The death of more than a dozen cotton trees - icons of a 300 million yuan facelift of Guangzhou's Huacheng Plaza for last year's Asian Games - sparked complaints about the squandering of public money on short-lived vanity projects.
Six hundred big trees were moved from various parts of the Pearl River Delta, including Foshan , to decorate the plaza outside the main stadium before the opening of October's Asian Games.
The most eye-catching were the 30- to 50-year-old cotton trees, Guangzhou's city tree, but just eight months later the dead trees in the plaza have become a public eyesore.
The owner of the plaza said yesterday it was not its fault because the trees should have been cared for by the plaza's gardening contractor.
New Axis Company chairman Zhu Zhigang said it was the contractor's duty to take care of the trees until December.
He admitted his company had done nothing to save the trees late last year, even after it realised they were in bad condition, because it thought they should be the responsibility of those who planted them.