Henan's Kaifeng city plans to splurge billions to build replica ancient town for tourists

A historical city in Henan province is planning to spend the equivalent of 20 times its 2011 fiscal revenue to demolish slums and build a replica ancient town that it hopes will be a tourist hot spot, local media say.

Kaifeng , one of China's ancient capital cities which served as the seat of power on seven occasions, will spend 100 billion yuan (HK$122 billion) over the next four years to relocate about 80,000 households - one-third of the population in its old district, the China Business Journal reported on Saturday.

The sprawling 20 sq km tourist attraction will be built in the architectural style of the Song dynasty (AD960 to AD1279), when the then-capital reached its peak of urbanisation and prosperity.

An official was quoted by the newspaper as saying that public transport kiosks and tourist information centres would be decorated in similar fashion.

An official at the Kaifeng Communist Party Committee's general office, who declined to give his name, confirmed to the Post yesterday that slums in the old district were being bulldozed, but said he was not sure what the project was for.

Professor He Yunao , from Nanjing University's School of History, told the Post that Kaifeng was a cosmopolitan city with more than one million residents during the Song dynasty, and was even known abroad.

It was visited by the 13th-century Italian explorer Marco Polo, and even had a small community of Jews who came to the city along the Silk Road in the 10th century. The Jews reputedly built a synagogue there.