- BEIJING -- China's largest
city, Shanghai, is to slash construction of new high-rise buildings to
try and stop the city from sinking under the weight of all the concrete
and steel.
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- Parts of Shanghai are now sinking at a rate of one-and-a-half
centimetres a year, largely as a result of a massive building boom there
over the last 10 years.
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- According to Saturday's China Daily, tall buildings look
nice but they can also cause problems - a fact that Shanghai is rapidly
finding out.
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- Over the last decade a massive building boom has totally
transformed the skyline of China's largest city.
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- According to the paper, at least 3,000 high-rise buildings
have gone up; another 2,000 are on the drawing-boards.
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- World's tallest building
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- Shanghai is already home to China's tallest building
and a new building now under construction will be the world's tallest.
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- All this in a city that is, in effect, built on a drained
swamp.
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- Now, as the city gradually sinks below the level of the
Huang Pu river, the city fathers are getting cold feet - or should that
be wet feet?
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- Construction of new skyscrapers is to be cut, but with
so many already built or under construction it may not be enough to stop
Shanghai's sinking feeling.
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- © BBC MMIII
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3105948.stm
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