Victory for several reasons

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-30 07:45

A project to replicate Yuanmingyuan has been stopped by the Ministry of Land and Resources for illegal occupation of land.

This is certainly a major victory for the country's land watchdogs in their efforts to protect dwindling resources.

But it is a pity the project was only called off because of illegal land use.

Objections to the project only in the name of culture would in no way have stopped it from going ahead.

This seems to be where the opponents of this project feel a bit disappointed or sad about this triumph.

Yuanmingyuan, the summer palace of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) court in suburban Beijing, was pillaged and burned down by invading British and French allied forces in 1860. The project aroused controversy immediately after it was announced early last year because of the unique historical messages behind the destroyed garden - it would be the largest royal garden combining traditional Chinese buildings and Western-style structures if it were to be realized.

And the way it was destroyed bears witness to the barbarity of Western powers of the time.

The replica was to be built in Hengdian, a small town in east China's Zhejiang province and will cost 20 billion yuan ($2.7 billion).

The replica to be built was considered by many an affront to the title and the ruins of this garden, which are a cultural heritage as a whole under State protection.

It has been revealed that the local government has played tricks for the company involved in this case to illegally occupy farmland.

This is typical behavior by some governments and business people to get an otherwise illegal project endorsed by higher authorities.

It turns out to be another ruse to build something in the name of culture for economic performance, which has long been employed by some local governments to increase their revenue or just for corrupt officials to proffer.

As far as we know, another even larger scale project to build a Chinese cultural landmark city is still going on in East China's Shandong province in defiance of strong opposition from the country's cultural celebrities.

It seems that the project will not be halted unless illegal dealings behind it are discovered.

The self-claimed Chinese cultural landmark city is a case in point.

We have too many cultural sites that are of enough historical significance to be cultural landmarks.

While adequate efforts are yet to be done for their preservation, it obviously goes against common sense to build a fake cultural landmark.

The victory land-watchdogs have won over the Yumingyuan replica project is encouraging.

And we hope it will not be long before voices of reason prevail over such projects.

(China Daily 03/30/2009 page4)