China plans to spend billions of dollars to build a cultural symbolic city in its eastern province of Shandong, home to ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, to revive traditional cultural values including Confucianism.(Photo: CRI.cn) Photo Gallery>>>

     BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- China plans to spend billions of dollars to build a culture symbolic project in eastern province of Shandong, home to ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, to revive traditional cultural values including Confucianism.

    Jiang Daming, governor of Shandong, announced at a news conference on Saturday in Beijing that the "Chinese Cultural Symbolic City" will be built in the Ji'ning City, spanning more than 300 square kilometers. The city will incorporate the county-level city of Qufu, ancestral home of Confucius, and Zoucheng, home of Mencius, and the Jiulong Mountain range between the two cities.

    The whole project covers refurbishing the homes of the two ancient philosophers and building new architectures in the Jiulongmountain range, Jiang said.

    The project planning and construction commission, chaired by top Shandong officials, will solicit ideas on project designing from the public starting from Saturday through September 1 this year. Details of the solicitation are available at the city's website www.ccsc.gov.cn.

    Jiang said all design plans will be reviewed by a consultation panel made up by some 30 top artists, sinologists and architects in China.

    The ambitious engineering project, initiated by 69 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2001, aims to showcase the traditional values like peace, harmony and ingenuity advocated by ancient philosophers such as Confucius. The project has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in October 2007.

    The project has won supports from many, including Pei Ieoh Ming, renowned architect and glass pyramid designer of Louvre, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg said in a congratulatory note to the organizers on Saturday that "today's event heralds the start of a project that will highlight the millennia-old traditions of this rich and vibrant culture."

    "I commend...everyone involved with the Chinese Cultural Symbolic City Project for helping Chinese men, women, and children share their culture with their friends throughout the five boroughs and around the world," he wrote.

    Xu Jialu, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and an initiator of the project, said that "the city will exhibit and commemorate the long-honored Chinese values, such as refining personal morality, cherishing peace and harmony, and filial piety. Ideally, it shall be the spiritual home for the whole nation."