As one of the most architectural productive country, China aggregates 2 billion m2 of new building area every year, consuming about 40% of the world’s concrete and steel. However, on the flip side of the new building fever, there lie the rubbles and remains of other “older” buildings: people tear down four-star hotels to build five-star ones and bulldoze newly developed construction sites before they are even finished. Lots of young strong buildings are down, fulfilling their unnatural destiny in the roaring noise of blasting. (Source from ifeng.com and people.com.cn)

1. Vienna Wood Community in Hefei City(合肥维也纳森林花园小区), died before born on Dec. 10th, 2005. The community covered about 20,000 m2 construction area with the main structure raised to 58.5 m high. The tens of millions yuan worth building was blasted as a whole when its 16th floor was still under progress. According to local government, the community punctuated the central divide of Hefei City, blocking the scenery between Huangshan Road and Dashushan Mountain. They couldn’t straighten Huangshan Road unless the community was out of the way.

2. The Bund Community in Wuhan(武汉外滩花园小区), 4 years old, blasted on March 30th, 2002. “I give you the Yangtze River” the slogan of the community captured many people’s hearts, so did its view over the magnificent Yangtze River and Wuhan’s historic spot Yellow Crane Tower. It took only 4 years to build the community that was documented and verified by relative departments. Then it also took only 4 years for the once legitimate community to be identified as illegitimate buildings that violate the country’s flood protection regulations. Force demolition soon took place, resulting in over 200 million yuan direct economic losses, not to mention the costs that were times of its original investment government had to cover for the demolition and restoration of bund environment.

3. Yuxi Exhibition Center(瑜西会展中心), 5 years old, down on Aug. 20th, 2005. The landmark building in Yongchuan City, Chongqing Municipality cost 40 million yuan to build, and 250 kg dynamite and about 5000 detonators to blow up. Besides holding exhibition, the center was also used as administrative reception center due to its convenient location and sound facility. However, the mine boss who bought the center for 30 million yuan decided it was an even better idea for the center to become the city’s first five-star hotel instead of holding some stupid exhibitions. Thus down with the landmark exhibition center and here was 250 million yuan to build the glorious five star hotel. To welcome the city’s first five-star hotel, vice mayor of Yongchuang City came down to the site in person and helped monitor the blasting process.

4. Zhongyin Building in Wenzhou City(温州中银大厦), 6 years old, life ended on May 18th, 2004. Situated at the city’s golden area since 1997, the 93 m high building was never put into use as it was identified as unsafe building and soon brought out the city’s biggest financial crime ever, involving 43 suspects and over 30 million yuan corruption. And for that reason, it was also remembered as corruption building. Solving all of the building’s safety problems would demand more than the cost of building a new one, the authority then blow it up.

5. Shouyi Sports Center(首义体育培训中心), 10 years old, blasted on June 16th, 2009. It was called “champion’s cradle” for fostering a good many sport talents for Hubei Province, including badminton     world champions Gao Ling and Wei Yili. But when its existence bothered the 20 billion worth museum project for the 100th anniversary of Revolution of 1911, it had to give way, even though it was only 10 years old and still upgrading its sport equipments up till the demolition.

6. Five Lake Hotel in Nancang City(南昌五湖大酒店), 13 years old, blasted on Feb. 6th, 2010. The four star hotel building was finished in 1997 and viewed as one of the landmark building in Nancang City too. The hotel was taken over by a Hong Kong company who decided to turn it into a five-star hotel. It was estimated that the demolition would result in 40,000 ton of construction waste, taking up a large area of refuse landfill.

7. Shenyang Summer Palace(沈阳夏宫), 15 years old, blasted on Feb. 20th, 2009. Completed in 1994, the palace is a water entertaining center that cost 200 million yuan to build. It was the biggest arched architecture in Asia then. For a long time, Shenyang Summer Palace was viewed as the greatest fun in the city, receiving over 400 million tourists in its first 5 years. However, the city’s greatest fun was blown up within 2 seconds for the sake of real estate development.

8. Zhejiang University’s No. 3 building in lakeside campus(浙大原湖滨校区3号楼), 16 years old, downed on Jan. 6th, 2007. Standing 67 m high with 20 floors, the No.3 building was the highest on West Lake side. But the university transferred part of the campus land into commercial property for 2.46 billion yuan, thus torn down the building to hand over a flat land. On the day of the blasting, teachers and students flocked together to witness the spectacular and tragic moment.

9. Tsingtao Railway Building(青岛铁道大厦), 16 years old, blasted on Jan. 17th, 2007. The building was designed in accordance with three star standard and meant to be there for about 100 years. Opened in 1991, it was seen as one of the landmark buildings of the city at that time. Still it had to give way when it countered the construction program for the 2008 Olympic.

10. Shenyang Wulihe Stadium(沈阳五里河体育场), 18 years old, blasted on Feb 12th, 2007. Known as China’s blessed football land, the stadium costs 250 million yuan to build. It witnessed the one time China football team became World Cup qualifier on Oct. 7th 2001. Two years later, Shenyang City successfully applied for football competition venue of the 2008 Olympic. The government switched its alteration and addition plan to tearing down the 18-year-old stadium instead. The land was then auctioned at 1.6 billion yuan and gulped up 1.9 billion yuan investment to build a new Olympic Center.

11. “Asian First Arc” in Shanghai(上海“亚洲第一弯”), 11 years old, demolished on Feb. 13th, 2008. The beautiful arc was seen as the best viewing spot in Shanghai bund. The bridge was designed to service for at least 100 years, but the bund passage remodeling program decided it should die at 1/10 of its life span. “We architect designers, should look further in future planning.” Said Zhao Lizhong, designer of the arc.

Link here:
http://www.chinahush.com/2010/09/24/china’s-bizarre-phenomena-buildings-die-unnaturally/

There's quite a few 'Lan Mei Low' in Shenzhen too. You notice them just sitting there 1/2 constructed but closed off as the developer has run off.

Anyway, I suppose more construction and redevelopment of old buildings means more work and need for resources which drives up the economy.

Wow! this photo just catches my attention! Regardless of what it is presenting, I like the photo a lot as it contracts with the nice hotels and buildings behind.

Regarding with the topic... yes... all the popular cities of China are running out of space. You can tell by how much traffic youwill hit into even it's not rush hour. THERE ARE JUST SO MANY PEOPLE!! And the middle class group is getting larger~

Alot of these buildings are constantly destroyed because they were shit from the start.  I live in Shanghai and there are plenty of buildings that are just 5-10 years old and they are damn near falling apart due to extreme lack of proper maintenance and just straight up bad design.  Or, the building is designed well, well built, but the Chinese just destroy it by improper use.  

Awhile ago, Shanghai taxi drivers were telling everybody that Volkswagens were really bad cars with shit quality ( maybe so ), but I think in this case, its not that the car is bad, its how you use it and service it.  If you grind every gear shift, slam on the brakes when unnecessary and take the car to a monkey to fix it, it might effect the reliability of the car, but of course, in Shanghai, taking responsibility for problems is totally unheard of.  

You can either find the remote control and press the power button to turn the tv off, or you can walk up to the TV and kick the power button everytime u turn on/off the tv, just don't complain about the build quality if you choose the later option.  

The lack of quality of the buildings got to have something to do with corruption right?

Using crap quality materials .. or skimming here and there .. seems something that would happen in China.

It's a mix of corruption and just day to day low standards for everything.

I came across this article a week ago. I myself think that it is because of building quality and government Corruption. Everyone is predicting a huge correction in real estate in china. China keeps on building and building just to make it's numbers look good for the world to see. There are even stories of cities that have been built and no one lives there "ghost towns".

These are not just stories! These are real... the kicker is this, to look at the electricity and water consumption of these new build areas in China, if it looks low to zero then there ain't nobody living there!

Well people must follow their dreams, and create whatever they want to spend their money on.  I have to say they must chase their dreams, and be successful at business.  It is their right to make buildings as short life as they wish it to be.

Yes, I regularly travel to Nantong (a "small" city of a few million people in Jiangsu, near Shanghai), and have been amazed by the number of tall apartment buildings that have sprung up, in the last couple of years.  Where are all the people to fill all these buildings?  The place doesn't seem that much busier, and some of the main industries there (ship building, textiles) have been suffering.

The answer is that most of the new buildings and estates are largely empty.  I'm told that this is because most people can't afford these new apartments - and the people who tell me this seem to swell with Chinese pride as they tell me some outrageous price per square metre and ask how it compares with Sydney (which I can't answer because we don't measure apartment prices that way here) - but I wonder, why have the laws of supply and demand failed?  Huge oversupply (which there clearly is) should mean falling, not rising prices.  It's weird...

The earthquake in Sichuan a few years ago is a good example.  The News said many of the building collapsed because of shady, quick construction.  They also suspect some building inspectors didn't do their jobs or were paid off. It also the lack of good Engineering designs for an area known for earthquakes.

Yes, in Shenzheni there are many buildings that are halfway built and are sitting there for years and nothing.  Once crossing the border entering Zhuhai, there is a building to the right that is about 20 stories. It too is halfway built and sitting there for years. It is right next to the bus stop.

It could be also the owners ran out of money ???? There was too much over head.

[ Last edited by  Weelock at 6-10-2010 09:15 ]

only China can you kill off buildings so easily and frequently.

i suppose its great for the demand for cement and steel.

Talk of a Chinese property bubble has been ongoing for quite some time but where's the evidence? Empty buildings? This shows a lack of understanding on the current situation in China. The Chinese build because they can afford to build and tear them down and that's that.The money spent is from their own hard earned savings, not borrowed from the IMF or Banks in the US. Bear in mind that the RMB is not free floating currency and that the country's current account is closed. At least most of the money stays in the country, unlike the Philippines and India in the 70's and 80's.

[ Last edited by  geoduck at 6-10-2010 09:24 ]

I guess the chinese government have a lot of money to burn.