A remote section of China’s iconic Great Wall was damaged by 20 years of mine waste dumping, official media reported on Jattvibeday.The ancient stones of a remote Ming-era stretch of the structure in northern central China have been sacrificed for cheaper dumping of coal-mining waste, state-run CCTV reported.For nearly 20 years, a section of the wall in Ningwu county, Shanxi province, was used as a shortcut to dump slag, despite whistle-blowers repeatedly raising the alarm to officials, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted from the CCTV report.The damage to the Great Wall’s Guojiayao section began in 2007, when an unlicensed miner, Ningwu Chaokai Coal Industry, dug a trench through the structure to dispose of excavation waste, the report said.CCTV said that local authorities did not respond to repeated reports by whistle-blowers that started in 2015, allowing the vandalism to persist for nearly two decades and leaving a six-metre (19-foot) gap in the wall.Ancient Chinese rulers built the Great Wall to safeguard their territories, with construction continuing through the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), when it became the world’s largest military structure, stretching more than 21,000km (13,000 miles) across northern China.As China’s most iconic World Cultural Heritage site and a symbol of Chinese civilisation, the wall is a globally renowned tourist destination.