Northwest China's Shaanxi Province will invest 1 billion yuan
(US$120 million) to convert its capital, Xi'an, into a cultural
center of western China.
The effort signals
the start of a new round of cultural investment in a number
of cities in Northwest China.
"We have planned
to build a concert hall, which is the first of its kind in
the west, and a digital library," said Wang Zhixi, an
official of the provincial government.
The concert hall,
currently in the planning stage, is expected to match the
quality of the Beijing Concert Hall.
According to the
provincial government's plan, about half of the planned investment
will be put into an art museum and a film center, which are
to be built within five years.
The museum will
be one of the first in the west that focuses on local folk
art.
The unique folk
culture of western China, especially in rural areas, has impressed
millions of visitors from home and aboard.
"The museum
will be home to works by rural painters and folk artists,"
said Wang.
Renowned Chinese
architects, such as Zhang Jingqiu, have been invited to design
the museum.
"Our film
center, designed to be one of the best in the country, is
open to foreign investment," said Wang.
The cultural plan
is the biggest investment a local government in West China
has ever made in this field, said Zhu Baotong, an economist
from the Shaanxi Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.
"We hope that
the cities in the west are able to maintain their unique characteristics
in this period of regional development," said Zhang.
A number of leading
cities in the west have recently been working to maintain
their cultural identity despite significant construction activity.
Fan Shaoyan, an
expert of city planning, said that Xining, capital of Northwest
China's Qinghai Province, is currently developing a new city
plan for the next decade.
The new city plan
aims to introduce art galleries and museums to the city, he
said.
Fan, in co-operation
with a group of city planning experts, is currently trying
to establish an institute to research the unique urban culture
that has emerged in western cities.
(China Daily 04/02/2001)
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