Operating drones, driving ATVs, going off-road in the Gobi Desert, hiking in the desert... Rich activities and research are daily life of Li Mingshuai, a doctoral student at the School of Architecture, Tianjin University.

Li Mingshuai’s doctoral research focuses on digital protection and resource value of architectural heritage along the Great Wall. In 2022, he participated in a large-scale cultural variety show “The Great Wall” of Inner Mongolia Satellite TV, and competed with fans and protectors of the Great Wall, knowledge bloggers, and outstanding players with rich experience. In June, Li Mingshuai won the championship in the first season of “The Great Wall”, which was broadcast live on Inner Mongolia Satellite TV, People's Daily and Benteng Media.

Travelling Thousands of Miles

At Li Mingshuai's fingertips is the knowledge of the Great Wall, which stems from his academic enthusiasm for the Great Wall.

Under the leadership of his supervisor Li Zhe, Li Mingshuai's ongoing doctoral project is to establish digital “archives” of the Great Wall.

Speaking of the Great Wall, people always think of the magnificent Badaling, Shanhaiguan and Jiayuguan, but those are only small parts that are well preserved and repaired. With weathering erosion and historical changes, many sections of the Great Walls are peeling off, collapsing, damaging or even disappearing. How to measure the Great Wall scientifically and accurately has emerged as a challenging subject.

Li Mingshuai's team used micro drones to fly slowly at ultra-low altitude along the Ming Great Wall, which is more than 8,800 kilometers long. Shooting from the top and flanks of the Great Wall at the height of 20-50 meters, they obtained the continuous high-definition image set of three directions with the overlap rate of adjacent images no less than 70%, and constructed its three-dimensional model by photogrammetry software, so as to establish the world's first full-line image and three-dimensional database of the Ming Great Wall.

In order to complete this ambitious plan, Li Mingshuai, as a team member, spent a lot of energy following the remains of the Great Wall. In his words, in his doctoral study he not only needs to read thousands of books, but also has to travel thousands of miles.

Deep in the desert of Ejin Banner, Alxa League and Inner Mongolia, there are the Great Wall of Han Dynasty and some beacon towers built in Ming Dynasty. Li Mingshuai, his supervisor Li Zhe and several fellows set off from Tianjin and drove there along Hexi Corridor. During the field investigation, they have to arrive at the scene at dawn. When the first rays of sunshine in the morning sprinkled on the masonry, their drones began to take off; and they won't let the drones land until the last rays of the evening were absorbed by the desert. Such shooting and travel sometimes lasts for 14 hours in a day.

People are often dusty when the northwest wind rolls up gravel. Once their drones suddenly crashed due to high temperature, Li Mingshuai and his fellows walked for 5 kilometers in the desert before finding the drone that captured precious data.

Leaving the Great Wall at sunset

Li Mingshuai has also set foot on Qilian Mountains, Helan Mountains and China-Mongolia border. The vast desert and sunset are easy to remind people of magnificent poems. More than 1,000 years ago, a handsome and lonely traveler Wang Wei (a poet in the Tang dynasty) wrote a famous poem that “A smoke hangs straight on the desert vast, A sun sits round on the endless stream”. Now, the scenes are similar, except that Li Mingshuai and his fellows are busy “pushing carts”. Their wheels sometimes get stuck in the sand of depopulated zone.

“If the car can't get out today, we may have to spend the night here, which is unimaginable.”

Pushing their Car in the Sunset

Be a Great Wall Protector

As said by Xun Zi in “Encourage Learning”, without small steps, one can never go a thousand miles. From the research of “Aging Design of German Architecture” during his master's study to “Protection of Architectural Cultural Heritage” during his doctoral study, Li Mingshuai is a starter in the field of “cross-border” research.

“In face of a new field, it is inevitable that there will be a painful period at the beginning, and it is necessary to supplement a lot of relevant knowledge in a short time. I also read a lot of obscure ancient books. Thanks to my supervisor and fellows, I quickly adapted to the pace of research and mastered the related techniques of field reconnaissance.” He said.

Li Mingshuai is responsible for the field work of image acquisition, which needs to be in the vast desert and cracked yellow land extending for thousands of miles. People are very small here, and sometimes there seems to be nothing but the lonely Great Wall. But at certain moments, Li Mingshuai deeply feel that he is a spirited boy.

Today, Li Mingshuai's research group has photographed nearly 6,000 kilometers of Ming Great Wall with drones. A total of more than 2.7 million photos were made into a centimeter-level accurate 3D database, and digital reconstruction was carried out for the damaged sites to generate a complete original architectural appearance, which clearly presents the Ming Great Wall to the eyes of the world, and greatly promotes the related researches of the Great Wall from the architectural point of view.

Photogrammetric Schematic and Three-dimensional Database Coverage

“On the basis of this system, relying on images combined with field reconnaissance, we can do further research on the defense facilities and troop system of the Great Wall”, Li Mingshuai introduced. In the future, he also chooses the beacon system of Ming Great Wall as the direction of further research.

“The Great Wall embodies the context of the Chinese nation’s resistance to foreign aggression, mutual trade and cultural blending for thousands of years. It is the symbol of the Chinese national spirit and the crystallization of wisdom. It behooves younger generations to devote ourselves to her research and analysis”, Li Mingshuai said, "As a student majoring in architecture at TJU, I shoulder the responsibility to join in such a great cause and be a Great Wall protector, guarding the root and soul of Chinese civilization.”

Li Backpacking on the Great Wall

By Dai Chenming

Editor: Sun Xiaofang