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County hit for 'Dubai' lavishness

(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-25 11:52

An overly luxurious government building in east China that some people say would be more appropriate in Dubai is stoking public anger about waste and corruption in times of economic crisis, Chinese media reported Wednesday.

The compound, in Changxing County in Zhejiang, one of China's richest provinces, has an "unimaginably spectacular" night view with colored lights shining on the surrounding fountains and an artificial lake, said a report that was posted on government website China.com.cn.

"When I first saw it I thought I was looking at the Atlantis the Palm Hotel of Dubai," the site quoted a comment posted by an Internet user as saying.

The four buildings and attached facilities cost hundreds of millions of yuan and were being criticized as "an extremely typical extravagance and waste of money," the report said.

China has issued numerous warnings in recent years to local governments to avoid building ostentatious public buildings with official funds, especially in the country's poorer inland regions.

China has previously banned indoor gardens, multi-story atriums and high-tech karaoke stages at government and Communist Party buildings.

In one case, the government in Zhanjiang in the southern province of Guangdong spent 11 million yuan (US$1.6 million) on a fancy five-story poverty relief office in which only 20 people worked, state media reported.