The government has cancelled a plan to turn the city into a center for bathing following disparaging comments from Internet users.

The tourism bureau issued a statement Tuesday saying it now has no plans to market Ma'anshan as China's "bath city", although it claimed it does have a healthy bathing industry.

"We have never asked any department or organization to develop such a plan," the government said on the bureau's website.

It said tourism authorities had contracted a consulting firm from Nanjing, Jiangsu province, to work out a tourism development plan, which suggested the city promote its bathing sector.

The tourism bureau put the proposal on its website on Wednesday to garner public opinion.

The proposal said Ma'anshan, which is home to China's fourth-largest steel maker Maanshan Iron, lacks "strong tourism products".

With its rapidly developing bathing industry, the tourism bureau and tourism professionals have suggested turning Ma'anshan into "the city of bathing".

Many people who live in the city like to take baths when they are socializing with friends.

Cui Ling, a four-star bathhouse, is a well-known local establishment.

According to figures from the Ma'anshan government, last year the Cui Ling Bath House averaged more than 7,000 customers a day, more than 80 percent of whom were from Nanjing, which is half-an-hour's drive away.

Li Mei, a 34-year-old Shanghai woman whose husband is from Nanjing, said she went to Cui Ling many times with her husband.

Local media and some Internet users have challenged the city's plans.

A survey conducted by sohu.com found that 31 percent of the 40,000 respondents opposed the idea, while 35 percent said local bathhouses, if not properly regulated, could become havens for the sex trade and pornographers.

An anonymous person said the idea is a "typical product of a planned economy", as Ma'anshan is not rich in water resources.

Ba Zhaoxiang, deputy dean of the tourism department of Fudan University, said the government should take a cautious approach to its new strategy.

"It is hard to say whether the new tourism strategy should be encouraged or not," he said.

"Bathhouses are good places to relax and enjoy personal exchanges, but their image has been tainted in recent years because some places give a green light to pornographers," he said.

(China Daily January 14, 2009)