Two foreign tourists enter restricted section of the Mutianyu Great Wall in Beijing on April 30. Mutianyu WeChat official account

Two foreign tourists were added to a blacklist in Beijing for violating regulations and crossing an undeveloped section of the Mutianyu Great Wall, with the scenic spot on Tuesday calling for more protection of the Great Wall from tourists.

The two tourists, both from Senegal, were found by other tourists to have violated regulations, ignored the "no crossing" sign, and climbed across the Great Wall to an undeveloped area on April 30, according to a notice released by the official WeChat account of the Mutianyu section of Great Wall.

In a photo posted by the account, a man in a black coat was sitting on the wall while another in a gray coat crossed the scenic spot sign into an undeveloped area, with a sign near them read: "This is the undeveloped segment of the Great Wall. No crossing."

The scenic spot, after receiving the information from a tourist, immediately used the ticket and monitoring system to obtain the information of the two tourists and put them onto a blacklist, restricting them from buying tickets in the future.

The section of the Great Wall is an unopened area, which is in need of repair. Many of its walls have suffered damages and the bricks are unstable. Before necessary repair, the wild Great Wall needs to maintain its original appearance and cannot withstand arbitrary trampling and destruction by tourists, the notice said.

"The two tourists, after being blacklisted, will not be allowed to buy tickets and enter the scenic spot," a staff member with Mutianyu Great Wall told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

"The ticket purchase restrictions only apply to that scenic spot," the staff member added, saying that other information on the incident should be obtained from the notice released on its website.

Another staff member reached by the Global Times said that she was not sure whether it was the first time foreign tourists had been blacklisted in this scenic spot.

Under the notice, a tourist who claims to be the one who reported the incident, commented, "Thanks to the scenic spot for what you have done, and for not disappointing me, the only one who spoke out. "

The topic went viral on China's Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo. The hashtag #two foreign tourists blacklisted for crossing Great Wall was viewed more than 120 million times as of press time.

Many netizens expressed their support for the scenic spot's decision. "Whether they are Chinese or foreigners, they should be treated equally if they violate the regulations," wrote a netizen on Weibo.

In March, three Chinese tourists who scrawled on the wall of the Badaling Great Wall in Yanqing district in Beijing were detained and fined, Yanqing police said.

Mutianyu Great Wall was listed as a "World Cultural Heritage" by UNESCO in 1987, and was rated a national 5A tourist attraction by the China National Tourism Administration in 2011.