February - An “Inauspicious” Beginning
Spring Festival in China, or at least in Beijing anyway, is accompanied by 2 weeks of constant fireworks. During this period, fireworks can be heard from 8 am in the morning to 3 am the next day - for at 2 weeks straight. Though this creates an incomparable festive atmosphere in the city, it does tire after a while.
In 2009, the Beijing government lifted a fireworks ban within the city’s 3rd Ring Road, and predictably more people than usual set off fireworks during the festive season.
Big mistake.
One chilly night, whilst sitting in a Mexican joint with fellow managers after a long day’s meeting, news came through of a fire somewhere near the spanking new and as-yet-unopened CCTV (China Central Television) building.
An Iconic Statement
The CCTV building is big news in Beijing; No other building in China makes more of a statement of the country’s bold bid to become a modern world superpower than this iconic building.
The outrageously designed structure by Rem Koolhaas, not only seems to rewrite architectural convention, but it also seems to defy physics itself; designed in the shape of a ‘Moebius Loop’, the building is in the city’s CBD district and it dominates the skyline in this area. It’s also a stone’s throw away from my last apartment (in Beijing terms anyway).
Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what I’m talking about…
A picture I took of the CCTV building in Summer 2007, a year before the Olympics.
The finished articles: Rem Koolhaas-designed Mandarin Oriental and CCTV Building
When I heard news of the fire, I feared the worse. This is probably the China equivalent of the Gherkin or a Canary Wharf building in London burning down. As the night went on, news began trickling in that it wasn’t the CCTV building itself that was on fire but the Mandarin Oriental Hotel right next to it - just months before it was due to open.
These are pictures of what happened on the night and the aftermath…
Not wanting the accident to dampen their festive spirits, Chinese ‘netizens’ quickly came up with photoshops mere hours after the fire. Here is a selection of some of the best:
"I'm not scared, the fire has not spread to the Big Underpants yet!"
After the fire, I hoped that my 2009 wouldn’t go up in smoke like the Mandarin Oriental…
