James Corrigan writes in The Telegraph:
The warning signs have been there for more than a decade. In 2004, the national government banned the building of new courses because of environmental concerns. It proved a bit like the High Court banning D H Lawrence. In the next 10 years, the number of courses grew from 200 to more than 600. The flouting was routine. Local governments allowed the developers to sculpt their 18-holers but, claims Dan Washburn, author of The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream, instructed them to call the projects “ecological restoration”.