In 2021, the general public budget income of Yuanping City (county-level city) in Shanxi Province was only 990 million yuan. The then Secretary of the City Committee, in pursuit of so-called “achievements,” made a “decision” out of thin air and squandered nearly 100 million yuan to create a landscape town in a desolate mountain area, which ultimately ended up a complete failure, with no remedies to this day. Recently, this incident has sparked attention on the internet.
On June 13, Shanghai Radio and Television’s program “Kankan News” reported that Yuanping, Shanxi spent 98.32 million yuan to forcibly construct a landscape town in the deep mountains. This extravagant infrastructure farce ultimately turned into a huge abandoned mess in the mountains and valleys.
From the beginning of the project, it deviated from common sense. Located in Mutu Village, Su Longkou Town, Yuanping City, the site is deep in the mountains, with blocked transportation. The village has a permanent population of only thirty-odd people and lacks the basic conditions for large-scale tourism development. The so-called core cultural and tourism selling point, “Mutu Grottoes,” is hidden in a small house in the village.
In this desolate mountain hollow, a few kilometers of imitation antique streets have risen on the flat ground, which is simply unimaginable. On one side is the luxurious landscape built with huge sums of money, and on the other side are the old earth kiln caves where villagers live, highlighting the absurdity of the project.
Now, two years have passed since the officials involved were investigated, but the mess remains unattended. The project has been vacant and abandoned for a long time, the imitation ancient buildings are gradually deteriorating, and the renovation of the scenic area has completely stopped. Faced with public opinion and questioning, the local authorities simply brushed it off with a light-hearted statement of “The rectification was indeed not done well,” without any remedy or follow-up. The investigation was carried out, but the issue remains unresolved, leaving a huge loss of state-owned assets hanging in the air.
The report stated that from 2021 to 2022, Ma Zhiqiang, the then Secretary of the Yuanping City Committee, made this decision to quickly achieve short-term results.
Of particular concern is that every aspect of approval, supervision, and verification failed completely, with no department correcting deviations, allowing this absurd decision that violates development laws to go through the entire process of legal approval, land acquisition, bidding, and construction. Yuanping City had a general public budget income of only 990 million yuan in 2021, but the fiscal expenditure reached 3.43 billion yuan, leading to a huge budget gap. Nearly a billion public funds for this financially weak county-level city weigh heavily.
The report immediately sparked widespread attention on the internet.
Netizens commented, “With scarce resources, a small population, and tight finances, the extravagant spending on landscaping ultimately ended in failure. Why engage in these superficial projects? Why do they keep doing such ridiculous things? In the end, profiting is the fastest and easiest way for them to make money.” “Those involved – decision-makers, signatories – should all be sent to prison.”
A netizen from Shandong said, “The same thing is happening here, in a small village without any natural or cultural landmarks, where a huge amount of money was spent on developing a tourism project. After completion, no one visits, businesses don’t open there, no one to be seen during the day – it’s like a ghost village.”