Guardians of Civilisation, United in Volunteer Action

2026 Cultural and Natural Heritage Day

Four Locations Nationwide Join Together to Light Up China’s Ancient City Walls

Ancient city walls are precious treasures that preserve the memories of cities and carry the legacy of Chinese civilisation.

To actively implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important statements on the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage, and to respond to the National Cultural Heritage Administration’s call regarding the protection and utilisation of cultural relics, the large-scale nationwide public-interest volunteer initiative “Guardians of Civilisation, United in Volunteer Action — Illuminate China’s Ancient City Walls” was officially launched on June 13, ahead of the 2026 Cultural and Natural Heritage Day. The initiative was jointly launched by the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, Great Wall Station, the Chongqing Cultural Relics Protection Volunteer Service Corps, and the Shanxi Cultural Relics Protection Volunteer Service Association.

The nationwide public-interest project “Illuminate China’s Ancient City Walls” has officially gone online. Centred on the concept that “Every visit you make is an act of illumination,” the project encourages members of the public to leave their homes and explore nearby historic sites on foot. Participants only need to open the map on their mobile phones, claim an ancient city wall in their area, and complete an inspection by recording their GPS route and taking photographs on site, with at least three photographs required. Once the submission has been approved, the city wall will change from grey to gold on the nationwide digital map, thereby becoming “illuminated.” Each person who successfully illuminates a wall will receive a digital certificate of honour and recognised volunteer service hours, and may share a personalised poster, helping to foster a new culture of heritage conservation in which everyone participates and everyone helps protect cultural heritage.

The project is supported by the basic data on more than 10,000 city walls accumulated over many years by the volunteer team behind the China Ancient City Wall Dataset. The data covers provinces and regions throughout the country and includes information such as names, locations, and states of preservation, providing a solid foundation for accurate matching and documentation. At present, dozens of heritage conservation organisations and hundreds of volunteers have participated in the pilot programme. The first-stage goal is to begin illuminating 100 ancient city walls across China within three months of the 2026 Cultural and Natural Heritage Day.

Technical development and support are provided by the public-interest organisation Great Wall Station. The system combines mobile mapping with cloud-based review and supports route recording, photograph uploads, and the automatic generation of certificates. The mobile interface has also been optimised to enable direct camera access and offline storage, greatly reducing the barrier to participation. All project data is handled in accordance with the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics. Participants are strictly prohibited from touching the cultural relics themselves during inspections. Any problems discovered may be reported by calling 010-12359.

“Illumination” is not merely a physical marker, but also a cultural awakening. Every city wall that is illuminated represents a public commitment to safeguarding civilisation.

You are welcome to visit the project’s official website:

（https://www.ilovegreatwall.cn/public/LightWall/）

Join the initiative and allow the silent ancient city walls to shine once again.

【Shanxi】

A single wall reveals a thousand years of history; one city wall watches over the renewal of an entire city. Across the land of the Three Jin, encircled by mountains and rivers, cultural traditions have continued for thousands of years, and historic remains are scattered throughout the province. The ancient city walls found across Shanxi are architectural treasures standing deep within the passage of time. They are three-dimensional history books that record the rise and fall of dynasties and bear witness to the everyday life of towns and cities. They are also markers of civilisation that carry the character of the region, devotion to home and country, and collective human memory.

From the grand design of the Pingyao City Wall to the imposing frontier character of the Datong city fortifications, from the profound cultural legacy of the Ancient City of Jinyang to the weathered traces of ancient riverside towns, every section of brick and stone wall contains the distinctive historical heritage of Shanxi and quietly tells of the long and continuous history of Chinese civilisation.

To put into practice the contemporary principle that “cultural relics belong to the people and serve the people,”promote the living transmission of cultural heritage, and guide the public in participating in cultural relic protection in a standardised and regular manner, the public-interest project “Guardians of Civilisation, United in Volunteer Action — Illuminate China’s Ancient City Walls: Shanxi in Action” officially opened on the 2026 Cultural and Natural Heritage Day.

The project was led and organised by the Shanxi Cultural Relics Protection Volunteer Service Association and jointly implemented by volunteer cultural heritage forces across the province, including Shanxi Cultural Heritage Protection Research Institute Co., Ltd., the Taiyuan Museum and Cultural Heritage Volunteer Service Centre, the Jincheng Cultural Relics Protection Association, the Changzhi Cultural Relics Protection Association, the Jinzhong Cultural Relics Protection Association, the Datong Great Wall Protection Association, the Xinzhou Great Wall Protection Association, and the Shanxi Great Wall Guardians.

Drawing on Shanxi’s rich ancient city wall resources, the initiative aligns with national plans for cultural relic protection and the development of themed heritage routes. It seeks to revive ancient walls through volunteer action, carry forward their thousand-year-old cultural heritage through public protection, and enable silent historic remains to embrace the present age, become part of everyday life, and shine with renewed brilliance.

On Cultural and Natural Heritage Day, Li Qiang, a research fellow at the Shanxi Provincial Ancient Architecture Institute and Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of the Shanxi Cultural Relics Protection Volunteer Service Association, joined volunteers from the Changzhi Cultural Relics Protection Volunteer Service Association in taking the lead in visiting, documenting, and illuminating ancient city walls, marking the beginning of coordinated heritage protection across the province.

At the same time, volunteer teams in Taiyuan, Jincheng, Jinzhong, and other locations took action simultaneously. Volunteers gathered at ancient city wall sites in their local areas and solemnly declared before the historic remains: “Protecting ancient city walls begins with me.”

Through site visits, condition documentation, interpretation of cultural heritage, and public-interest illumination, the initiative combined online publicity with offline action. It comprehensively promoted awareness of cultural relic protection and brought together all sectors of society in a shared commitment to value heritage and safeguard ancient city walls.

【Beijing Imperial City】

Volunteers from the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center held an illumination ceremony at the inner wall of Beijing’s Imperial City.

Following the successful conclusion of the joint illumination ceremonies across the four locations, the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center organised volunteers to travel to the area between Jingshan and Di’anmen, where they carried out a specialised inspection of the surviving remains of the Imperial City walls.

Several sections of the inner walls of Beijing’s Imperial City remain in this area. During the inspection, volunteers visited each city wall location individually, photographed the surviving remains from multiple angles, and uploaded the materials together to the official “Illuminate China’s Ancient City Walls” platform.

The initiative completed the data collection and archival documentation of seven surviving sections of city wall between Jingshan and Di’anmen, as well as the Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower, covering a total of eight ancient city wall heritage resources.

【Beijing Great Wall】

The Beijing Great Wall event officially opened at Gonghua City in Changping District.

As one of the joint initiators of the event, volunteers from Great Wall Station participated simultaneously at the ancient city of Gonghua in Changping, Beijing, and at the Badaling Great Wall in Yanqing, Beijing. Together with colleagues in cultural heritage protection from across the country, they began this journey of safeguarding civilisation across time and space.

Gonghua City in Changping has witnessed more than 600 years of Beijing’s urban development and served as one of the important starting points of this nationwide coordinated initiative.

At the event, Zhang Jun, founder of Great Wall Station, delivered a keynote speech explaining the special significance of city walls to Chinese civilisation:

“Behind us, the city wall stands in silence. Between its bricks and stones lie thousands of years of wind, rain, and historical change. City walls are the most magnificent spatial narrative of Chinese civilisation and a chronicle built from bricks and stone.”

In the light rain, Great Wall Station illuminated the ancient city wall at the southern gate’s barbican of Gonghua City.

First built during the Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty and expanded during the Jiajing reign, this ancient city also took part, 500 years later, in the illumination ceremony conducted by nationwide volunteer heritage conservation teams.

Over the course of its long history, Gonghua City received, on dozens of occasions, officials and soldiers travelling from Yansui Garrison to the capital to construct the Great Wall. It also witnessed the decline of the Ming regime and has left us with precious cultural heritage.

The ancient city wall appeared even more solemn and imposing in the fine rain. Livestream cameras shared this historic moment with online audiences, allowing cultural heritage enthusiasts who could not attend in person to witness the illumination together.

【Chongqing】

The Chongqing event opened on June 13 at Taipingmen Ruins Park in Yuzhong District. More than 50 cultural heritage protection volunteers gathered in Yuzhong, the historic heart of Chongqing, using volunteer action to safeguard the thousand-year-old city walls of the Bayu region and bring new vitality to the ancient walls in the present era.

The ancient city walls of Chongqing are a central carrier of the culture of Chongqing’s historic urban centre. The section of wall extending from Taipingmen to Tongyuanmen is approximately two kilometres long. Having endured a thousand years of wind and rain, it has witnessed 3,000 years of historical transformation in the ancient city of Jiangzhou and is a rare and valuable historic and cultural remain.

Today, the preservation of the ancient city walls has become increasingly urgent due to natural erosion, the surrounding environment, and other factors.

This nationwide coordinated initiative was guided by the aims of raising public awareness of cultural relic protection, mobilising social volunteer forces, recording information on surviving city walls, carrying forward China’s historical and cultural heritage, and bringing together multiple parties in a shared conservation effort.

Launch ceremonies were held simultaneously in Beijing, Shanxi, the Great Wall area, and Chongqing, with the entire programme livestreamed through Tencent Meeting. By overcoming geographical barriers, the initiative enabled cross-regional cooperation in cultural heritage protection and established a nationwide platform for communication and collaboration in protecting ancient city walls.

It is understood that the Chongqing event was jointly organised by the Yuzhong District Culture and Tourism Commission, the Yuzhong District Culture and Tourism Group, and the Chongqing Cultural Relics Protection Volunteer Service Corps.

It was undertaken by the Yuzhong District Museum and the Yuzhong District Historic City Cultural Relics Protection Volunteer Service Centre, with strong support and cooperation from several historical and cultural research institutions and cultural heritage protection organisations.

The event was scheduled to take place at 9:30 a.m. on June 13 at Taipingmen Ruins Park in Yuzhong District. The route passed through Taipingmen, Renhemen, Chuqimen, Zijinmen, Fenghuangmen, and finally Tongyuanmen. Along the way, an exhibition of historic photographs was incorporated into the search for surviving sections of the city walls, allowing participants to immerse themselves in the historical traces of the ancient city.

After the ceremonial programme concluded, the main offline activity officially began.

Volunteers proceeded in an orderly manner along the city wall walkway from Taipingmen to Tongyuanmen, carrying out volunteer services including city wall inspections, documentation of the historic landscape, public guidance on appropriate conduct, and the promotion of cultural relic protection knowledge. Through these activities, they completed the on-site “Illuminate Chongqing’s Ancient City Walls” initiative.

Livestream Replay [Copy and open in a browser]

https://weixin.qq.com/sph/AisSaV07p1

Every brick and tile is part of history; every wall and fortification carries a cultural legacy. This nationwide coordinated public-interest initiative, “Illuminate China’s Ancient City Walls,” deeply integrates professional cultural heritage conservation with the public’s enthusiasm for volunteering. It is not only a concentrated effort to safeguard Chongqing’s ancient city walls, but also a practical act of cultural inheritance involving the participation of the entire public.