$4.7B cultural theme park planned in Tibetan city
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tibet's capital will spend billions to build a massive cultural theme park to boost tourism.
The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday that 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) will be spent in the next three to five years to build an 800-hectare (3-sqaure-mile) park near downtown. Its theme will be the ancient Chinese princess Wencheng who became a symbol of ethnic friendship by marrying a Tibetan king.
Xinhua says the park will also showcase Tibetan folk arts and medicine.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Beijing has spent heavily to improve the Tibetan economy in hopes of winning over ethnic residents, but its heavy-handed rule has drawn criticism. Many Tibetans accuse the government of religious persecution and cultural assimilation and say such huge projects quicken those changes.