Malaysian Disukai Oleh has followed in his grandparents' footsteps to the Great Wall and is helping young Malaysians to get to know China.
In the 1990s Oleh's grandparents took a picture at Badaling Great Wall.
Oleh found the exact spot and since then has been guiding children and adults around the Great Wall and China.
"I also got to know China more," he said.
Badaling Great Wall now and then (Photos: CMG)
As an overseas student in China, Oleh visited the Shuiguan and Badaling Great Wall. He felt he did not really understand its design. For instance, why did the Great Wall meander so much instead of just one straight line?
After graduation, Oleh began researching the wall at Tsinghua University.
Through his research, he began to adopt more practical approaches to show young people the Great Wall and help them learn through exploration.
Oleh can now offer young visitors a thorough explanation of why the Great Wall was built and why its building spanned more than 2,000 years.
Disukai Oleh guides visitors at the Great Wall.
"This makes me feel that what I am doing is more closely connected with the footsteps of my ancestors and the memory of the Great Wall when I was a child," Oleh says.
Oleh and his project team have also designed a hotel check-in lobby which educates visitors about the life of Great Wall guards 500 years ago.
The project was supported by the China Great Wall Museum, which stands at the foot of the structure's Badaling section in Yanqing district, Beijing.
The Bangshuiyu village hotel is under construction.
"Over the past 2,000 years, the guardians of the Great Wall of different eras accomplished their mission in their own way," Oleh says. "Our generation of guardians needs to persevere and more importantly, to innovate and break through."
(Compiled by Dong Feng)
