KUNMING, Sept. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The developer of Aladdin Garden, one of the many housing projects being constructed in the Panlong District of Kunming City in southwest China's Yunnan Province, is having hard times.

    Forced to drop the exotic name, they renamed the real estate project "Jintong (golden babe) 2nd phase." They are not alone.

    Developers of four other housing projects with exotic names in the same district have had to drop exotic names and adopt new ones bearing only Chinese connotations.

    Exotic western names are ubiquitous. Real estate developers from many other cities across the country also concoct exotic names for their galaxy of housing projects advertised by high-nosed, white celebrities.

    Guan Yuda, a specialist with the Arts College of Yunnan University, reckoned the wide use of exotic names in the real estate market was the result of two factors.

    "On the one hand, Chinese citizens take westernization for modernization and refer to the western lifestyle as an example, and on the other hand, real estate developers cut down signs suggesting the western world to cater to the tastes of some local consumers," said Guan.

    Guan went on to explain that most Chinese do not have the opportunity to travel abroad and therefore do not understand western lifestyle.

    "Buyers of homes inside real estate blocks bearing fancy exotic names might get a substitute satisfaction as well, so real estate developers try hard to attract consumers to buy commercial apartments by widely promoting an idealized western-world and satisfying the need of the public in pursuit of an exotic life without getting one step away from home," said Guan, who is also an art critic.

    Some real estate projects bearing exotic names are just "fake landscapes", said Guan. "They are nothing but a combination of signs suggesting a certain foreign country."

    However, real estate projects with exotic names do find favor among home buyers who have developed a love for housing projects with names suggesting anything foreign.

    "The quality of the housing certainly is a priority in buying a home, but I also think the name of the real estate block is important," said a middle-aged woman surnamed Zhu at sales hall of a well-sold real estate project in downtown Kunming.

    "If I buy a home inside a real estate block bearing a nice exotic name, other buyers may think my home should be more grandiose than theirs," said the woman.

    But local government officials are fed up with real estate projects with exotic names.

    Yang Chongyong, a high-ranking official with the Kunming city government, described the phenomenon of naming real estate projects with exotic names as a "flattering of poor taste" and demanded measures be taken to prevent the recurrence of similar cases in his district.

    Echoing the local offical's order, the planning bureau of Kunming City, also dubbed a "spring city," has even come up with a circular demanding all real estate developers in the city first report the proposed names for their planned real estate projects to the bureau for approval.

    Administrative workers in charge of urban housing affairs have been dispatched to persuade real estate developers in Kunming to drop exotic names.

    But some real estate developers have shown defiance.

    Manager Zhang Limei, who operates both "Champagne Resort" and "South California-Style Villas," in downtown Kunming, insists on using the current exotic names for her two real estate projects.

    "It is unnecessary for us to change because the present names of our real estate properties match their designs, moreover, we do add elements suggesting southern California, such as tropical forests and warm-colored apartments in our two projects," said Zhang.

    Some specialists suggest Chinese real estate developers study advanced western culture of architecture, and reproduce the soul of traditional Chinese architectural concepts with modern materials, instead of blindly borrowing signs of the west and rejecting the aesthetic profundity of traditional Chinese architectural culture. Enditem