Cultural Routes and Heritage Trails - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 42

borders Russia, and along the former East-West split in Europe to the Black
Sea (Arizona Republic, 2005). While a comprehensive trail has yet to be
established, owing to a variety of reasons, some segments of it have emerged.
The Berlin Wall Trail ( Berliner Mauerweg ) was started in 2002 and com-
pleted in 2006. It traces the course of the former boundary that enclosed
West Berlin from the surrounding German Democratic Republic (East
Germany) (Tölle, 2010). In total the trail is 160 km in length and is designed
for pedestrians and bicycles. Most of the trail follows the former West or East
German border patrol roads, but in the most built-up portions of the city, the
trail is marked with red bricks and brass placards embedded in the pavement
(Cramer, 2013). The Mauerweg is divided into 14 different sections of between
seven and 21 km that are accessible by public transportation. The trail fea-
tures preserved sections of the anterior wall, multilingual interpretive dis-
plays, guard towers, former customs offices, fence remnants and signs that
mark locations where people were killed by East German guards for trying
to escape. Museums, maps and informational displays also help create mem-
orable experiences on this geopolitical heritage trail (Senate Chancellery,
2013). Google Earth 3D technology and global positioning system (GPS)
applications for mobile phones are readily available to help tourists navigate
the course of the former border and explain its meaning and individual sites
on their own hand-held devices.
Although China has not established walking routes or cycling trails
along the Great Wall the way trails are conceptualized in the West, the
wall is frequently used by adventurers as a long-distance hiking route. Built
between the 3rd century BC and the 17th century AD (although some
early portions were built as early as the 8th century BC), the Great Wall
of China is actually a series of walls, trenches, fortifications and other
barricades that total more than 21,000 km of length. The wall and forti-
fications were built as defensive barriers against northern invaders, and
eventually much of it served as a political border for the emerging Chinese
state (Slavicek, 2009).
The Great Wall is one of China's most visited tourist attractions and
stands out as an iconic image of China (Su & Wall, 2012; Timothy & Boyd,
2003). It was added to the World Heritage List in 1987. Beijing residents fre-
quently use the wall for recreational walking, to get out of the city on week-
ends. Tourists by the thousands visit the wall on a daily basis at various access
points, usually near large cities such as Beijing. Select points along the wall
are accessible by public transportation, and large numbers of outfitters pro-
vide guided hikes on, or alongside, the Great Wall in various sections (Hessler,
2007). These treks typically go beyond the worn touristy zones into areas of
the wall that few tourists see. The hiking treks last from a single day to multi-
day walking tours and have become quite popular among adventure travelers
who desire to experience the built heritage of China, its geopolitical history
and the cultural landscapes through which the wall traverses.