Thanks to Bingfeng for the reminder:
Walking out of the interview yesterday, as I was crossing the Third Ring Road on my way to Soho, I looked up and saw the twin leaning towers of the new CCTV building only a couple of kilometres away to the north. Of all the construction sites I’ve ever seen, that has got to be the weirdest. These two towers, both leaning at what should be impossible angles, are supposed to be joined at the top by some weird L-shaped thing, and they both look like they’re about to come crashing down. Apparently the structure is really very strong and perfectly safe, but I’m not so sure. Personally, I don’t think anything built in Beijing in the last five years is likely to survive the next Tangshan.
Which reminds me: One day on the way to that class I had just north of Gulou, Lao Zhang, the driver and Mr Fixit, on seeing yet another high rise under construction, said: “So many tall buildings! What’s going to happen in the next earthquake?!” Then he went on to describe how after the Tangshan quake (wikipedia article linked to above) all the roads were cracked up.
