Building the world

Buried in a Washington Post 'wow, aren't they exotic' piece about how people in China are moving to housing complexes modeled on famous foreign cities--"In Nanjing, there are Balinese retreats and Italian villas. In the southeastern city of Hangzhou, there are Venice and Zurich. In downtown Beijing, everything is about Manhattan, with Soho, Central Park and Park Avenue"--is this eye-popping statistic:

Between now and 2015, about half the world's new construction will take place in China, with as much as 6 billion square feet of space expected to be added each year. All over the country, block-like concrete edifices and empty fields are giving way to flashy architectural developments that promise to give the new middle class a taste of places most of them have never seen.

Wow; if half the world's construction will take place in one country, I think the rest of us better get used to standing in line for everything from concrete to architects.

Photo (and article) by the Post's Ariana Eunjung Cha