[Cob] stolen rammed earth?

[Amanda Peck]

anybody see this?

http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts/redir/20050213-55040.html

ROAD builders demolished a large section of China's World Heritage-listed 
Great Wall last month in an indication of the perilous state of one of the 
world's best known landmarks, state media said today.

Almost 100m of the wall in northern Ningxia autonomous region was levelled 
in two overnight raids by construction workers who used the material to pave 
a road, the Ningxia Daily said.
The destroyed area near Zhongwei city was constructed during the Ming 
Dynasty (1368-1644) in an region known as "the Great Wall Museum" because of 
the profusion of rammed earth sections of the wall.

Less than 2500km remain of the 6300km long wall that was first built in the 
Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC).

It was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty to keep out northern tribes threatening 
the Chinese heartland.

Zhongwei's public security bureau is investigating the case and has vowed 
that those responsible will be forced to rebuild what they demolished, the 
report said.

It is not the first time the wall has been plundered for building materials 
in Nixgxia. Last year, a 400m section disappeared with the culprits never 
found.

Dong Yaohui, vice president of the China Great Wall Academy, said 
punishments were too lax and needed to be tightened.

He was quoted as saying that several years ago a man who plundered the wall 
only received an 80,000 yuan ($12,553) fine, amounting to less than it would 
have cost to buy legal construction materials, proving no deterrent.

The Great Wall is under such serious threat from human development across 
China that the central government last year took the drastic step of seizing 
control of it from local governments.