{"id":4326,"date":"2022-09-15T13:19:37","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T13:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/srilanka.factcrescendo.com\/english\/?p=4326"},"modified":"2022-09-16T03:31:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T03:31:04","slug":"fake-images-being-shared-as-tickets-to-enter-lotus-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/srilanka.factcrescendo.com\/english\/fake-images-being-shared-as-tickets-to-enter-lotus-tower\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Chinese Nationals Enter The Lotus Tower premises F.O.C ? Find out the facts…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Lotus Tower, the tallest building in South Asia, would be open to the public from today (September 15). There was a lot of noise among social media users, regarding an image claiming to be the entry permits for the Lotus Tower. The main talking point was on Tamil language being omitted from the ticket and where the Chinese nationals would be able to visit the Lotus Tower for free of charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s look at the viral image first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social Media Posts\u00a0<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Facebook posts with the image of a purported ticket to enter the Lotus Tower were shared widely as seen below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Facebook<\/a> | Archived<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As per this ticket image, Chinese nationals would be permitted to visit the Lotus Tower for free, after producing a valid Chinese passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And also, there were many comments which said that Tamil language was disrespected, by removing the Tamil text and giving prominence to the Chinese language as seen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We decided to do a fact check on this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact Check<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We first check inspected the viral image of the ticket carefully and both the QR codes seen in the ticket displayed the text “Sri Lanka Fuel” without any reference to the Lotus Tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And there were a number of Sinhala language misspellings and language errors as well. It’s difficult to imagine a ticket with such glaring errors would be used as the official entry ticket for a major project.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Administrative Officer of Lotus Tower<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombo Lotus Tower Management Company (Pvt) Limited, who are responsible for the management and operational tasks of the Lotus Tower, was established under the Treasury in March 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made an inquiry from the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of this company, retired Major General Prasad Samarasinghe, regarding the image of the viral ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He mentioned the ticket being shared is not a genuine ticket. Prasad Samarasinghe said that Chinese nationals do not have any special privilege to visit the Lotus Tower and like any other foreign national, Chinese are also charged the same amount of USD 20 or its equivalent in other currencies or Sri Lankan Rupees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAO also highlighted that the official tickets did not carry even Sinhala language and only were printed in English and sent us the below photos as per our request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real Tickets\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CAO Prasad Samarasinghe also clarified about the fake tickets being shared in social media in a video interview as seen here<\/a>. Here he also explains that the Rs.2000 ticket is not yet operationalized and expects to make it available in coming weeks so that the tickets could be purchased online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here<\/a> is the official Lotus Tower website with details about the tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chinese Embassy Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka also issued a Tweet stating that the photo circulating on social media is false. Posting two photos of the genuine ticket and the fake ticket, they pointed out to verify the authenticity of the content , before sharing them on social media, as seen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Real\u2b07\ufe0f vs The Fake\ud83d\udc4e

A FORGED entry ticket of @LotusTowerCMB<\/a> was spread on social media. Please verify before retweeting. Thanks for the free advertisement though.

Visit the tower from tomorrow, buy a ticket and see with your own eyes. \ud83d\udc4f@sltda_srilanka<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/XtICFjV0j5<\/a><\/p>— Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka (@ChinaEmbSL) September 14, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>