Entries will be selected based on criteria that include reflecting the common values and aesthetics of the Chinese, and whether they contain both modern and classic characteristics.

There will be a top prize of 2 million yuan, followed by three first prizes of 1 million yuan each, and six second and nine third prizes.

Xu Jialu, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress said all design plans will be reviewed by a consultation panel made up of some 30 top artists, sinologists and architects in China.

The ambitious engineering project, initiated by 69 academicians in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2001, aims to showcase traditional values like peace, harmony and ingenuity advocated by ancient philosophers such as Confucius. The project was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in October 2007.

Xu and the project initiator said that "the city will exhibit and commemorate long-honored Chinese values, such as refining personal morality, cherishing peace and harmony, and filial piety. Ideally, it shall be a spiritual home for the whole nation."

Construction is expected to start before 2010.

Controversies on the Project

Political advisors disagreed yesterday over a proposed "Chinese cultural symbolic city", to be built in Chinese philosopher Confucius' hometown of Jining in Shandong province at an estimated 30 billion yuan ($4.12 billion).

NPC deputy Chen Yunying, wife of Lin Yifu, the World Bank's chief economist-designate, is interviewed yesterday in Beijing. Chen and other deputies from the Taiwan delegation reviewed the work reports of the top judge and prosecutor.

Speaking at the CPPCC convention on Sunday, CPPCC National Committee member Sun Shuyi proposed that the central government pay for the project's cost of 30 billion yuan - about twice the cost of the Beijing Olympics - and make the city a venue for national ceremonies.