China plans to spend billions of dollars to build a cultural symbolic city in its eastern province of Shandong, home to ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, to revive traditional cultural values including Confucianism.(Photo: CRI.cn) Photo Gallery>>>

     BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- China plans to spend billions of dollars to build a culture symbolic project in eastern province of Shandong, home to ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, to revive traditional cultural values including Confucianism.

    Jiang Daming, governor of Shandong, announced at a news conference on Saturday in Beijing that the "Chinese Cultural Symbolic City" will be built in the Ji`ning City, spanning more than 300 square kilometers. The city will incorporate the county-level city of Qufu, ancestral home of Confucius, and Zoucheng, home of Mencius, and the Jiulong Mountain range between the two cities.

    The whole project covers refurbishing the homes of the two ancient philosophers and building new architectures in the Jiulongmountain range, Jiang said.

    The project planning and construction commission, chaired by top Shandong officials, will solicit ideas on project designing from the public starting from Saturday through September 1 this year. Details of the solicitation are available at the city`s website www.ccsc.gov.cn.

    Jiang said all design plans will be reviewed by a consultation panel made up by some 30 top artists, sinologists and architects in China.

    The ambitious engineering project, initiated by 69 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2001, aims to showcase the traditional values like peace, harmony and ingenuity advocated by ancient philosophers such as Confucius. The project has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in October 2007.

    The project has won supports from many, including Pei Ieoh Ming, renowned architect and glass pyramid designer of Louvre, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg said in a congratulatory note to the organizers on Saturday that "today`s event heralds the start of a project that will highlight the millennia-old traditions of this rich and vibrant culture."

    "I commend...everyone involved with the Chinese Cultural Symbolic City Project for helping Chinese men, women, and children share their culture with their friends throughout the five boroughs and around the world," he wrote.

    Xu Jialu, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People`s Congress and an initiator of the project, said that "the city will exhibit and commemorate the long-honored Chinese values, such as refining personal morality, cherishing peace and harmony, and filial piety. Ideally, it shall be the spiritual home for the whole nation." 

    The mega-project continued the recent revival of traditional Chinese cultures at a modern society, a trend illustrated by the vast popularity of a woman lecturer Yu Dan who interpreted Confucius teachings, and the restoring of traditional holidays such as the tomb-sweeping day, dragon boat festival and mid-autumn festival.

    Xu, who also chairs the consultants` panel, said "no culture can survive without the matrix it was born. The traditional Chinese cultures are part of the Chinese people`s entity, and we need to bring that back in the face of an increasingly superficial and chaotic world."

    Xu said "the city will not only be a reminder for the Chinese people, but is also a bonus to the world...because it would include contents advocating the antithesis of "clashes of civilizations" by outlining how the Chinese culture has survived and evolved through learning from and converging with other cultures."

    Xu told reporters that the total budget of the project will be made after design plans are finalized, and forecasts the total cost to surpass 30 billion yuan (about 4.2 billion U.S. dollars) estimated in 2004. Construction is expected to start before 2010.

    Although the project is still in its infancy, many have already started volunteering advice. According to suggestions made by architectures and artists from Shanghai-based Fudan University, available at the project website, the city would include a memorial hall dedicated to Confucius and a monument for all memorable Chinese figures since ancient times. It even suggested cutting-edge digital presentations of all Chinese cultural relics.

    A group of sinologists in Beijing-based Renmin University of China suggested building a palace complex, with separate palaces dedicated to Chinese ancestors Emperor Huang and Emperor Yan, Confucius, and other scholars who once championed different fields of studies in history.

    Zhu Senyuan, a space scientist, said a section shall be reserved for scientific accomplishments made by the Chinese, from earliest inventions like paper-making techniques to the latest technological breakthrough, the Chang`e lunar probe.

    Xu Jialu said he, like anyone else, had little idea what the city would be like. "The bottom line is to make the city in spring and sustainable through generations," he said.