IN AN OPEN LETTER signed and posted on the home page of the China Ethnic Culture Park website after the Beijing tourist attraction was removed from the list of 4A scenic areas in December 2016, Wang Ping, the director, said the problem and the facts highlighted were "seriously inconsistent" and accused the relevant departments of being irresponsible. The letter was recently removed from the website. Southern Metropolis Daily commented on Wednesday:

China Ethnic Culture Park came top of the list of 367 Class A tourist sites that were instructed to take remedial actions after government inspections in December. The inspection found many problems including a high risk of fire along with a shortage of firefighting equipment.

The reaction from the park to investigation findings was quite unusual. Wang wrote in a letter posted on the home page of park's website that there was no evidence to support the findings and that the high-level 4A ranking "is only a reference". He said the park would continue to operate as usual.