Wonders never cease in online polls
LONDON – The Sydney Opera House and the Channel Tunnel between England and France are in contention to be voted one of the seven new wonders of the world.
The Channel Tunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world, which opened in 1994, came seventh in an online poll conducted by Teletext Holidays, while the Sydney Opera House was hailed as the top new wonder of the world.
Second place was given to the Eiffel Tower, which has been visited by more than 200 million visitors since its opening in 1889.
Third place went to Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, ahead of the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janerio.
The Channel Tunnel’s lesser impact on the global community is reflected by the fact that it does not feature in a shortlist of 21 sites vying to be in the New7Wonders Foundation’s official list, which will be announced on July 7.
An awards ceremony in Lisbon organised by the foundation will officially declare the new Seven Wonders of the World 2007 after a global poll.
Meanwhile, China is so worried that its iconic Great Wall will not be named one of the “new” seven wonders of the world, it has launched a campaign to get Chinese people to vote for it, Xinhua news agency said today.
More than 45 million votes have so far been cast in an online campaign by the non-profit New7Wonders Foundation (www.new7wonders.com) to choose the world’s seven “new” wonders, the foundation said.
According to the Academy of the Great Wall of China, the wall has recently dropped out of the top seven and it blamed the voting process, saying relatively few Chinese used the Internet and those that did had poor English-language abilities.
But people can now vote by mobile telephone, and some of the web site has been translated into Chinese, Xinhua news agency added.
“China’s Great Wall missed an opportunity 2,000 years ago when the Greeks named the Seven Wonders of the World. It would be extremely regretful if it became an also-ran this time,” the academy said in a statement.
The New7Wonders Foundation was set up in 2001 by Swiss-Canadian adventurer Bernard Weber to protect humanity’s heritage.
The ancient Greeks chose the original Seven Wonders but only one of those remains – the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
Ian Jarrett
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