Imperial Cleanup in Beijing
China will spend $48 million cleaning the moat around the imperial palace in Beijing, evicting squatters from the banks and planting lotus flowers in its waters.
According to Reuters news service, a Chinese news agency reported that the moat encircling the golden-roofed palace halls in the heart of Beijing has become a smelly sewer where residents of the crowded city dump waste.
The landscape has been spoiled by construction of illegal shacks along its banks and the restoration campaign will include the removal of 308 squatter families, the agency said.
Lotus flowers will be planted in the moat to help to keep it clean and the ancient military camps that once guarded the Forbidden City will be rebuilt as tourist attractions.
The project is scheduled to be completed by the year 2000.
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