China steps into history

Out of the wheat fields loom a line of imposing grey walls and fortified gates stretching into the distance. It is the historic city of Beijing, stern and strong, ready to protect the emperor from all intruders.

But wait a minute. This is 1997, the emperor is long dead and the communists knocked down the ancient city walls of Beijing in the 1950s.

No, this is a recreation of the walls and of many pieces of old China that you can no longer see, in what its builders call the country's biggest man-made tourist resort, an investment of US$200 million (about HK$1.55 billion) over an area of 2.2 square kilometres in the countryside between Beijing and Tianjin.

'Top City Under Heaven' will include a 100-metre-high pagoda, a 42-metre-long sleeping Buddha said to be the longest in the world, a 40-metre sculpture of two dragons playing with a pearl and replicas of four holy Buddhist mountains in the 'land of Buddhism and Taoism'.

If you find that too dull, you can go to amusements that certainly did not exist in imperial Beijing - a roller-coaster, go-kart racing, wide-screen cinema, Animal World, electronic games, play 18 holes of golf, shop for antiques or take a 30-minute miniature train ride. Top City is the brainchild of CITIC Guoan Company, part of the giant China International Trust and Investment Corporation, which owns 35 per cent of the project.

Wang Zidong, secretary-general of Top City, says the project, 52km from Beijing and 70km from Tianjin, has both commercial and social objectives.