1 Why did so many new buildings fail? -'Some survivors said the whole building just sank into the earth'
Shi Jiangtao in Beichuan, SCMP, May 16, 2008
This secondary school in Dujiangyan collapsed but other buildings surrounding it suffered little or no damage, Photo: Robert Ng
In a sea of mud, tree limbs and rocks at what used to be Beichuan county's only high school, an old four-storey building is incongruously marooned.
Some roof tiles are broken, but otherwise, there is no obvious damage.
"That's where I studied more than 30 years ago," said a 50-year-old man, who gave his surname as Wang. He graduated in 1977.
Mr Wang has been glued to the rubble for more than 40 hours, waiting for a miracle to bring back his daughter, Wang Xiaolan, who was on the first floor of the new school building when Monday's quake struck.
More than 80 per cent of concrete structures in Beichuan - 34km from the quake epicentre - collapsed, and only four out of every 10 people survived. "She's probably dead," a dazed Mr Wang said in a toneless voice. "They've been pulling out bodies, and some survivors said the whole building just sank into the earth within a couple of minutes."
The building where Wang Xiaolan, a 23-year-old English teacher, was conducting a class with first-year high school students was built in 2004. It is one of the three buildings on the campus that tumbled into piles of rubble.
"All of them were built after 2000," Mr Wang said. "It's strange that the old buildings remained intact but new ones collapsed."
The only other concrete structure left standing is a four-storey residential building 100 metres away. Brown flower pots still sit on a small balcony on its top floor.
"That was built in the 1970s for school teachers," Mr Wang said. "The quality of the architecture - from the frame, steel, cement to bricks - everything, was much better back then."
As buildings came crashing down, questions are being asked whether corruption and shoddy construction are to blame for such a heavy toll.
Victims' families have started pointing fingers at local officials who are suspected of pocketing money budgeted for construction and at private real estate companies that had saved money by cutting corners on the project.When Premier Wen Jiabao was inspecting the township on Tuesday, Mr Wang was among the crowd, gripped by an urge to heckle him about the so-called tofu projects.
But he shook his hand instead, without saying anything. "I still can't get my head around it. My daughter was eating dinner with me on Sunday night, but the next day she's gone for good. How could that happen?"
Liu Yongzhi, 32, a worker at the Dongfeng Steam Turbine Plant, said he would ask Mr Wen why most public buildings in his town of Hanwang - 60km east of the epicentre - had toppled. The factory imploded into two metres of rubble, he said.
"It sounds unbelievable, but we were one of the top three steam turbine makers in the country," he said. "It vanished within a couple of seconds." Two schools affiliated with the factory were also destroyed, leaving 200 children buried.
A seven-storey, modern building in the township of 20,000 - which served as major entertainment spot for local cadres - also imploded, Mr Liu said. Several senior officials playing cards in a tea house on the second floor were killed.
Mr Liu's home - a single-family tiled house he built himself - withstood the quake.
"I laid down a really solid foundation for my place," he said. "There's not a single crack."
2 Sale of slope set for Mega Tower
Helen Wu, SCMP, May 16, 2008
The government is prepared to sell a slope area of about 4,000 square metres to Hopewell Holdings (SEHK: 0054) next year for its controversial Mega Tower project despite strong public opposition.
But Hopewell would have to conduct a traffic impact assessment to see how traffic in the Kennedy Road area would be affected until 2014.
The property developer is expected to pay a land premium for the site in Kennedy Road. The slope comprises part of the 10,313 square-metre site, eyed by the developer as the location of a high-rise hotel tower.
Hopewell's plan to build a 93-storey hotel building was approved by the Town Planning Board in 1994. The Development Bureau said last month that the developer would revise the design in response to public concerns.
At a meeting between the government and Democratic Party representatives, Permanent Secretary for Development Raymond Young Lap-moon said the slope area could be granted to Hopewell because it had no potential for development if it stood on its own.
A successful deal would be completed next year after the gazetting process for the Kennedy Road realignment was completed.
Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan said the government had no obligation to sell the land to Hopewell. "Although a plan submitted to Hopewell was approved, it does not mean that the government has to help the company complete its land acquisition.
"The plan to erect such a tall building in Kennedy Road was endorsed in 1994. By then the public concern on wall-like towers was not as strong and the development in Kennedy Road was not as crowded."
The Democratic Party is set to voice its discontent to the Executive Council.
Central and Western district councillor Kam Nai-wai said the government should carry out its own traffic impact assessment to enhance objectivity.
A Development Bureau spokeswoman said Hopewell applied to the government for land exchange for the slope area in 2004 after acquiring the remaining private land of the site.
A Hopewell Holdings spokeswoman said negotiations were in process and no details could be revealed.
