The mermaid sculpture in Jing Song Zhong Street is to be removed because she is too fat. She is the among the 15 sculptures that Beijing will get rid of for aesthetic reasons.
The cull follows a recent survey of the city's 1800 sculptures, which gives 70 percent of them a 'good' rating while 29 percent are 'moderate', and just over 1 percent are ripe for demolition.
The 15 bad sculptures will be destroyed in recent period.
The criteria used to judge the sculptures included theme, material and craftwork, but citizens' feedback was by far the most decisive factor.
(CRI December 24, 2004)