China's biggest construction firms will spend £2.2bn to flatten 700 mountains levelling the area Lanzhou, allowing developers to build a new metropolis

The project will be China's fifth "state-level development zone" and the first in the country's rapidly developing interior. Others: Shanghai's Pudong and Tianjin's Binhai, home to an unfinished, 120-building replica of Manhattan.

and

Liu Fuyuan, former high-level official at the country's National Development and Reform Commission, said project was unsuitable because Lanzhou is listed as among China's most water-scarce municipalities. "The most important thing is to gather people in places where there is water,"


so, ok, let bulldoze 700 mountains where there is no water.

wtf???

[link to english.cntv.cn]

[link to finance.ninemsn.com.au]

China will flatten 700 mountains to make way for a new desert metropolis in what is believed to be one of the biggest mountain moving projects in the country's history.

Last year the World Health Organisation named Lanzhou one of China's most polluted cities with the worst air pollution and a shortage of water.

[link to now.msn.com]