A private company has come up with proposals to rebuild
Beijing's famous Yuanmingyuan Park in Zhejiang Province.
The Hengdian Group, best known for managing a large film and
television complex in the east China province, made the
announcement yesterday.
Yuanmingyuan, the old Summer Palace, was a Qing
Dynasty Imperial Park in the northwest of Beijing. Construction
began in 1709 and continued for 150 years under five emperors. But
it was burnt to the ground in 1860 by French and British
troops.
Hengdian will rebuild Yuanmingyuan near Dongyang in the center
of the province. A spokesman for the group surnamed Shi said it
would be built to scale and cover an area of 350 hectares. Shi said
the proposal had gained support from government as it would bring
new impetus to the local economy and in particular the tourist
industry.
The company will invest 20 billion yuan (US$2.47 billion) over
five years. "The park will be located in a remote place in the
countryside with hills, rivers and farmland which corresponds to
the original environment of the real Yuanmingyuan," Shi said.
"It'll be a multi-functional theme park."??
The developers says the park would serve as an educational base
for patriotism. "If visitors compare the magnificent park with the
ruins of the Yuanmingyuan in Beijing they'll keep in mind the
sufferings of our nation in modern history," Shi said.
The park will also be used as a movie and television set.
Hengdian already has a development with an imitation of the
Forbidden City in Beijing, a Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) palace and a
prosperous Song Dynasty (960-1279) downtown street. These attracted
3.2 million visitors last year.
However, this latest project has aroused controversy. Ruan
Yisan, a history professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, said
he couldn't see any point in rebuilding the Yuanmingyuan as it had
been destroyed.
"The remaining ruins are a witness of history and serve as a
good reminder of what happened," Ruan said. "Therefore any attempt
to rebuild the garden will only be an awkward imitation. Moreover
the real Yuanmingyuan was not built in just five or 10 years." Ruan
suggested the group could use the money to preserve sites that are
in urgent need of protection.
According to Xinhua News Agency, China has 2,500 theme parks
with an investment of 150 billion yuan (US$18.5 billion) but only
10 percent of them make money.
(China Daily September 19, 2006)
