Vietnamese see land schemes, bad feng shui in Hanoi city plan

Jun 4, 2010, 8:04 GMT

Hanoi - The government's new city plan for Hanoi came under fire Friday from National Assembly deputies and others who suspected it is connected to real estate deals by powerful politicians.

Worse, some said, the plan violates the principles of feng shui, the traditional Chinese art of geomancy.

Most controversial is a proposal to move the government's administrative centre to the mountain resort district of Ba Vi, about 40 kilometres west of the city centre.

'Moving the administrative centre to Ba Vi is a way to create opportunities for speculators to hike land prices,' said Pham Quoc Anh, a National Assembly deputy and president of the Vietnam Lawyers' Association. 'People say many officials own big farms in Ba Vi, so they want to introduce this project so they can sell their land and put money in their pockets.'

The government presented its master plan for Hanoi through 2050 to the National Assembly on Thursday. The plan envisions building satellite cities in what is now surrounding farmland to draw heavy development away from the city's historic centre.

Earlier versions of the master plan had placed the new government administrative centre in a less-distant zone to the west of the city's West Lake. But in recent years, those areas have been earmarked for commercial and residential developments by South Korean construction firms, such as Keangnam and Posco.

Numerous deputies criticized the involvement of commercial interests in the decision. Local newspaper Tien Phong reported Friday that Dinh Xuan Thao, head of the Institute for Legislation, had complained of being invited to 'eat and drink' by Ba Vi landowners eager to discuss the project.

Assembly deputy Le Van Cuong objected to the Ba Vi proposal on different grounds, the newspaper Tuoi Tre reported.

'It should be reviewed on the basis of feng shui theory,' Cuong said.

Landscape architect Tran Thi Thanh Van, who led popular opposition to a cancelled hotel project in a Hanoi park last year, said the move to Ba Vi did indeed violate feng shui principles.

'The Ba Vi district is a place of rest,' Van said. 'But Hanoi is the brain of Vietnam. If you put the brain in a place of rest, Vietnam's brain will be slow.'

'Moving the administrative centre to Ba Vi is just a way for officials to say they're going on business when in fact they're going on holiday,' Anh said.