I just wanted to point out that across the street from the CCTV tower is the new phase of the World Trade Center or Guomao, pretty much the first really big prestige project in Beijing after reform and opening started back in the 1980s. Here’s a picture:
How boring is that? The developer has gone for the maximum floor space the plot ratio will allow. That means a box that if anything bears an eerie resemblance to the New York towers, which is as very odd as it must have occurred to the builders. Anyway, no doubt much cheaper but doesn’t do much for the city skyline.
I’m not advocating wasting money but as I say, it’s not a zero sum game. A capital reflects the nation’s pride. hence the National Gallery in Washington, the Sydney Opera House etc. Take a guess at what this is, for example:
Did I get a sneak shot of the next important spaceship to be unveloped in China’s burgeoning space program? Nope, that is in fact the new National Theater just behind the Great Hall of the People, which you can see the rear of in this shot:
and straight on:
It’s had its share of controversy about location, cost ($325 million and up) and of course the UFO design. But again, it’s actually stimulating, innovative and a great symbol. Grandiose, overblown, designed by a Frenchman and a bunch of other things too of course but still, it is definitely not mousy or retiring and as such an apt symbol indeed of the new China. China is reinventing itself as one of the great powers of the 31st(thanks for the correction) 21st century and doesn’t have to stick a pagoda roof on everything it builds. The opposite in fact.