Tourism officials in Beichuan, Sichuan province, are trying to distance themselves from a plan to build a 2.3 billion yuan (HK$2.6 billion) museum in the area, which was devastated by last year's earthquake.
A bid to commemorate the May 12 quake, the proposed museum was supposedly planned to cover 8 sq km, including central Beichuan and the Tangjiashan 'quake lake'.
But the huge amount of money needed to pay for the project soon became the focal point of criticism.
'With regard to the hot debate targeting the proposal, we're now drafting a press release aiming to clarify our stance on the issue,' Lin Chuan, head of the tourism bureau in Beichuan county, said yesterday.
His deputy, Lin Jizhong, said: 'We're going to make the clarification public by posting it on the internet as soon as it comes out, within a day or two.'
According to an online opinion poll conducted by Netease, one of the mainland's most popular news portals, more than 98 per cent of more than 9,000 respondents objected to the plan.
Hundreds of internet users aired their anger over the plan for the museum, with some labelling it an 'image project' while others questioned whether it was worth building.