Tourists at the opening of Temple complex on Jul 19, 2011
Source: Xinhua

By Zhang Yanlong (张延龙)
Corporation, page 25
Issue No. 573, June 11, 2012
Translated by Song Chunling
Original article: [Chinese]

This is an abstract of the front page story from this week's edition of The Economic Observer, for more highlights from the EO print edition, click here.

A newly built temple devoted to the God of Fortune is now included as one of the business assets under the control of the Shanghai-listed company ST Changxin (ST长信).

The company is currently being restructured and as part of this process, the Xi'an Qujiang Cultural Tourism Group Co. Ltd (西安曲江文旅集团), which currently operates the temple, began to hand over control of the some of the related assets on May 31 this year.

Income from ticket sales and other commercial operations like paid performances and souvenir sales were included in the deal.

As part of the ongoing project of Louguantai God of Fortune Cultural District (楼观台财神文化区), the temple was built for five Gods of fortune.

Yang Tao (杨涛), head of ST Changxin and former vice president of Qujiang Cultural Tourism Group, claimed that the temple is not a real temple but a cultural tourism site.

"Just because it has the word temple in the name, doesn't mean it's a temple," said Yang, "and temples are not all used for religious purposes. There are different temples such as the Confucius temple (文庙) and the Guan Gong Temple (武庙) and they all have different purposes."

Yang explained that with this project they wanted to allow tourists a chance to experience traditional culture and at the same time make profits for their investors. "If it really were a temple, we wouldn't be willing or qualified to manage it."

Apart from the new temple for the God of Fortune, which is surrounded by shopping malls and restaurants, the EO's journalist also learned that there is an old temple three kilometers away.

According to a Taoist priest at the old temple, the local government wanted to demolish the old temple and build a new one in its place, but this plan was rejected and new temple was later built at a different site.

"I think that it's a tourism project and a tourist site. But you can decide for yourself whether you think it's a temple or not" said the priest.

However Liu Wei (刘威), director from the State Administration for Religious Affairs, said on June 5 that temples are non-governmental organizations for religious activities and no temple has ever been given permission to list before.

Wang Zuo'an (王作安), minister of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, also stated that "religious sites should not be listed as part of the assets of an enterprise."

Wang also emphasized that "unlike personal donations, enterprises are not permitted to take shares in a temple. It's forbidden to make profit from religion."

He also added that the bureau will draft regulations on the issue together with other departments.

Currently there is still no specific regulation on whether a religious tourist site can be listed.

The EO also learned that Qujiang Cultural Investment (曲江文投), the main shareholder of the Qujiang Cultural Tourism Group, has also invested in a similar site, the Famen Temple Cultural Scenic Site (法门寺文化景区) and the company managing that "temple" also planned to hold an IPO last year.