Private clubs ordered out of parks

Restaurant Martin, in Xujiahui Park, has shut its doors for the Spring Festival holiday. The historical building, which was built in 1921 in Xuhui district, was where the Chinese national anthem was recorded. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

The city's parks authority has ordered the closure of all exclusive private clubs in public parks, the local government announced Thursday.

Public parks are not the proper place for clubs that are closed to the general public, according to the Shanghai Municipal Afforestation and City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Administration. The authority also prohibited restaurants and tea houses that occupy buildings in public parks from requiring customers to pay a minimum charge to dine or drink there.

The closures are part of a local effort to implement the central government's crackdown on waste and extravagance, said Gu Jun, a professor of sociology at Shanghai University. "Public parks are national assets," Gu told the Global Times. "I wonder who gave the permits to these people so that they could open private clubs and restaurants and profit off of national assets."

The authority has found three exclusive private clubs operating inside the city's 158 public parks.

One was located in Huangxing Park in Yangpu district and the other two were located in Shanghai Grand View Garden in Qingpu district, according to a previous report in the Shanghai Morning Post.

The authority also found eight restaurants in public parks that charged above average prices. It ordered them to lower their prices so regular people could afford to eat there.

One club, Guilin Garden 1931, located in Guilin Park in Xuhui district, opened as a high-end private club in 2007. The building was the former residence of Huang Jinrong, one of the most powerful gangsters in Shanghai in the 1920s.

The club had charged customers at least 600 yuan ($99) per person to dine there. Now, it charges patrons 98 yuan per person to be more affordable to the public, a club employee told the Global Times.

Hosting establishments that are closed to the general public violates the public nature of the parks, Gu said. He suggested that the government should do more than just force them to lower their prices, such as completely turning them into public facilities.

Gu also pointed out that the management staff at the public park should not count on making money by letting others open these places in public parks, because public parks are supported by the government.

"It is not right to profit by infringing on the public's rights," Gu said.