China great wall digital cultural heritage

Abstract

Early in 2004 the Chinese government established a foundation whose mission is to protect and preserve the Great Wall of China and to articulate the Bo Da Jing Sheng or "profound esteem" that emanates from the 3,000 years of history encompassing the Great Wall. The Great Wall is the cultural icon of China, and is directly linked to China's long history. The China Great Wall Society (CGWS) and IMC have recently executed a letter of intent that together we will utilize state-of-the-art digital technologies and apply them to the preservation and protection of the Great Wall and to the creation of content to disseminate the history and knowledge embodied in this unique cultural heritage. The Great Wall represents a time-line of Chinese history.On September 1, 2004, Xu Jia Lu of the National People's Congress and chairman of the China Great Wall Society emphasized the need to formulate a five-year plan to retrieve, protect, restore, and develop a Great Wall database that can be utilized for future research, educational purposes, and the dissemination internationally of China's cultural heritage. The Great Wall project is multi-dimensional in scope, with two complementary missions: (1) physical and virtual restoration of the Great Wall, and (2) the development of a Great Wall database. The goal of the plan is to bring knowledge of the Great Wall to the world and to leave the children of China a Great Wall that is physically preserved and its underlying cultural heritage appreciated internationally.