image via Epoch Times

“Out with the old, in with the new” has been the Chinese communist regime’s general attitude toward the country’s architectural heritage.

In recent memory, there was the tearing down of Old Beijing to build a shiny steel Olympic stadium for the 2008 games, and the numerous forced demolitions of citizens’ houses to make way for high-rises. In not-too-distant memory, China saw the erasure of thousands of temples and relics at the hands of the People’s Liberation Army during the Cultural Revolution.

image via Epoch Times

Manhattan-based photographer Peter Shay fell in love with the built culture of ancient China during his first visit to the Great Wall in 2007.Fed up by the glut of tourists at Badaling, the most-visited part of the wall, he sought the help of local guides to explore Simatai, a northern section.

“It was there that I became mesmerized with the magnificence of China’s Great Wall …” he wrote in an email. “Looking out far into the distance I felt the presence of the ancient builders working under extreme conditions, and of warriors armed with arrows and swords inhabiting the towers in defense of invading foreign forces. It became, for me, a living fantasy that enabled me to escape from the reality of a broken down set of rocks and stone.”......Continue Reading

> via theepochtimes.com