A fierce fire engulfed one of the Chinese capital’s most architecturally celebrated modern buildings on Monday, the last day of festivities for the lunar new year when the city was ablaze with fireworks. By late evening the blaze was still raging and the cause remained unknown, but it seemed clear that the 34-story structure, not yet completed, had been rendered unusable. The building, a luxury hotel and cultural complex designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, is part of China Central Television’s new headquarters, an angular two-legged behemoth built to coincide with the Beijing Olympics last year.
The CCTV complex was a hugely expensive trophy of the pre-Olympics building boom, the result of many billions of dollars that the ruling Communist Party had devoted to making Beijing a city of the future. The main CCTV tower appeared untouched by the fire.
The 241-room Mandarin Oriental hotel, which had been due to open this summer, was unoccupied at the time, hotel executives said.
According to Chinese television, the fire began at 8:27 p.m., although witnesses said they spotted flames as early as 7:45 p.m. Within 20 minutes, they said, the fire had spread from the lower floors to the building’s crown. Black smoke drifted across the night sky, obliterating a full moon.
Categories
- Amazing (62)
- Art (29)
- Bizarre (17)
- Buildings and Architecture (22)
- Cars and Vehicles (24)
- Celebrity (10)
- Community and Lifestyle (13)
- Cool Pics (28)
- Creative (45)
- Design (34)
- Expensive (14)
- Fashion (4)
- Funny Animals (14)
- Funny Pictures (7)
- Funny Video (43)
- Girls (16)
- Nature (16)
- News (3)
- People (54)
- Photography (11)
- Sport (17)
- Tattoo (1)
- Travel (29)
- Videos (55)
- Weird Video (35)
- World (58)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2009
(256)
-
▼
February
(41)
- 10 Worst Plastic Surgery Ever
- Girls ‘n’ Guns
- Audi Shark - flying concept vehicle
- Celebrity In Wax
- Ferrari V4 Concept Motorcycle
- 8 Remarkable Palace, Fort and Castle Hotels
- Pimped Out Limos
- Hot Nurses
- Insane Bike Jump Goes Horribly Wrong
- Floating Swimming Pool
- Vampire Killing Kit
- Korean Sex Theme Park
- Peking in fire
- Funny Road Signs
- Great Design for a Bag!
- Designer jewelry watches
- Scary Amusement Park Las Vegas
- Obama Beatbox
- Most Expensive Cell Phones in the World
- Steampulk Tableware Arts
- A good mix from young and old celebrities - time line
- Performance on floating bamboo sticks
- Seashell Temple in Taiwan
- Japan's Ice Hotel the coolest in the world
- The World's Smallest Car Gets Out Of a Tight Squeeze
- Hilarious Rocket Powered Items
- 10 People with Unbelievable Talents
- Cool and Funny Pics
- Weirdest Shoes
- Kid Smoking In China
- Insane Beat-Boxing
- World's Most Extreme Piercings
- Money Celebrities Pictures Gallery
- Valentine’s Day By Victoria’s Secret
- Russian Kid Gets Huge Padlock Stuck On His Ear,Pol...
- Thrillbillies Double Wide
- Funny Boobs Messages
- Seven Year Old Drugged And Trripping Out!
- El Caminito del Rey
- Asian Snake Wine
- 10 Idiot example
-
▼
February
(41)
February 18, 2009
Peking in fire
Posted by Tip-Top at 12:08 PM
Labels: Buildings and Architecture, World
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Search
Custom Search
0 comments:
Post a Comment