The Ren Building

This is the Ren Building, proposed to be built for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. I'm not sure if they have actually started building it. My guess is they have, and it's probably in the Pudong district where it will beat other iconic buildings such as the Jin Mao (where Grnd Hyatt is) and the Pearl Tower buildings. I'm told the skyline of Pudong changes every month or so with the completion of yet another futuristic building.

'Ren' means people in Chinese and the shape of the building is the Chinese character for people. I'm sure one day they can even build a building in the shape of the Chinese character for love, or any character they want. Structural engineers will have to stretch their innovative and creative limits to keep up with the architects.

I was in Beijing 7 years ago and that's a city I want to visit again. The historic palaces and structures are simply awesome, and made me so proud of my Chinese roots. Now there's even more reason to visit Beijing, with several iconic buildings up for the Olympics. The most famous building is of course the 2008 Olympics Stadium, better known as the Bird's Nest. I'm told by an architect that despite the experts contributing to the fantastic design and structure, the building has a major 'flaw'. With all the twists and turns, it would be a huge challenge for TV crews to film the activities in the stadium because when the sun is overhead, there are shadows everywhere in the stadium. I suppose one way to overcome it is to not hold any event around mid day. Whatever the problems, I think most of us will be awed by the buildings in Beijing come 8.8.2008. I'm already counting down: 27 days to go!