Hangzhou plans to lop floors off exclusive hotels, a television tower and other lakeside buildings in an attempt to win coveted Unesco world heritage status reports the guardian .
Unesco requires historic sites to be kept intact, and the 40m yuan (£4m) resizing plan is the latest element in Hangzhou’s attempts to beautify the site.
Wang Shuifa, who will head the redevelopment project, told the official China News Service news agency: “We have hired foreign firms to draft detailed plans of how to reduce the height of the Shangri-La, whose owners will be compensated.”
A spokeswoman for the 382-room hotel told Associated Press: “We haven’t received any order or notice about it. We’re also very concerned and will pay close attention to this.”