China's Great Wall restoration condemned after 700-year-old stretch smoothed over with building materials

The vice chairman of the Great Wall Studies Society has called the restoration work 'basic and crude'

The work took place in 2014 but has recently come to light after pictures of the result were shared by Beijing News on Weibo this week (YouTube/CNN)

The restoration of a 700-year-old stretch of the Great Wall of China has been widely attacked with critics saying the project has left the UNESCO world heritage site looking "basic and crude".

The five mile section of wall, built during the Ming Dynasty in 1381 in Liaoning's Suizhong county, was officially restored to prevent deterioration caused by the elements.

However, the project has been widely condemned after defensive works and guard towers were knocked flat as part of the scheme and building materials, including lime, mortar and concrete, were reportedly poured on top, smoothing over the structure.

The head of Liaoning Provincial Antiquities Bureau, Ding Hui, admitted the restoration plan was “an ugly repair job”.

He was quoted by the Beijing News as saying the work was completed over three months as part of a government restoration plan.

The project took place in 2014 but has recently come to light after pictures of the result were shared by Beijing News on Weibo this week.

Many reports on the restoration lamented its inconsistency, with different materials used to cover the wall in different places.

Dong Yaohui, vice chairman of the Great Wall Studies Society, called the restoration work "basic and crude."

"This sort of repair work harms the people's appreciation of the Great Wall's history and culture, severing a channel of dialogue between the people and cultural heritage," Mr Yaohui said.

"This sort of behaviour is ridiculous.”

Online commentators have been scathing in their criticism with social media users in China used the Weibo hashtag: "The most beautiful, wild Great Wall flattened" to slam the work, CNN reports.

One user said: "Glad Venus de Milo is not in China, or someone would get her a new arm."

Another said over Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter: “I would rather to see it stay bleak and desolate,” the Telegraph reports.

An official at the government's Culture Bureau in Huludao city, which oversees Suizhong, said he had been told the restoration plan had been approved at the central government level by the State Administration of Cultural Relics.

"The old wall was badly damaged over a long period of history and the restoration work was aimed at preventing it from falling apart and being washed away by the rain," he said.

China has passed legislation in recent years to protect the Great Wall, large sections of which have been bulldozed, pillaged for building materials or heavily restored and commercialized.

The wall dates from 220 BC, when China joined existing walls and fortifications to defend against invasions from northern tribes.

The criticism follows the launch of a crowd funding campaign by heritage officials to pay for restoration work on the Great Wall, the BBC reports.

Tens of thousands of people have made online donations since the project began at the end of August raising around 300,000 yuan (£34,000).

The campaign is led by the China Foundation for Cultural Heritage Conservation which has said the wall is in great need of repair.

Additional reporting by Associated Press