Poor county gives up on holding pricey concert
By Li Qian |
May 18, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A poverty-stricken county in southwest China's Yunnan Province has halted plans for a grand concert that was said to cost tens of millions of yuan after receiving widespread outrage.
Fuyuan County also decided to postpone its three-day cultural festival in June, which aimed to attract business and boost tourism, the county government announced.
"We accepted netizens' reasonable suggestion that it's inappropriate to hold events when Yunnan is still hit by the drought and decided to suspend the activities," said a statement by the Fuyuan County Party.
Online posts said many big pop stars, like Elva Hsiao and Kenji Wu, would appear on the stage, driving the cost into the tens of millions of yuan.
Online posts cited news published on the government's official website that said "many renowned artists from abroad and at home will give you an audio-visual feast."
Authorities denied the high cost and insisted the concert was sponsored by the owners of a local coal mine and not by government funds.
Liu Benfang, deputy Party secretary of Fuyuan, said the festival aimed to invite experts to discuss how to have the resource-dependent region developed sustainably, People's Daily reported yesterday.
Fuyuan ranks No. 45 among 100 regions in south China for coal revenues, yet ranks as the fourth-poorest region in Yunnan Province. More than 60,000 people, around 7.7 percent of the population, are extremely poor despite the county boasting 25.6 billion tons of coal reserves.
Fuyuan County also decided to postpone its three-day cultural festival in June, which aimed to attract business and boost tourism, the county government announced.
"We accepted netizens' reasonable suggestion that it's inappropriate to hold events when Yunnan is still hit by the drought and decided to suspend the activities," said a statement by the Fuyuan County Party.
Online posts said many big pop stars, like Elva Hsiao and Kenji Wu, would appear on the stage, driving the cost into the tens of millions of yuan.
Online posts cited news published on the government's official website that said "many renowned artists from abroad and at home will give you an audio-visual feast."
Authorities denied the high cost and insisted the concert was sponsored by the owners of a local coal mine and not by government funds.
Liu Benfang, deputy Party secretary of Fuyuan, said the festival aimed to invite experts to discuss how to have the resource-dependent region developed sustainably, People's Daily reported yesterday.
Fuyuan ranks No. 45 among 100 regions in south China for coal revenues, yet ranks as the fourth-poorest region in Yunnan Province. More than 60,000 people, around 7.7 percent of the population, are extremely poor despite the county boasting 25.6 billion tons of coal reserves.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
