China's venerable Peking University has decided to drop its plan to build a golf practice green amid unremitted debate.

 

 

Xu Zhihong, president of the university, said unexpected hot debate online and media reports have forced him to abandon the plan.

 

No timetable has been set as when the construction will restart, he said, adding the issue is "too sensitive".

 

The practice area, if finished, would be 90 meters long and 40 meters wide, allowing 30 students to train at a time and 100 to practice each day.

 

The elite university set off controversy over whether golf is appropriate for China, when it announced in August that it was building a golf course.

 

Golf is generally viewed in China as a sports for "guizu" or nobles. In movies, on TV and in the real world, business deals are made on the links.

 

Some students and netizens complained the sport was too elitist but supporters believed it is healthy and a useful networking skill.

 

Xiamen University in southeastern city of Xiamen is among the recent batch to join schools offering golf lessons. It even requires management, law, economics and software majors to take golf training as a compulsory subject.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2006)