File photo taken on Sept. 14, 2009 shows the array of Columns of Ethnic Groups Unity, on the east side of Tian'anmen Square, in Beijing. A total of 56 Columns of Ethnic Groups Unity, one of the landmark decorations for the grand celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of People's Republic of China, start to be installed. Each column stands at a height of 13 meters and weighs 26 tons, depicting the vivid figures of each ethnic group's people in festival attirements who are singing merrily and dancing gracefully. [File photo: Xinhua]
The 56 columns representing ethnic solidarity in Tiananmen Square will be moved to the Olympic Green neighboring the Bird's Nest, according to a staffer at the Administration of Tiananmen Area Tuesday.
The administration said that the move will be finished by the end of the year though the exact date of the move has not yet been set.
The 56 columns have been in rows along the east and the west sides of Tiananmen Square, by the National Museum and the Great Hall of the People since National Day. Each column represents a different ethnic group in China with paintings of people in traditional ethnic costumes on each one.
But Wazed Ali, a Bengali merchant working in Shandong Province disagrees with the decision. "It's beautiful and suitable to keep it in this historic place," he said, "Few people will know what the columns represent if they are moved away because the square attracts more tourists than any other place."
"The huge red columns don't look harmonious with the square's whole tone," said Liu Feizhou, an urban management consultant for Adfaith, a leading management consulting firm in China. "The overall planning for Tiananmen Square finished years ago, so it's not suitable to add more long-term additions. If those columns stay, what will be added for the 70th anniversary?"
Where the 56 columns would end up caused a heated discussion even before National Day. No permanent constructions have set up camp in the square since 1977 when the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was completed. In September, Lu Jiankang, the designer, told Legal Mirror that they had worked out a plan for the columns to be moved to Ethnic Avenue on the Olympic Green.
However, news came on October 2 that the columns would stay in Tiananmen permanently.
Lu told local media that he was informed by the National Day Parade Headquarters that the columns would soon be moved inside the square. But the columns are still standing today.
The columns will be moved in the middle of the night to avoid attracting attention, and the planned move will not damage the columns or the square in any way, according to an officer from the Beijing Urban Construction Corporation who built the columns.
