*** sunday_mp_04.09.06
the Forbidden City
the Temple of Heaven
the Summer Palace
the Ming Tombs
the Great Wall
|
[Avant-garde in Beijing ... ]
- rumour
"If you look at [new buildings in] Shanghai, they were mostly designed by what we call the big American design firms, with good quality but rather banal modern architecture, Beijing is taking a different route."
(Zhang Xin, in Clifford Coonan, smp_04.09.06)
- innuendo
"Cities are very like human beings. Would you be prepared to give up all your memories as the price for driving a Mercedes-Benz? Probably not. So why do we allow this happen to our city?."
(Zhou Rong, a teacher at Beijng's Tsinghua University, in Clifford Coonan, smp_04.09.06)
- gossip
"Some of what's happening on these sites cuts off the city's memory. Beijing is losing its cultural and historical sense. Its Chinese characteristics are lost. Going by the rate at which Beijing is losing its hutongs -- about 900 a year -- there will hardly be any hutongs left by 2008. If Beijing keeps developing at this speed, it will become an extremely flat city with no sense of historical depth."
(Zhou Rong, in Clifford Coonan, smp_04.09.06)
- futuristic swarm
"In February, Beijing mayor Wang Qishan admitted there had been illegal demolitions and evictions."
(Clifford Coonan, smp_04.09.06)
- quick buck
"I like some of the new buildings: the state opera house, the new CCTV tower, especially the Olympic 'bird's nest' -- that's one of the finest examples of modern architecture in the world."
(Zhou Rong, Clifford Coonan, smp_04.09.06)
- more >>>> Beijing 2008 Olympics
- previously <<<< Instant Modernity
|