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Golf Course Building Halted

Beijing has suspended approval of new golf courses and started monitoring existing facilities to cut down on massive losses of arable land.

Golf courses under construction lacking authorization will be banned and those already approved officially will be closely supervised for land occupation, water consumption and environmental protection.

The city has 19 golf courses, with an additional 10 under construction, but eight lack the necessary government approvals. The 29 courses occupy 3,708 hectares of land and interestingly, possess 540 holes, according to official statistics.

An earlier report by Peoples Daily indicated there are 176 golf courses in 26 provincial regions, which is suggested as conservative as the figure does not take into account those under construction or with plans still under scrutiny by local governments.

To my knowledge, only one golf course was ever approved by the State Council.  Our ministry has never received any golf course land applications, said an official with the Ministry of Land and Resources, the only state department with the power to allow the non-agricultural use of a land area over 70 hectares.

Few local governments have followed the application procedure or the rules. They usually call golf courses  image projects by claiming they are necessary for a good investment environment to attract foreign investors.