Yesterday, Administrative Department for City Wall of the Ming Dynasty denoted that the citizens who provide clues will be rewarded with cash bonus.

Nanjing City Wall of the Ming Dynasty was built in 1366 and used 350 million city wall bricks in the construction. At present, the city wall bricks reserved in the Wall have about 200 million, with a large number of old city wall bricks scattered in the other places, which have urgent need to be taken back. Yesterday, Preservation and Management Center for Nanjing City Wall as well as Preservation Foundation for Nanjing City Wall and other departments convened the press conference and announced the starting of action for “every brick to the warehouse and guard for City Wall” as well as reward in cash bonus for those who provide value clues for the scattered city wall bricks of the Ming Dynasty.

The construction history for Nanjing City Wall of the Ming Dynasty was as long as 27 years. 280 Thousand civilian workers from 152 prefectures and counties in 5 provinces throughout the country had been employed. The number of city wall brick reaches 350 million and the finished length is 35.267 km. So far, the reserved City Wall is as long as 25.1 km, with the biggest scale and the best preservation authenticity in the world. Nanjing City Wall was rated as Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 1988.
        “Although Nanjing City Wall is reserved with a large number of walls, what we have to acknowledge is that City Wall in some places have been demolished, and abundant city wall bricks were scattered out due to historical reasons.” Expert of City Wall told the reporter. In recent two years, with the upgrade of Nanjing City construction, many city wall bricks of the Ming Dynasty have been found during the removal of many old communities. Due to the insufficient preservation consciousness, these city wall bricks were always regarded as construction waste to be disposed as well as buried. Some bricks with good appearance and clear inscription entered into collecting market.
        According to the principle of “restoring the old as the old”, the maintenance of City Wall shall be adopted with old city wall bricks as far as possible. But the inventory of city wall bricks are often relatively insufficient, even “out at the elbows”. Relevant principal of Preservation and Management Center for Nanjing City Wall stated that the old city wall bricks in center inventory are about 0.3 million at present, apparently insufficient for the long-term maintenance. “The reason why we take back the city wall bricks is that apart from extreme small amount of parts are used for exhibition and research, most parts are used for the future maintenance of City Wall and old city wall bricks shall be returned to the place where they supposed to be—on City Wall of the Ming Dynasty!”
        “The property right of scattered city wall bricks is very clear and they all belong to the state ownership.” Relevant principal of Preservation and Management Center for Nanjing City Wall told the reporter that Nanjing City has clarified the legislation and defined the property right of scattered city wall brick. As for the city wall bricks on the City Wall, any personnel as well as organization shall not occupy, use, transact, carve or damage, and the inscription on City Wall shall not be rubbed without permission. As for the scattered city wall bricks, the complete or above one second also shall belong to the state ownership.
        The personnel in Management Department are not enough for dispatch, and scattered city wall bricks may be found in any place of Nanjing City, even scattered in other places. “In order that the scattered city wall bricks are taken back, the social force shall be put to use to make more citizens involved in and every old city wall brick scattered out ‘back to warehouse’!” The expert of City Wall said.
In order to further strengthen the preservation, collection as well as management for scattered city wall bricks, Preservation and Management Center for Nanjing City Wall joint with Preservation Foundation for Nanjing City Wall firstly reward in cash bonus for those who provide clues for the scattered city wall bricks of the Ming Dynasty and the highest reward can be 2,000 yuan. At the same time, the citizens who provide the donation of the scattered city wall bricks of the Ming Dynasty also can be given a certain encouragement. For the purpose of support for the collection and management for scattered city wall bricks of the Ming Dynasty, Yincheng Real Estate, a local enterprise in Nanjing, donated 100 thousand yuan this time, applied to the collection and management for scattered city wall bricks of the Ming Dynasty as well as the cash reward for those who provide clues for the scattered city wall bricks. Clues hotline: 83370272, 83211537.
        Last year, over 80 thousand city wall bricks were taken back.
        In recent years, Municipal Party Committee and Municipal government paid high attention to the preservation for Nanjing City Wall, and successively formulated as well as introduced Preservation and Renovation as well as Open Action Plan for Nanjing City Wall of the Ming Dynasty and Surrounding Area in 2014 as well as 2015-2016 Preservation and Renovation as well as Action Plan of Application for World Heritage for Nanjing City Wall, and issued as well as implemented Regulations for Preservation of Nanjing City Wall. The property right of scattered city wall bricks was explicitly defined in Regulations for Preservation of Nanjing City Wall. The provision in Article 19 of the Regulation is that: the city wall brick, boulder strip, rammed earth of insourcing, lintel, hearstone, pound stone and ancient building structural part, etc belong to historical relics and any organization as well as individual shall not transact them and the inscription on City Wall shall not be rubbed without permission. The provision in Article 33 is that: the Preservation and Management Institute for City Wall shall register as well as keep a record for city wall bricks scattered outside the City Wall, and organization with property right as well as individuals shall coordinate. When the buildings (structures) with city wall bricks as building materials are dismantled, Construction Organization shall gather the city wall bricks to preserve without damage. Construction Organization shall promptly informs the Preservation and Management Center for Nanjing City Wall to uniformly take back the city wall bricks for the maintenance of City Wall. Organizations as well as individuals are encouraged to hand in the city wall bricks and those who have outstanding contributions shall be given commendation.
       Previously, Preservation and Management Center for Nanjing City Wall has invested plentiful energy as well as material resources during the preservation for scattered city wall bricks of the Ming Dynasty, and over 80 thousand scattered city wall bricks of the Ming Dynasty were taken back only in the last year. Many citizens enthusiastically participated in the preservation for scattered city wall bricks.

(Editor：admin)