CYNDI LAUPER sprinted across a 100ft revolving stage built on top of a guard tower on the Great Wall of China. “Hit it, doll,” she called out to a member of her band, launching into the opening bars of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

The first international pop concert on the 4,500-mile wall, organised by the Chinese Government, also featured Alicia Keys, Boys II Men and others. About 10,000 fans paying up to £800 crammed into a historic pass on Saturday close to Beijing, originally fortified during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Yesterday engineers and workers were still removing high-voltage lighting rigs from turrets and loading them into container lorries parked on ancient ramparts. The concert was said to commemorate restoration work done on the Wall, but conservationists say that the 500-year-old structure is in great danger of disappearing altogether, especially if other such events are allowed.

Only a third of the Wall is still standing. This is partly due to erosion, but botched repairs, tourism and the building of hotels, toboggan runs and ski lifts on the hillsides directly beside the Wall have all helped to propel it on to the list of the world’s 100 most endangered cultural sites compiled by the World Monument Fund.

David Spindler, an American researcher who is studying the monument, said: “Most of the destruction is due to human forces. One thing that really bothers me is when people write on the towers.”

Experts have yet to check the Wall at Juyongguan for damage after the concert but some Chinese newspapers have taken the rare step of attacking a government-backed event. Elite Guide, a biweekly Beijing newspaper, wrote: “The Great Wall is our cultural heritage, not a performance stage . . . Whether the concert is going to help restore the Great Wall or ruin it, we don’t know yet.”

Several years ago, a French car commercial filmed on the Wall was banned in France because it had been made without proper permission. Beijing Elite wrote: “Even the French respect the Wall. Why don’t we do the same?” Other events performed on the Wall in recent years include an Evel Knievel-style motorcycle jump and a rave with the British DJ Paul Oakenfold. Countless luxury dwellings have sprung up close to the ridgelines where Mandarins once defended themselves against Mongols. The Red Capital Ranch is a country club for the super-rich, with cottages designed in imperial style. The Commune by the Wall, built by a group of international architects, offers rooms for more than £550 a night for corporate retreats and honeymoons. Mr Spindler said: “Over the past five years, domestic tourism has really taken off. Every region wants to exploit local monuments to attract visitors and make money . . . A lot of restoration work is really controversial. Often it looks nothing like the original Wall.” The Chinese Government issued new regulations last summer stipulating that all restoration work needed to be approved centrally. But judging by the ongoing slapdash restorations near Beijing, local communities have taken little notice. He Shuzhong, a spokesman at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said: “It’s got so bad we don’t know how long the Great Wall is any more and what is the Great Wall and what isn’t the Great Wall. Where I was walking, it was obvious it was rebuilt and it was very fake.”

Elsewhere, farmers have been paid by construction companies to pilfer stones from the wall to build roads near by, saving costs on bringing in material. Government officials have long neglected the structure, which stretches across nine northern provinces and municipalities. Over the centuries, large parts were destroyed during dynastic changes and by soil erosion. In the early decades of Communist rule, the Government had little regard for old relics and encouraged poor farmers to take apart portions to build homes, schools and reservoirs.

No more than 1,500 miles remain of the Wall, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of the Great Wall published in June. The rest is in various stages of decay or has been demolished.

On Saturday, as thousands swayed to thumping bass beats, none of the performers made any reference to the urgent need to preserve the structure.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Heed the great stabiliser’s words
• How a voice for everyone led to stalemate
• Bakara market becomes a slaughterhouse