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Updated Monday, November 19, 2007 0:00 am TWN, By David Ting, Special to The China Post



	The new National Grand Theater, a US$400 million structure designed by French architect Paul Andreu. Enlarge Photo

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Old Beijing emerges renewed, inside and out

But it was the CCTV’s new headquarters On East Third Ring Rd. that caught the visitors agape. It is bold and unreal. Two leaning towers, each 50-stories tall, defy gravity to lean toward each other at the top, where they will meet to “shake hands,” “embrace” or “kiss.” Leaning at such a sharp angle is frightening, making the Leaning Tower of Pisa pale in comparison. After completion next year, the trapezoid-shaped building will look like a twisted “square donut” with a hollow center. Some suggest that this symbolizes “humble-heartedness,” others joke that it may also mean mindless. The new home of China’s state-run TV network has a total floor area of some 400,000 square meters, spacious enough to house the CCTV’s 10,000 employees. The construction cost of this avant-garde building is a mind-boggling US$750 million, but not a big deal for the network’s lucrative operation.

The Olympic Park, no doubt, is the centerpiece of New Beijing. For six years since winning the bid to host the Games, Beijing has made the 2008 Olympics a top prize to pursue, a raison d’etre for the city’s 13 million residents. “Olympic madness”

(疯奥运) is the best catchphrase to describe the fever and frenzy, as more than US$40 billion has been thrown into the preparations to ensure the 29th Summer Games a “Green Olympics,” a “High-tech Olympics,” and a “Humanistic-Cultural Olympics”(绿色奥运，科技奥运，人文奥运). Some believe the Games could be “the grandest ever” in the Olympic history.

To the surprise of the visitors, the host at the Overseas Exchange Association arranged an unscheduled tour of China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), which, in laymen’s words, is a rocket research institute. This organization under the military is not open to ordinary tourists. The main exhibition hall is a museum of China’s rocket development, from the 50s to the present. Real-sized rockets, from CZ-1 (Changzheng, or Long March-1) that blasted China’s first satellite, Dongfanghong (East is Red), into the orbit in 1970, to CZ-2F, the launch vehicle for Shenzhou 1, China’s first experimental spacecraft which made a successful return to earth after 21 hours in space, marking a milestone in China’s manned spaceflight technology.

The space capsule of Shenzhou 5, in which astronaut Yang Liwei made the first manned space flight in 2003, is also on display. A female worker at CALT briefed the visitors about the preparations for this year’s launching of China first moon orbiter, Chang’e (嫦娥), an ambitious project aimed at putting a man on the moon. CALT is now in charge of developing China’s next generation of rockets, Long March 5 (CZ-5)., which is said to be powerful enough to send a 25-ton payload to low earth orbit.

After the hurried visit to the academy, one could not help but wonder how China’s indigenous research and development of space science and technology could have blossomed into such towering achievements. The mainland, after all, is still a developing country. Is this “Chinese ingenuity?”

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