Around 30 percent of China’s Ming-era Great Wall has disappeared

Beijing (AFP) - Around 30 percent of China’s Ming-era Great Wall has disappeared over time as adverse natural conditions and reckless human activities -- including stealing the bricks to build houses -- erode the UNESCO World Heritage site, state media reported.

北京（法新社）—大约30%的中国的明清时代长城已经消失，随着时间的推移，恶劣的自然条件和鲁莽的人类活动——包括偷砖头盖房子——削弱联合国教科文组织列为世界遗产，国家媒体报道。

The Great Wall is not a single unbroken structure but stretches for thousands of kilometres in sections, from Shanhaiguan on the east coast to Jiayuguan in the windswept sands on the edge of the Gobi desert.

长城是不是一个完整的结构，但绵延数千公里的路段，从东海岸的山海关到嘉峪关的风化砂在戈壁滩沙漠的边缘。

In places it is so dilapidated that estimates of its total length vary from 9,000 to 21,000 kilometres (5,600 to 13,000 miles), depending on whether missing sections are included. Despite its length it is not, as is sometimes claimed, visible from space.

有些地方，它是如此破旧，估计其总长度从9000到21000公里（5600至13000英里），取决于是否包括缺少部分。正如有时声称的那样，从空间上看，它的长度不是。

Construction first begun in the third century BC, but nearly 6,300 kilometres were built in the Ming Dynasty of 1368-1644, including the much-visited sectors north of the capital Beijing.

建筑在公元前第三世纪开始，但近6300公里，建于明代1368-1644，包括多参观了首都北京北部板块。

Of that, 1,962 kilometres has melted away over the centuries, the Beijing Times reported.

据北京时报报道，在过去几个世纪里，长城的1962公里已经消失。

Some of the construction weathered away, while plants growing in the walls have accelerated the decay, said the report Sunday, citing a survey last year by the Great Wall of China Society.

据周日的报道说，列举了一项去年中国长城调查说，一些建筑风化了，而植物生长在墙壁上加速了腐烂。

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来源:华尔街日报中文网爱语吧作者:Annie