A hotel near CCTV Headquarters Tower burnt…


Quite a shocking news, the newly- built and almost- completed Mandarin Oriental Hotel situated right beside the architectural masterpiece, CCTV Headquarters Tower is being burnt seriously last night…

Beijing's hotel blaze (AP Photo)

Beijing's hotel blaze (AP Photo)

On the night, the final night of the 15th day of Chinese New Year had seen people in Beijing celebrating with massive fireworks again..but this time, it is unlucky that the fireworks explode too near to the building officially known as Television Cultural Center (TVCC)..the fireworks are authorized by CCTV itself…there are sightseeers taking pictures and recording video of it…

Beijing's hotel blaze (AP Photo)

the whole building caught in fire (so seriously) at 8.27pm …the blaze rendered the whole building to be unusable as the zinc and titanium alloy of the outer skin was burnt…

Beijing's hotel blaze (AP Photo)

Beijing's hotel blaze (AP Photo)

the nickname of the building is ‘Termite’s Nest’ or ‘Boot’…the building includes a television studio with seating of 1500 audiences, recording studios, digital cinemas, news release facilities and a five-star mandarin Oriental Hotel…the toal height of the building is 159m which is designed by a Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas and his firm ‘Office for Metropolitan Architecture’.

now, we don’t know what is the future fate of the burnt building…the whole building is like being darken…maybe they will repair the whole structure again…and luckily, the building has not been completed fully yet..if not, more people will lost their lives in there…

Beijing's hotel blaze (AP Photo)

now, China had to really think of safety precautions in fireworks explosion…just two week ago, when I went to Beijing, I saw a lot of fireworks which are very beautiful but pretty dangerous too..banning is not the right way to solve it, but they should enforce the safety precautions..the people should think wisely before the lighted the fireworks…

Beijing's hotel blaze (AP Photo)

anyway, dun ban fireworks too, like what the government of Malaysia did..it is just wrong..it just stopped the excitement and the celebrating ‘spirit’ of everyone living in Malaysia…poor Malaysians!

during Chinese New Year, I have just seen the new and shining Television Cultural Center..and now, it looks ‘pale’ and ‘burnt’ after the fire…

the pictures above are taken from MSN News and are not by me…

================= Disappointment for architectural fans! =======