Posts Tagged ‘shanghai’

Ultraman knocks over building in Shanghai

A few days ago, a nearly completed new apartment building in Shanghai toppled over on its side. A few Chinese netizens have reacted to the news by creating funny photoshops of possible reasons for the collapse:

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Anti-Japanese mob surrounds international dormitory in Shanghai

Some trouble broke out at the Shanghai International Studies University after a group of drunk Japanese students returning from a birthday party made some noise near Chinese student dormitories between 9 and 10PM on Monday night:

Students from the apartments protested, and some of them threw empty plastic bottles from the balconies, according to the statement. The revellers then got abusive, according to some reports.

Japanese students then went to the ninth floor and knocked on several doors. A fresh round of quarrels broke out between the Japanese and Chinese students, according to the statement. The situation was brought under control by security guards.

A witness told Shanghai Daily that more than 100 people had gathered outside the students’ dorm. But the Japanese students continued to be abusive as they left the building. This in turn angered local students.

Check out ChinaSmack for some translations of Chinese BBS postings from students apparently involved in the incident. Here’s an excerpt from one posting about the situation after the police arrived and apparently took away a few drunk Japanese students:

4-5 police cars came and escorted the little Japanese away. One Japanese who had drank too much was also sent to the hospital.

Throughout all of this we were screaming fuck Japan, fuck your mothers, etc…the entire school was very magnificent…I estimate over 80% of the guys had come downstairs…

Seeing as how they did not even give a single apology, and were so arrogant, students who could not accept the situation shouted, “Rush the international guest house!”

So the big team [crowd] again changed to rushing the international guest house.

People started yelling, fuck Japan, little Japanese, fuck your mother, etc. One by one the lights in the international guest house flickered on.

There were foreigners upstairs taking pictures (this was indeed embarrassing), and people from other countries were sticking their country’s flags on their windows, afraid we would charge up there and accidentally cause them harm.

The situation was brought under control a few hours later, with police and security having prevented the angry mob from actually storming the international dormitory.

[hat tip to Jay K.]

Shanghai World Financial Center opens to the public

FTV takes a look at the newly-completed Shanghai World Financial Center (“Shanghai Hills”), which was developed by Japan’s Mori Building company:

The building was meant to be the world’s tallest skyscraper when it was planned, but years of delays have meant that it is now the world’s third tallest building. However, it still boasts the highest observation floor, as well as the world’s highest pool.

Some details:

The first two floors are commercial with the third to fifth floors for conference centers. The seventh to 77th floors will house offices. The 79th to 93rd floors will be the Park Hyatt Shanghai hotel, which is expected to test run on Monday.

The 94th to 100th floors are an observatory for sightseeing and will be open to tourists on Saturday. The observatory on the 100thfloor at 474 meters above ground is the tallest of its kind in the world.

It is expected to receive 3 million tourists annually. The admission price ranges from 110 yuan (16 U.S dollars) to 150 yuan.

In the FTV clip, Mori Building Co. founder Minoru Mori stated that he hopes the skyscraper will be a seen as a symbol of friendship between Japan and China.

Note: More information on this building project can be found in our November 2006 post about nationalistic disputes over the design and name of the Shanghai World Financial Center.

The New China Pavilion: A Red Big Sight

Just saw over at the Shanghaiist that the China Pavilion for the next World Expo is going to look like this:

The structure is named as “the crown of the East” as its most distinct feature is the roof. It will be made of traditional dougong brackets, which have a history of more than 2,000 years.

The dougong style features wooden brackets fixed layer upon layer between the top of a column and a crossbeam. Some important buildings in the Forbidden City and Summer Palace in Beijing feature elaborate dougong-style roofs.

It looks like a pretty cool building design, and I couldn’t help but notice how it has a somewhat similar shape to another gigantic Asian building, Tokyo’s Big Sight: