Spurious stories weak way to attract tourist dollars
- Source: Global Times
- [00:07 May 19 2010]
- Comments
However, the bottom line should be respect for the historical facts. The public simply won't swallow many of the wilder claims, and it damages government credibility.
We should have learned something from the "Tiger Zhou" event in 2007.
The Shaanxi forestry department gave an award to photographer Zhou Zhenglong for reportedly finding the once-extinct wild South China tiger without verifying the authenticity of Zhou's digital photographs of the tiger, which were finally proved to be fakes.
The government department just wanted to create a good story to drive economic growth, but the improper methods just made the matter worse.
Chinese writer Wang Meng once said that some local governments' unscrupulous efforts on boosting local tourism and GDP growth are just like "making up a story to build a temple."
In the old days, new temples, which were often substantial investments, would be based around spurious legends of saints or spirits. In fact, image projects blindly built by local governments are what we should be most vigilant against.
For example, Wuyang township in Jiangxi Province, one of the four competitors for the birthplace of Cao Xueqin, has invested 43 million yuan ($6.30 million) to establish a tourist park based on his work. Lincheng county in Hebei Province, which claims to be the birthplace of semi-legendary general Zhao Yun, is throwing 70 million yuan ($10.25 million) into a theme park. And Linqing city in Shandong Province plans to spend 300 million yuan ($43.93 million) to build an attrac-tion centered around The Plum in the Golden Vase.
It's actually a building boom under the guise of history. No one knows when the full costs will be recovered, if ever, and few local governments have calculated it in advance.
These projects stem from local officials' hasty and impulsive decisions, and can do nothing to improve people's livelihood.
Staking economic interests on myths and legends is ridiculous, but it reflects the lack of effective restriction on local governments' irrational investments.
The authoer is a Beijing-based commentator. forum@globaltimes.com.cn
