Man's efforts to protect Great Wall paying off

From voluntarily collecting historical materials related to the section of the Great Wall in his Shanxi province hometown to becoming an official cultural heritage protector, Yuan Xuerui has spent over two decades safeguarding the ancient fortification.

China's Great Wall is one of the great wonders of the world and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built from 3 BC to the 1800s on the northern fringes of the country to defend successive Chinese empires, the Great Wall has a total length of more than 20,000 kilometers.

Yuan, 54, was born in Qingxibao at the foot of the ancient wall in Shanxi's Daixian county, which is part of the city of Xinzhou.