China’s Great Wall is being restored one brick at a time

AsiaChina’s Great Wall is being restored one brick at a timeNBC News visits the monumental 13,000-mile fortifications, which are not, in fact, one contiguous structure but many segments built over several dynasties spanning about 2,000 years.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Add NBC News to GoogleJourney to Great Wall of China03:00Get more newsLiveonShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 12, 2026, 9:04 PM EDT / Updated May 12, 2026, 9:19 PM EDTBy Tom Llamas and Erin TanBEIJING — Old Cheng was waiting patiently at the bottom of a steep mountain ridge as the minivans carrying our news team snaked their way through the Yan mountains to meet him. The 70-year-old native of Huairou, a district north of Beijing, had agreed to take us up a hiking trail to one of the so-called wild sections of the Great Wall.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Even at 9 a.m., when we emerged from our vehicles blinking in the mid-May sun, the heat was beating down hard as everyone strapped on their backpacks, checking their water supplies as often as their cameras.For the next two hours, led by Cheng in a shiny red safety helmet and a bright blue work vest, the team made its way across a flat road that quickly morphed into a vertical, narrow dirt path strewn with loose stone and rock. Three mules ferrying bags of cement clambered past us on their own dirt track that ran shorter and even steeper up to the top.Top: NBC News' Tom Llamas, center, is guided through the forest beneath the Jiankou section of the Great Wall of China on Tuesday. Bottom: Cheng Yongmao, known as Old Cheng, directs his team of construction workers at the wall.Aaron Sasson; Fred Dufour / NBC NewsMosquitoes buzzed in and out of faces as everyone bent over to balance their footing against the steep angle. Shards of sunlight beamed through a canopy of deciduous oak, mixed in with pine trees, that protected the trail from overwhelming heat. But riv...