A FLOATING villa known as the Sea Palace on Dongshan Bay in Longgang District was expected to open in May, according to a Southern Metropolis Daily report yesterday.
The European-style villa had been licensed for fishing and aquatic activities by the Longgang marine supervision authority. According to the newspaper report quoting a statement from Fashion Group Holdings Ltd., the developer of the villa, business revenue from the villa would be donated to marine science research and environmental protection.
The company also wants to donate the Sea Palace to the authority for marine research, the paper said.
The Sea Palace, a pilot for marine tourism research, was built when there were no rules to govern it and it was time to return it to government, the statement said.
The villa was a private club for the past five years but it was ordered to be demolished in May last year after the provincial marine authority concluded that the building was illegal.
The palace was separated into three sections but it was never demolished.
The billion-yuan project solved hundreds of technical problems in design and construction. It was not open to the public because more time was needed to test it for safety, resistance to typhoons and its capacity, the statement said.
After the five-year test, it could be opened to the public, the statement said.
Wang Airan, section chief of the Longgang marine authority, said the agency was not aware of the opening of the Sea Palace because it was now under renovation.
He was also not aware of the issues regarding the donation.
Zhong Jia, a professor at the College of Economics of Shenzhen University, said resolving the Sea Palace issue was not complicated.
If it is an illegal building, then demolish it. If it isn t, give licenses to the operator and owner. If the government accepts the donation, it will face more problems, Zhong said.
(Han Ximin)
