china The Healing Game

Perhaps as soon as this year, a coal mine in one of China’s most polluted cities could begin to find new life as a golf community.

The to-be-named enclave is to take shape on 1,500 acres in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, and will eventually include houses, a hotel, a retail/commercial area, and a pair of 18-hole courses.

Joe Jemsek, a Chicago, Illinois-based architect, has been hired to design the first course, part of which will consist of mountain-style holes that will be routed through hills on the property. (No, the track won’t be walkable.)

“I like the concept of taking a site that’s unsuitable for much of anything and healing the mountain with new, environmentally friendly development,” Jemsek says.

Jemsek is working with a Chinese firm, Royal Golf, on the project.

The developers, a group led by a Taiwan-based Chinese investor, are currently trying to secure a lease on the property. If they can wrap up the negotiations quickly, they could start remediating the site this year.

With luck, Jemsek’s course could open in 2014.