Online room rental marketplace Airbnb has been forced to scrap a competition that would have seen winners spend a night on the Great Wall amid a backlash from Chinese internet users who complained the promotion could damage the heritage site. Joining the chorus was staff commentator Gan Qiongfang for Shanghai-based news portal
The Paper who argued the promotion was nonsensical.
Contestants were asked to write in to the company about breaking down cultural barriers, with winning essay-writers invited to stay in an ancient watchtower on the wall – an event the company said was planned with conservation experts to ensure it would not damage the site.
The Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage said in 2016 that more than half of the city's great wall section was seriously damaged or on the brink of destruction, and nearly 90 percent needed repairs, wrote Gan for The Paper. While Airbnb said the promotion would not involve any changes to the wall, Gan disputed this on the grounds a promotional video released by the company showed a bed, lamp, chairs and toilets in the tower.
Gan also questioned whether the world-renowned cultural heritage site needed the promotion efforts of Airbnb, which said it would show off the attraction to the entire world. Officials from the local government district of Yanqing, where the event was to be held, later claimed they had not approved the event. The commentator said cultural heritage protection departments should take a more clear-cut attitude and prevent such acts. Some eight million tourists visited the Badaling section of the Great Wall near Beijing between January and October 2016.
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