|
Front Page of the Day
Government landmark for salePosted by Eric Mu on Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 3:03 PM
 Southern Metropolis Daily July 17, 2008 When construction began in 2004 on the new municipal service center of Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province, the project repeatedly drew criticism for being overly extravagant. The government nevertheless insisted that it has the approval of the State Council. The service center, which cost over 1.2 billion yuan, is a cluster of seven buildings centered around a dome shaped structure, which resembles the National Theater in Beijing. On July 16, the Chengdu government called a press conference to announce that the service center will be auctioned to raise money for reconstruction work in ares destroyed by the recent Wenchuan earthquake.  Municipal service center of Chengdu He Zhanghua, the director of the Chengdu publicity department, said,"Times are difficult, people's lives are difficult...the earthquake has changed the basis upon which we make decisions." Li Chunchen, Party secretary of Chengdu, commented that the decision demonstrates the government's willingness to stand by the people through the hard times. Government offices that have already moved to the new service center will move back to their original sites. It is said that the center will likely be sold to companies for commercial use. Links and Sources
|
Partner Links
Jobs in China
Recent Comments
Henry on
The Eurasian Face
Caroline W on
Big in China
Michael on
Julia Lovell on translating Lu Xun's complete fiction: "His is an angry, searing vision of China"
Brandon K. on
Clueless academic takes on popular fantasy novels
Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
The latest recommended blogs and new media
 From 2008
Books on China
 The Eurasian Face : Blacksmith Books, a publishing house in Hong Kong, is behind The Eurasian Face, a collection of photographs by Kirsteen Zimmern. Below is an excerpt from the series:
Big in China: An adapted excerpt from Big In China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising A Family, Playing The Blues and Becoming A Star in China, just published this month. Author Alan Paul tells the story of arriving in Beijing as a trailing spouse, starting a blues band, raising kids and trying to make sense of China.
Pallavi Aiyar's Chinese Whiskers: Pallavi Aiyar's first novel, Chinese Whiskers, a modern fable set in contemporary Beijing, will be published in January 2011. Aiyar currently lives in Brussels where she writes about Europe for the Business Standard. Below she gives permissions for an excerpt.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ Korean history doesn't fly on Chinese TV screens (2007.09): SARFT puts the kibbosh on Korean historical dramas. + Religion and government in an uneasy mix (2008.03): Phoenix Weekly (凤凰周刊) article from October, 2007, on government influence on religious practice in Tibet. + David Moser on Mao impersonators (2004.10): I first became aware of this phenomenon in 1992 when I turned on a Beijing TV variety show and was jolted by the sight of "Mao Zedong" and "Zhou Enlai" playing a game of ping pong. They both gave short, rousing speeches, and then were reverently interviewed by the emcee, who thanked them profusely for taking time off from their governmental duties to appear on the show.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky
 (on the mainland)or Feedburner  (blocked in China) Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links) Top Links: Links from the top bar Danwei Jobs: Want ads Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30 |
 |
Chinese media, advertising, and urban life. |
|
tweet
facebook
bookmark
HaoHao
digg
Comments on Government landmark for sale
I think it is not neccessary even the earthquake hadn`t taken place.you can see luxury government building all over china from Beijing to small townships.The trend of building extravagant office building began in middle 1980s(禁止修建楼堂馆所),it has always been forbiden by government and critized by socielty from then.Unfortunately the trend hasn`t been held back,instead it has become biger and biger in 20 years.This article hit the point.but I still want to add someting --the official furnitures are also extravagant.It is common that officals has a desk of morae than 10,000 rmb in my city (450,000 dwellers),.
Pure populism. The land on which their current offices are located is worth much more than the cost of their new offices (including land, construction, etc).