CCTV is Connected

CCTV is connected - view from our apartment 2007-12-31

In first week of December the CCTV headquarters had been connected. For weeks the building's two towers had been edging closer, as if locked in some sort of glacial, surrealist architectural mating dance. The tension was killing us. Now the tension is keeping the towers locked together. What makes the "twisted donut" different now, was that the hole, not the building, has become visible. Is there any other building in the world so defined by its negative space?

The complete connection is scheduled for February. And a proper ceremony to celebrate the tying of the knot was scheduled for just after Christmas (the building will open in 2009). Now that the towers have consummated their loopy relationship, how long will it be until they start spawning baby CCTVs all over the city?

This building is the most expensive building every built in the world 800.000 miljons USD!

The arms, 162 meters above Beijing's Central Business District, reached out 75.165 meters and 67.165 meters, respectively, and were joined first week of December.
They will accommodate 14 stories of offices by using 18,000 tons of steel.
The two towers, 234 meters and 194 meters high, respectively, lean six degrees and formed the main building for the new complex that has a floor space of 495,900 square meters.
International media eyed the CCTV building as a symbol of China's growing strength and modernization. Domestic critics, however, said a huge amount of steel was wasted because of its strange shape.

CCTV Towers - when finished...

The building, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, was listed as one of the wonders of Chinese architecture by U.S.-based Business Week magazine and viewed as the most radical structure in the country. The huge project, for which the foundation was laid in September 2004, finally won the central government's approval 18 months after it had been halted due to worries about over-heated property investment as well as traffic congestion fears around it.

For more background on the project, take a look at this clip from a Discovery Channel documentary about Olympic-related construction in Beijing (YouTube):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIDrKjvc9bk

It is magic...

Accross the same street - today! Compare with same picture yesterday!

Last night the weather changed and someone started the big "fan" and it was quite windy during the evening and night.

And suddenly - all smog just was gone and when we wake up today it is a sunny, beautiful morning. Today the API is suddenly down to 156!
We can now hope to look forward to a nice weekend and New Year vaction.

Thank You - who ever it is keeping a hand over us....

At the maximum level - again....

The past week have not been so nice in Beijing due to rather heavy air pollution and yesterday and today the level reached the maximum that can be measured - Air Pollution Index 500!

Accross the street......

Since Thuesday the API have been over 250 and the the discription and the effect it have on people, according to API Index is:

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251-300 Moderate-heavy polluted
The symptoms of the cardiac and lung disease patients aggravate remarkably, and the exercise endurance drop lower. The healthy crowds popularly appear some symptoms.
The aged, cardiac and lung disease patients should stay indoors and reduce physical activities!
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For yesterday (API 421) and today (500>) the index says:

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>300 Heavy polluted

The exercise endurance of the healthy people drops down, some appears strong symptoms remarkably. Some diseases appear earlier.
The aged and patients should stay indoors and avoid strength draining; the ordinary should avoid outdoor activities.

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Days like this You do not want to get out of bed and You really long back to Sweden and the clean air and the clean water. We are just hoping that the Chinese Government will do something about all the pollution in Beijing (and other places in China) but during more than one year I have stayed here we still see no improvements. Olympics is getting closer and closer av China have promised to.....

Merry Christmas

Christmas is not celebrated here as in other parts of the world as there are very few Christian in China.
But since Beijing is a very international city You can see X-Mas trees alsmost everywhere and the shops are ful with presents and shop assistants in Santa Claus dress.
Here, Christmas is a commersial "holiday" but it is normal working days compared to Europe.

We had a nice "Swedish" Christmas dinner in our apartment together with the family. Christmas ham, smoked salmon, meat balls, small sausages, potatoes au gratin, red cabbage, liver sausage and nudles. (The herring was sold out in Ikea...)
Off cause we also had snaps, glögg and gingerbread biscuit - almost as a Swedish Christmas.

But, sure, I miss the Christmas in Sweden and my children and relatives at times like this. A nice thing here is that You do not give X-Mas presents so You do not have to run around in the shops buying a lot of things. In China You give each other presents during the Chinese NewYear.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The end of the world

End of the world - where sky meet sea

We have been at the end of the world......
Have spent a week on vacation in Hainan, the southernmost part of China and here we visited "the end of the world" (Tianya-Haijiao). This is the most southern part of China and here the sky goes into the sea and Chinese before believed that here the world ends! Today it is a big attraction with a huge tourist organisation built around it (as in all other Chinese attractions). There is a lot of restaurants and shops but also a beautiful park built up around it.

Hainan is a very beautiful island (Chinas Hawai) with great opportunities for swimming, diving, fishing and relaxing in general. We stayed in the southern part of the island, in Sanya. Here are many hotels (with many Russians..) and quite a good beach. The best beach however is Yalong Bay - 30 mins away by local bus.

Sanya beach

During the week we also visited some of the attraction in Hainan. One of them was Nanwan "Monkey Islet". This is a 10,2 sq km big nature reserve for wild monkeys (macaques) and here are more than 1500 living in the forest and shrubbery covering the islet.

A macaque monkey in Monkey Islet

We also visited the beautiful with a lot of trees and tropical flowers from China and the rest of the world. Here they also had local production of Hainan coffee and a lot of coconut products to taste and buy. Also in a park like this the commercial interest is very big.

Xinglong Tropical Botanical Garden

Another place we visited during the week was Nanshan, a place with a Buddhist Park and a lot of temples and Buddha statues. Many Chinese go here to pray to Buddha - businessmen pray for a greater profit for next year...
It is a big and nice park with a lot to see and You can go by an electric train from site to site (20 RMB). "Temple of the Future Buddha", "Gold and Jade statue of Guanyin" and the "Guanyin Statue" are places of interest.

Buddhas

The 108 meter high Guanyin Statue on South Sea.

The airtemperature was around 28-34 the whole week and also the water temperature was quite nice for staying in and at the beach for a some time. But I quick learned that even a short time as two hours is long enough to get burned if You forget to use sunprotection oil - as I did.

Now a look like a "cooked shrimp..".

Snowing in Beijing

This morning when we woke up it was very foggy (smoggy)
and their was snow on the roofs and it is still snowing.
Could it not choose a better day? I am going to Sweden for
business trip this week and I know what snow and smog can do
to Beijing airport....
So it is just to keep the fingers crossed and maybe put Stieg Larsson
"Män som hatar kvinnor" in my bag. It can be a long day in the airport.
Now I am happy to still have my Euro Bonus Gold card so I can use the
lounge.

Greater than the Great Wall....

You've climbed the Great Wall of China, now Beijing wants you to "fly" the Great Wheel of China.
Higher than both the London Eye and the Singapore Flyer, which open in March, the Beijing Great Wheel will tower 208 metres (682 ft) when finished in 2009, which would make it the highest and largest in the world. The giant ferris wheel will have 48 air conditioned observation capsules, each of which can carry up to 40 passengers, and on a good day even the Great Wall is expected to be visible in the mountains to Beijing's north.

The wheel will stand in eastern Beijing's Chaoyang Park, (just across the street from our apartment) where beach volleyball events will take place at next year's Olympics, and have far greater capacity than the London Eye. Costing a total of around 200 million euros (139 million pounds), tickets will go for about 100 yuan. The real attraction is the view and only secondarily the ride. It will be a unique experience to get a 360˚ view of the city. Located on the north-eastern side of Chaoyang Park, the 208-meter high wheel will take visitors for a smooth loop in about 30 minutes, promising an impressive view of the city on the chance it's a clear day. Each of the wheel's capsules, equipped with multi-lingual information screens, will be able to hold up to 40 people. A bevy of food, beverage and shopping options will surround the bottom of the wheel.