(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-04 22:31

Hangzhou -- The beginning of construction in east China's Zhejiang Province of a  same-sized replica of Beijing's Old Summer Palace or Yuanmingyuan, an imperial summer resort destroyed in 1860 by British and French forces, has been set for next year.

The 400-hectare duplicate park will be built west of Hengdian Town, a Hollywood-like film shooting base in the country, at an estimated cost of 20 billion yuan ($2.7 billion).

So far, 1.16 billion yuan had been raised for the project, which would start construction next year and be completed within five years, said Xu Wenrong, honorary president of Hengdian Sannong Promotion Society, or formerly known as Hengdian Social and Economic Federation, advocator of the project.

The 1.16 billion yuan includes 120 million yuan collected by the Yuanmingyuan Replica Construction Fund under the Zhejiang Foundation for Chinese Cultural Development, one billion yuan from Hengdian Sannong Promotion Society and 40 million yuan from a private enterprise.

The money already raised has surpassed the planned construction costs for the first year, Xu said.

He said the money raising was achieved without resort to large-scale donations.

Among the total investment of 20 billion yuan, 7 billion will be used for infrastructure construction and the rest for collection and duplications of relic pieces.

"We are fully confident because many foundations and social groups have shown great enthusiasm and investment intentions for the project," Xu said.

The Zhejiang Hengdian Yuanmingyuan Replica Special Fund Commission under the China Film Foundation and Zhejiang Foundation for Chinese Cultural Development, two approved donation raisers for the project, will launch donation publicity campaigns in next April in Beijing.

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