Controversial 21-km dragon project could be stopped: environment watchdog
28/3/2007 15:04
The Henan Provincial environmental protection administration may halt the
controversial construction of a 21-km-long dragon being built as a tourist
attraction near a national forest.
The project was started without necessary
environmental assessments, according to the environmental protection
administration in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan. On Tuesday the administration
dispatched experts to the site.
"If the project fails our assessment, we will
order it be stopped or the demolition of the completed part," an official with
the administration said.
The dragon snakes its way along the top of a ridge
of Shizhu Mountain, which was designated a national forest park in 2005.
The
dragon's body forms nine meter high wall running for kilometers along the
backbone of the ridge. The project is expected to cost 300 million yuan to
complete.
"The planned dragon is like an expressway which will damage
vegetation, affect the landscape and destroy the local ecological system," said
Wu Mingzuo, director of Henan Ecology Society.
The Zhengzhou environmental
protection administration said they knew of the project through media
reports.
A Henan newspaper quoted an official with Xinzheng City as saying
the dragon is a business project and has nothing to do with the government.
Zulong Company vice president, Li Xiong, told the media that the dragon project
had support from the government.
An on-line survey by a leading Chinese
website shows more than 90 percent of respondents disapproved of the dragon
which is said to be the longest in the country if not the world.
Some 5.6
million pieces of white marble and gilded bronze are to form the dragon's scales
which are supposed to be "symbolic of the country's 56 ethnic groups". Display
rooms offering themes of filial piety and patriotism are to be set up in the
dragon's hollow body.
For a fee, people will be able to have their names and
messages inscribed on the scales, and companies can advertise the dragon's
head.
The project was first launched in 2002 by a returned overseas Chinese
but stalled after running short of funds.
Zulong Company was founded in
October 2005 with a registered capital of one million yuan. (US$1 equals 7.7318
yuan)
Xinhua
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