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Bernard Weber and his friends are on a global tour to select the world's New Seven Wonders. The Great Wall is the ninth stop of the trip and also the first of the five Asian candidates. The team received a warm welcome by local folk artists, who presented passionate tiger dance, drum performance and yangko (a popular folk dance in "It is my first time to be in "Since the Great Wall is no longer a fortress, I would rather see it as a piece of architectural art. One thing strikes me with the Great Wall is that it embraces so much energy that can spread out, when many others only concentrate on one spot." The team left Weber conceived the idea of naming the New Seven Wonders after he landed his vintage aircraft in the West African sand dunes. He was retracing the flight path taken by author and French aviator, Antoine de St Exupery and landed at almost the same place in the desert where the Frenchman made his emergency landing. In the desert, he witnessed the pure life people no longer have time to appreciate. The idea also came from his girl friend, who was teaching children the renowned seven wonders of the ancient world. "With the exception of the Egyptian pyramids I found that none of these seven remain. So maybe there should be a new list that children can vote for their favorite," Weber told China Daily. In 2001, the Swiss-born Canadian established the "New7Wonders Foundation" in Weber announced his project to the world six years ago by landing an amphibian aircraft on the People can vote on via the Internet, www.new7wonders.com. "The ancient seven wonders were a one-sided decision by the Greek engineer Philon of Byzantium in 200 BC. While the campaign today enables everyone to express his or her opinions in an open way," said Dong Yaohui, standing vice-chairman of the Beijing-based Great Wall Association, which co-operated with Weber during his team's stay in The earliest list of 186 candidates came out last year based on suggestions mainly from the UNESCO, as well as 19 million nominations via e-mail from across the world. A judging panel chaired by Federico Mayor, former director-general of the UNESCO, and consisted of predominant architects announced a short list of 21 nominees out of the 77 sites with the highest number of votes on January 1. The final declaration of the New Seven Wonders will be made in Weber said the election procedure was carefully designed and totally transparent. The 21 finalists represented cultural diversity, human history and geographic span. "We ensure that each one of them represents a different country to avoid disputes," he said. He emphasized that it may well be the first time children can vote for something through the Internet. "And they have no limitations. On the early stage of election, German children didn't select the "The number of South Korean and Japanese voters for the "It is also an interesting phenomenon that a lot of Chinese living in "The earth's landmark has become a link of the Chinese around the globe," Weber said. Dong Yaohui said it was an important moment to raise the public's awareness of the preservation of the Great Wall. Weber has built up a varied career as a filmmaker, museum curator, aviator and adventurer. Fluent in five languages, he has spent most of the time traveling the world and experiencing the rare sense that comes from meeting different cultures. (
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