The Great Wall is one of the New Seven Wonders

The votes are in, and despite earlier concerns that China’s grand national icon might not make the grade, the Great Wall has indeed made it onto the list of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Altogether about 100 million votes were cast around the world, either through the official website or via text message. It appears, however, that the motives of the corporation that organized the whole endeavor are far from pure – apparently you could buy the privilege of voting more than once and they also reserved the right to exclude any votes that were cast.

You can view a complete list of the winners and nominees here and a map of all the nominees at this site.

The for-profit corporation behind the vote is making the most of the press coverage surrounding the release of the results and is now promoting their New Seven Wonders of Nature, the nomination round for which closes on August 8 2008.

For those interested in taking a closer look at the local “new” Wonder of the World, a good place to start is this article, originally published in the Beijing Excursion Guide.

Links and Sources
New 7 Wonders Official Site
Answers.com: New Seven Wonders of the World
MapTrot: Map of all 21 Candidates
that’s Beijing: City Scene – Wonder Wall
Reuters: China frets about Great Wall’s China Status
Reuters: (Video) Great Wall one of the Seven Wonders
Beijing Excursion Guide: The Wall, Unplugged