BEIJING-Chinese social media users were in an uproar Friday over restoration of a 700-year-old section of the Great Wall that has been covered in cement, turning it into a smooth, flat-topped path.

Known as one of the most beautiful portions of the “wild”, unrestored wall, the eight-kilometre (five-mile) Xiaohekou stretch in northeast Liaoning province was built in 1381 during the Ming Dynasty. Photos posted online showed that its uneven, crumbling steps, jagged walls and plant growth had been replaced as far as the eye could see with a white, concrete-like cap. “This looks like the work of a group of people who didn’t even graduate from elementary school,” said one user of China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform.

“If this is the result, you might as well have just blown it up.”

“Such brutal treatment of the monuments left behind by our ancestors! How is it that people with low levels of cultural awareness can take on leadership positions?” asked another. “Why don’t we just raze the Forbidden City in Beijing, too?” Even the deputy director of Liaoning’s department of culture Ding Hui admitted: “The repairs really are quite ugly,” according to state broadcaster CCTV.