Oct. 28 - Peking University president Xu Zhihong confirmed on Friday that the university has called to a halt the project of building a golf driving range.

 

Elite Peking University, which announced in August that it was building a golf driving range, set off a debate over whether golf is appropriate in universities for a developing countries like China.

 

Opposers complained the sport was too elitist but supporters defended it as a healthy social activity.

 

"Considering the controversies it triggered in China, we decided to abort the plan for the golf practice green," said Xu, who was attending the Beijing Forum on Thursday.

 

Perplexed by the unexpectedly surging criticism on the works, Xu claimed that media and the public overreacted to the green which was only a part of the reconstruction work of the sporting ground on campus, adding the golf green was but a football ground's size.

 

The debate was further heated as another prestigious university, Xiamen University, has recently followed Peking University's initiatives by introducing golf into their sports curriculum for the country's intellectual elite, and their president Zhu Chongshi announced that the southeastern University was going to have a driving range for the sport in two months' time.