413 acres of land along the Great Wall and built a small museum beside the kilns, filling it with tablets, bricks, stone balls, and firearms he had collected from fields and farmhouses. He researched each piece, consulting ancient texts and experts to confirm their identities. Over the years, Xu and his family have built an extensive network of trails and access roads through the mountains surrounding the Great Wall. His insistence moved his son and eventually encouraged him to join the cause. Today, his son oversees walking trails and infrastructure throughout the park. Additionally, his grandson returned to Banchangyu after graduating from Jimei University in Xiamen, Fujian province, in 2021, when he began working to package Banchangyu Great Wall culture into a curriculum with the support of local schools. The study programs introduce students to subjects ranging from Great Wall engineering to geology and traditional craftsmanship. At the hands-on brickmaking workshop, children can first visit the kiln ruins to hear the story of their discovery. Then they go to the workshop to mix clay, fill molds, and form brick blanks. Finally, they carve their names into the unbaked bricks. To date, the number of partner schools has grown from three to over 30\. More than 30,000 students have visited, Xu shares. West of Banchangyu, Shixia village in Beijing’s northwestern Yanqing district offers another model of Great Wall revitalization. On weekends and holidays, travelers flock to the village to sip coffee at a restored farmhouse, learn dough sculpting from local artisans, and hike a 3.7-miles trail along the ridge where the Great Wall meets the forest. Founded during the Ming Dynasty, the village sits at the foot of the Shixiaguan section. A 3.7-miles forest trail opened beside the Great Wall at the end of 2025 after more than two years of planning and construction. Following the mountain’s contours, the trail connects visitors with a nearby section while preserving the original landscape. Since opening, it has attracted more than 20,000 hikers, according to local officials. East of Shixia village, in northeastern Beijing’s Miyun district, visitors can step through a “time gate” where old photographs of the Great Wall come to life, question a digital Ming Dynasty general, and watch ancient weapons emerge from a virtual encyclopedia. These experiences await at three newly opened digital centers in Gubeikou, Yaoqiaoyu and Guanmen. Miyun has rich Great Wall resources, with over 112 miles of Ming Dynasty walls and 61 registered fortresses. Inside the Gubeikou center, the “time gate” uses AIGC technology to bring old photographs to life. Black-and-white images of Gubeikou Pass begin to move, vividly recreating a scene of merchants passing through the pass in bygone days. Beside the Time Gate stands a digital avatar of Qi Jiguang, the legendary Ming Dynasty general. The digital general’s appearance draws from Ming Dynasty portraits, and his manner is calm and resolute. Visitors can ask him anything from how the Great Wall was built to how fortresses were defended, and he answers in real time. While Gubeikou gives visitors a broad sweep of Miyun’s defense network, Yaoqiaoyu zooms in on a cluster of fortresses, and Guanmen examines individual fortresses up close. “We want visitors to go from a wide view to a narrow view, step by step,” says He Ding, an associate professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, who led the centers’ design. [](https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/) ## China Daily Website - Connecting China Connecting the World Since its launch in 1981, China Daily has grown to become the nation’s leading English-language newspaper. With a combined print, online and mobile readership of more than 470 million, it serves a vital role in telling the world about China, providing valuable insight into the world’s second-largest economy. [LEARN MORE](https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/) China Daily - TIME - Partner Content - Reviving cultural greatness ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/reviving-cultural-greatness/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/reviving-cultural-greatness/"},"headline":"Reviving cultural greatness","datePublished":"2026-07-09T07:04:04.039Z","dateModified":"2026-07-09T07:03:53.348Z","description":"Reviving cultural greatness","url":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/reviving-cultural-greatness/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[],"articleSection":"","image":[],"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":"https://time.com/branded-content/china-daily/reviving-cultural-greatness/","name":"Reviving cultural greatness"}}]}] ```