Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Wanda Group, made the largest individual donation in China yesterday, Beijing News reports.

Wang gave 1 billion yuan to the municipal government of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, for the reconstruction of the Porcelain Tower, which was built in the 15th century during the Ming Dynasty and mostly destroyed in the 19th century during the Taiping Rebellion.

A statement on the property developer's website said Wang will donate the money to the China Charity Federation in December, and the federation will allocate it to the city of Nanjing in three stages.

Wang said his donation is out of respect toward traditional Chinese culture, even though he is not a Buddhist, the Beijing News reported on Tuesday.

"It's a good thing for entrepreneurs to donate for the protection of historical relics, as too much donation flows into the sectors of disaster relief, education and healthcare in China," said Deng Guosheng, deputy director of Non-Governmental Organization Research Center at Tsinghua University.

However, some netizens said they cannot understand such donations.

"It's unnecessary to rebuild some historical site which no longer exists, and what you are going to build is actually something made by modern people which has little historical or cultural value. It's just a waste of money and resources," a netizen named Song Hubin wrote on Tianya, a popular online forum.

The Grand Bao'en Temple was considered one of the three most famous temples in Nanjing in the early years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

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