Email to Friends
Comment (
Villagers in southwestern China are scratching their heads after an estimated more than $60,000 was spent to paint an entire barren mountainside green.
Workers who began spraying Laoshou mountain last August told villagers they were doing so on orders of the county government but were not told why, media reports said Wednesday.
The official Xinhua News Agency estimated the cost of the paint job at $60,600 and quoted villagers saying that if spent on actual plants and trees, the money could have restored a far greater area of barren mountain.
Some villagers speculated that Fumin County officials, whose office building faces the mountain, were trying to change the area's feng shui the ancient Chinese belief of harmonizing one's physical environment for maximum health and financial benefit.