This summer, Yuan organized a campaign to call for people to collect bricks for the future repair of the wall.

Many bricks were taken away from the Great Wall by local villagers to build their houses in the 1960s and 1970s.

As villagers' awareness of the need to protect the wall has grown, they are replacing the bricks and saving them for future repairs of the wall, he said.

In late 2019, the central authorities publicized plans for the construction and preservation of national cultural parks based on the Great Wall, with one such park to be built in Shanxi.

"The construction of the cultural park has strengthened local people's awareness to protect the Great Wall as the ancient wall has become a project that will bring income to every local person," Yuan said, adding that many tourists now flock to the county to see the ancient fortifications.

"Nowadays, when local residents find fallen bricks along the Great Wall, they will pick them up," he said.

"If they see garbage, they will also pick it up and throw it into bins."

The cultural park would promote the county's overall development in fields ranging from the economic and social to the cultural and ecological, Yuan said.

"Cultural heritage carries history, and cutting off history is like a family losing its roots. That's why we need to protect cultural heritage," he said.