Authorities have shut two temples on a sacred Buddhist mountain in northern China and arrested six people who were hired by the temples to deceive tourists into donating money.

The Wutai Mountain [file photo]

The Wutai Mountain Administration Bureau closed two of the mountain's dozens of temples and revoked their business licenses on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

The arrests were made for illegal money collection and the report said that the temples had hired six fake monks to con tourists into buying expensive incense and paying unreasonable amounts of money for religious ceremonies.

"We will continue to regulate temples and shops on Wutai Mountain to display a good image to tourists," the director of the bureau told Xinhua.

Last year, the government's religious affairs office called on local authorities to ban profiteering related to religious activity and told them not to allow religious venues to be run as business ventures.

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