Nanjing Ferrari Incident Leaves Officials Distraught, 600-Year-Old Relic Ruined by Car? (VIDEO)
The Ferrari car company was forced to apologize to Chinese officials this week after one of its Italian sports cars left black tire marks on an ancient Chinese monument in the city of Nanjing.
The car left marks when making a speedy entrance to a publicity event, riding along a 600-year-old Ming-dynasty era wall. The incident occurred right before a Ferrari show, which further infuriated some Chinese residents who reportedly discovered that Ferrari had paid the government $12,000 to rent out the space.
"No enterprise or individual is allowed to use the city ramparts in Nanjing for commercial purposes," Nanjing Cultural Relics Bureau Captain Wu Jing said, denying that the space had been rented.
Ferrari later offered an apology to Chinese officials and residents, insisting that the incident was not a publicity stunt. The company blamed an employee at one of China's dealerships for the accident.
"Unfortunately, an employee of the dealership - not a Ferrari employee - took it upon himself to drive the car in the way that you will see in the video, with the very regrettable result that tyre marks were left on the ancient monument," the company stated.
Due to fury after the car sped across the wall, the event celebrating Ferrari's 20 years in the Chinese market was canceled. The company stated that it had "always held great respect toward Chinese traditional culture and regards the protection of historical relics as of great importance," reported BBC News.
"We cannot tolerate that Ferrari used the ancient city gate to make a show and ruined it," one Nanjing resident said in a microblog post.
While the damage may not be permanent, officials remarked that at current cleaners were unable to remove the black marks, more permanent damage may occur later in time as well.
"The (structural) damage may be invisible at the moment, but very detrimental," Yang Guoqing, a preservation expert, told ABC.
