Architecture critic Hugh Pearman writes about the new buildings popping up in Beijing in preparation for the Olympics:
Although Beijing is as big as you expect – a dauntingly gridlocked, teeming, dust-laden bigness – it is only the third largest city in China. It trails behind Guangzhou and Shanghai. But as the capital most likely to take over from Washington as the world’s effective centre of supreme power, Beijing has a hell of a swagger to it. And this is one reason why it’s such a joke that London is doing the Olympics in 2012. Because when you see what Beijing is doing for 2008, you wonder why we bother. [Full text]
[Image: The new terminal at Beijing’s Capital Airport, by Hugh Pearman]
