All that remains of the long fairways and manicured greens at an 18-hole golf course on the outskirts of Beijing are bits of rubble and mounds of mud. In March, Chinese authorities sent in workers to dig up the course and tear down the clubhouse.
Two others elsewhere in China were also demolished, while a fourth was turned into an eco-friendly park and a fifth was converted into a tea plantation, suggesting the government could finally be cracking down on developers who have long ignored a 2004 ban on building new golf courses.
The government, which announced the demolitions in May, said its actions served as a warning and an attempt to educate would-be violators. A few weeks later, the national auditor joined in, publicly shaming two big state-run enterprises for building golf courses.