Authorities call a halt to golf course developments in capital

The Beijing government has put a stop to the construction of seven golf courses in the capital for failing to meet municipal requirements.

According to Xinhua, two of the developments have been stopped because the designs and original plans for the facilities were changed.

Work has ground to a halt on the other five because the developers had not met all the necessary building procedures.

Xinhua said 110 million yuan had already been spent on the projects, which altogether were projected to cost more than 1 billion yuan.

The Beijing Evening News reports Beijing has 19 golf courses, with another 10 in the pipeline. The courses cover 3,700 hectares and include 540 holes.

The municipal government has also decided to call off construction of two cement production lines, six office buildings and a training centre project.

Earlier this year, the Oriental University City came under fire from the Beijing Municipal Administration of State Land, Resources and Housing for building a huge golf course and expensive villas on former farmland instead of classrooms and other educational facilities.

The administration said the developer of Oriental University City had acquired 283 hectares of farmland from two villages in Tongzhou district in western Beijing.

Oriental University City lies on the border between Beijing and Langfang in Hebei. About 10 universities in Beijing have already taken up residency there.

Golf course developments have become a favourite target of municipal governments as they try to rein in excessive investment.

Guangdong recently ordered that all golf course construction be put on hold. There are 17 courses being built in the province, involving billions of yuan in investment.

Xinhua reported that any golf course projects in Guangdong which are found not to have been approved by the provincial government will be scrapped.