China: Skyscrapers could be our downfall

Editorial
China Daily

“Blind worship” of skyscrapers “has reached a new high,” said Beijing’s China Daily. The city of Shanghai recently broke ground on yet another skyscraper. The 2,073-foot Shanghai Center will be the tallest in the city, “dwarfing its two landmark neighbors,” the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Jin Mao Tower. This mania for building ever-taller buildings is killing Shanghai. The city already has more than 4,000 skyscrapers, the most in the world, and it cannot support them—literally. Shanghai is actually sinking under all the weight, and authorities are worried that the ground could collapse, crushing the entire subway system. Developers claim that newer, taller buildings will stimulate the economy, but the truth is they are less efficient economically than several smaller structures would be. Shanghai would do better to spend the money on restoring its architectural treasures, many of which have been “ruthlessly demolished” to make way for skyscrapers. Historic preservation would do more than runaway development to “add to Shanghai’s glamour.”