China now ranks fifth in the world for number of golf courses, but the country’s golfing craze is causing a myriad of problems, including destruction of crucial farmland, lost revenue, and encouragement of a corrupt lifestyle. Some even call golf “green opium”. Asia Times writes:
Many investors jumped into the market in search of cheap land, which they then developed into expensive villas and golf clubs in the hope of pulling in huge returns. But as unnecessary upper-class flats and housing developments continue to pop up, critics say that such rapid development could lead to the destruction of the country’s cultivated land. And the public worries that the mania might further stimulate golf-related corruption among communist party officers and other political magnates, who have wallowed in golf with public funds in the past.
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