What's on

"Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints. Keep the Great Wall wild and wonderful" is the theme of the Great Wall Care Campaign in November, which features two activities aimed at solving the worsening litter problem on Beijing's Great Wall.

The slogan will be emblazoned on T-shirts worn by 100 volunteers in a cleanup on November 6 and on noticeboards being placed beside footpaths leading up to the Wall on November 20, for which 60 volunteers are required.

Both activities are sponsored by Norsk Hydro ASA and the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel, the sole sponsor of all three previous cleanups launched by Wall researcher William Lindesay.

Litter on the Great Wall was first brought to media attention in April 1998 after an inaugural campaign launched by Lindesay, author of Alone on the Great Wall, the story of his 2,470-kilometer solo trek along the Ming Dynasty Wall from Jiayuguan to Shanhaiguan in 1987.

He has organized 258 local and "foreign" Beijingers on three occasions to pick up tourist garbage from paths leading up to the Wall and alongside it (Check out reports at http://www.cbw.com/icic).

"The Ming Wall was built more than 400 years ago to protect Beijing -- now it needs protection from today's environmentally ignorant tourists," says Lindesay, an editor of China Features at the Xinhua News Agency.

According to Ivy Makelin, PR manager at the Great Wall Sheraton, the two activities scheduled for November are organized in response to a worsening problem and emphasize the hotel's resolve to counter-attack "We are not only continuing, but enlarging the campaign with Norsk Hydro," says Makelin.

Norsk Hydro's involvement has come about with the company's chief representative's personal fascination with Wild Wall hiking. "I took part in the 1998 National Day cleanup at Jinshanling," says Kjell Stenstadvold, "and I get out Wall hiking a couple of times every month -- these experiences have shown me two things: that the Wall is truly great, but despite its visibility, it is grossly neglected.

According to Hydro, the company is to back a two-year program of Great Wall conservation activities including cleanups, noticeboard placements, ranger stations and educational initiatives.

Registration: Call 6590-5566 ext. 2214. The fee for each event is 150 yuan which includes transport, lunch, drinks, T-shirt and a set of panoramic Wild Wall postcards.